A Well-Behaved Woman A Novel of the Vanderbilts

<p><b>The </b><i>New York Times</i><b> and </b><i>USA Today</i><b> bestseller</b><br><br><b>The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family as they rule Gilded-Age New York, written by </b><i>Therese Anne Fowler, a New York Times</i><b> bestselling author of </b><i>Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.</i><br><br>Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement. <br><br>With a nod to Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, in <i>A Well-Behaved Woman </i>Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted against desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules—and how to break them.</p>