Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age [Hardcover]

Amanda Mackenzie Stuart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

When Consuelo Vanderbilt's grandfather died, he was the richest man in America. Her father soon started to spend the family fortune, enthusiastically supported by Consuelo's mother, Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society—forcing a heartbroken Consuelo into a marriage she did not want with the underfunded Duke of Marlborough. But the story of Consuelo and Alva is more than a tale of enterprising social ambition, Gilded Age glamour, and the emptiness of wealth. It is a fascinating account of two extraordinary women who struggled to break free from the world into which they were born—a world of materialistic concerns and shallow elitism in which females were voiceless and powerless—and of their lifelong dedication to noble and dangerous causes and the battle for women's rights.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1875, the strong-willed Alva Smith married an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune in order to save her own family from further descent into genteel poverty. Twenty years later, she compelled her daughter Consuelo into a loveless marriage to the ninth Duke of Marlborough, in order to provide her with a career rather than an empty life. Mother's and daughter's remarkably similar trajectories through life—difficult first marriages, happy second ones, social leadership, arts patronage, a shift into activism—were shaped by the opportunities wealth offered and the calculated use of marriage as a business transaction in their class and era. In her first book, Stuart uses a remarkable breadth of sources to follow her subjects to Newport, R.I.; India; late Victorian and Edwardian England; the heart of the women's movement; and the south of France at the outbreak of WWII She tells a riveting story but keeps her distance from her subjects, not offering final judgment on Alva's coercion of her daughter or allowing emotion to intrude on the deaths of major characters. Still, Alva and Consuelo emerge as unique and fascinating characters, and the details of their lives and times make a very entertaining read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

In 1895, on the eve of Consuelo Vanderbilt's marriage to the ninth Duke of Marlborough, the New York World published a concise reference chart: the bride, at eighteen years old, weighed a hundred and sixteen and a half pounds, had "delicately arched" eyebrows and a nose that was "rather slightly retroussé," and was heir to a twenty-five-million-dollar estate. She had no interest in the groom, but a British aristocrat, albeit a poor one, held irresistible appeal for Alva, her socially ambitious mother. Stuart's history marshals an impressive trove of primary documents, from newspaper accounts (the Times had a reporter assigned to cover bridesmaids) to letters and autobiographical writings. But her account, while impeccably researched, lacks psychological acumen. We learn that Consuelo—who gave the Duke the descendants he needed, divorced, and remarried—is credited with coining the phrase "an heir and a spare," but it's hard to tell what it might have meant to her.
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Harper (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066214181
• ISBN-13: 978-0066214184
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, fascinating but flawed..., May 10, 2006

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age (Hardcover)

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart is an ambitious and fascinating book, but it is not without some major flaws. I would rate it four stars for the story, but only two for the writing.

Born into a prominent Southern family, Alva Erskine Smith was always ambitious, headstrong and rebellious. She spent the Civil War years in Europe, returning to New York City after the war. Unfortunately, her father suffered financial setbacks because of the war, and so it was important for Alva to marry into wealth. At this time, Commodore Vanderbilt was considered vulgar by society queen, Mrs. Astor, and excluded from NY society. Alva married the Commodore's wealthy grandson, William Kissam Vanderbilt. Soon, Alva convinced all the Vanderbilt's that they should use their money to become great patrons of the arts. She compared them to the Medici's of Florence, and encouraged them to create homes that were not only works of art, but showed good taste, culture, and the importance of the family. Soon, Mrs. Astor was knocking on their door. Her two great creations were the mansion at 660 Fifth Avenue in NYC and Marble House in Newport, RI.

Alva's other great work of art was her only daughter, Consuelo. Consuelo was a beautiful heiress and one of the most eligible girls at the time. Alva forced Consuelo to break a secret engagement to Winthrop Rutherfurd in order to marry the 9th Duke of Marlborough. The marriage was orchestrated for a number of reasons, but mainly to provide acceptance to the newly divorced Alva and to provide Vanderbilt millions to the cash-strapped duke.

Unfortunately, Stuart had errors and mistakes too numerous to mention. First, there were research errors. Tsarina Alexandra is the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, not a great granddaughter. Also, Stuart implies that Winthrop Rutherfurd was a gold digger, and that both his wives were wealthy socialites. Lucy Mercer may have come from a prominent family, but she wasn't wealthy. In fact, that is why Lucy ended up employed as Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary, which led to her affair with Franklin D. Roosevelt. It makes me wonder about the accuracy of all Stuart's research. There were also major spelling, vocabulary and grammatical errors. The last course of a meal is spelled dessert. She inappropriately describes a pearl choker of Consuelo's as being "infamous." And Stuart has problems with subject-verb agreement as in "the French army were having no success." Also, army in this instance should be capitalized. I noticed that some items in the index weren't always correct with page numbers. And the book was filled with many, many French words and phrases with no translations. Taken as a whole, these things detracted from my enjoyment of the book and I wondered where her editor was on this.

Still, Consuelo and Alva covers a fascinating time in both American and European history. Alva and Consuelo grew up in the middle of the Gilded Age, and when Consuelo moved to England, she witnessed the end of the Victorian and the Edwardian Eras. Stuart also takes us through both World Wars. Alva became a very active, generous and sometimes militant participant in the Suffrage Movement. While living in the "gilded cage," they both desired something more. "Alva ultimately rejected the caged life herself, though she tried ruling it first." Consuelo desired to "step outside the cage, without wishing to leave it completely." And while Alva grew to detest society, she could never abdicate the power that came from having a fortune at her disposal. They both also had to juggle what should be the role of women and what was best to make them happy.

Overall, I enjoyed Consuelo and Alva. Unfortunately, I felt that Stuart's errors kept this from being a truly great book.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two for the price of one - a new look at two practical society Queens, February 25, 2006

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age (Hardcover)

This is a dual biography of Alva and Consuelo Vanderbilt. Alva Vanderbilt was one of the great society hostesses of the Gilded Age in New York. When her daughter Consuelo married the 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895 in New York it was a sensation and considered an amazing catch for the bride. It was only afterwards that stories started to filter out about a forced marriage by Alva.

This biography is well researched and supplies a lot of new information on both women. The author hasn't made the mistake of assuming everything the women wrote in their own memoirs was accurate and has double checked all her facts - which sometimes corrects errors previous published biographies of these ladies.

The book gives a good and detailed history as to the causes of both women's divorces and how both of them changed over the years with the times and how their interests changed - both of them coming to have a strong impact on social welfare and women's sufferage programs in both America and England. For a new look at these women's lives this book is a must - and is much more detailed than other biographies found in other books such as "The Vanderbilt Women" or more general histories on the Gilded Age. There's much more to these ladies than great architecture or parties even if they were social leaders of their times.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Facinating subject, but not without some problems, January 13, 2008

By 

K. Huff (Radnor, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age (Hardcover)

In Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt, Amanda Mackenzie Stuart gives her reader a glimpse into the lives of two fascinating women: Alva, the daughter of a less-than-400-family married into the fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt clan and made them into what they became. She was a forcefully dynamic woman who encouraged her children to be independent, yet stifled them. Consuelo, on the other hand, emerges as a more sympathetic character; married to the Duke of Marlborough at age 18, she was forced to give up the man she loved so that her mother's ambitions could be realized.

The subject matter is fascinating, but I thought that the book was a little too dense at times; I thought that the author tried to bite off too much at once. Her original intent had been to make this book solely into a biography of Consuelo, but was misguidedly advised to include Alva as well. The result is that the book covers a large period of time and tends to wander a bit. Also, Consuelo's story covers about ¾ of the book, while Alva, who was probably a more interesting woman, is left in the background.

There were little things that I didn't like about this book as well. First there were too many French words that were left untranslated. Second the author goes into meticulous and I might even add sleep-inducing detail over every. Single. Little. Thing, which took away from my enjoyment of the book.

However, I truly enjoyed the subject matter. And I thought it was well-researched; it turns out that the mag rag Town Topics (an early precursor to the tabloid magazine) had a lot to say about the Vanderbilts, and believe it or not, sometimes their information was actually correct. I thought it was interesting, too, how society doyennes created the idea of a press agency, working the press according to their own agendas. It was kind of a Catch-22, in its own way.