Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman [Paperback]

Margaret Hayden Rector (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0934881138 | ISBN-13: 978-0934881135 | Publication Date: May 1992 | Edition: First Edition

Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman.Copyright 1992 by Margaret Rector with 324 pages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Dutch Island Press; First Edition edition (May 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934881138
• ISBN-13: 978-0934881135
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Over the Top, January 14, 2002

By 

BostonJen "jensch" (Norton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman (Paperback)

This book is a biography, written as though it was an autobiography. An interesting idea, but not fully developed. Books should casually relay information to readers, and not always force-feed through dialog such as "Mother, remember that time when..." I was annoyed by that, but perhaps this is because I've read quite a bit about the vanderbilts already. Ms. Rector's attempts to inform were sometimes insulting because of this. She did quite a lot of research, however. I find the book is not enjoyable to read, but I come away with a different picture of Mrs. William K Vanderbilt (whose husband was a grandson of the commodore). She didn't describe Alva's daughter Consuelo correctly, and because of this, I do doubt some of the other information. I read Consuelo's book beforehand, and her opinions and descriptions of events were changed for Ms. Rector's version. It's one thing to make it seem as if Alva THOUGHT a certain way, but Ms. Rector wrote as if it WAS the way things happened. Hmmm dubious.
If you read the book with a grain of salt, accept that everything is over the top, but walk away with a better understanding of Alva's life and times, then this will have been a successful purchase. Do visit Alva's 'Marble House' in Newport, RI. It's immense and beautiful!

4.0 out of 5 stars Glosses over Alva Belmont's racism, June 23, 2004

By 

"kellyspal" (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman (Paperback)

The book is not well written, but it is written. The book doesn't develop the role Alva Belmont's racism played in shaping her dictatorial attitude. Try to get a copy of Alva Belmont's autobiography to compare with Rector's book. Alva Belmont, the daughter of an Alabama cotton planter, was a brazen racist. "I was a natural dictator," she wrote of herself. "I enjoyed nothing so much as tyrannizing over the little slave children on my father's cotton plantation."

4.0 out of 5 stars The Indomitable or Abominable Alva?, June 11, 2004

By 

"bostonbookie" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman (Paperback)

Rector joins the legion of writers who have perpetuated the myth of Alva Belmont as the wave, not the float. This myth is a gross exaggeration. The author doesn't grasp that Alva Belmont's lack of scruples did put Caroline Astor, a woman of principle, at a disadvantage in the social arena. I did enjoy the book as semifiction.