The Social Graces

February 1, 2021
With an unimpeachable pedigree, Caroline Astor is the undisputed queen of New York's Gilded Age society. The Vanderbilts, as gauche new money, are beneath acknowledgment. Alva Vanderbilt, with formidable tenacity and nearly inexhaustible wealth, refuses to take the Mrs. Astor's no for an answer. These "wives and daughters of wealthy men" wage war in an endless round of social events and conspicuous consumption, in which calling cards and costume balls are the weapons of choice. It's all incredibly shallow and frivolous. The men build empires while the women lose sleep over which wine to serve with the ninth course. That's exactly the point. Lacking independence, female ambition is limited to the only realm where women hold power: "Alva had made society her career because there were no other options." Money can't buy them love, fulfilment, or meaning, and their gilded cages feature bars of their own construction. After Park Avenue Summer (2019), a tale set in 1960s New York, Rosen presents an engaging novel of 1870s high-society foibles that will please book clubs and fans of glittering frock flicks.

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Starred review from March 12, 2021

In wealthy society in 1876 New York, men may have the means and money, but women possess their own power. Alva Vanderbilt marries into one of the wealthiest families in America and aspires to climb to the top of the social ladder. The Vanderbilts are "new money"; instead of inheriting their wealth over time and through pedigree, they made money more recently through the railroad industry. "Old money" social elites like Caroline Astor, whose in-laws are fabulously wealthy from inherited fur trade and New York real estate monies, snub the ways of new money families, whom they call crass and uncouth. Alva, bright and determined to be counted and prominent in high society, begins a decades-long test of will against Mrs. Astor, who is as determined to keep the Vanderbilts out of society as Alva is determined to enter. VERDICT Rosen (Park Avenue Summer) paints a vivid and ravishing picture of the Gilded Age, bringing to life some of the people and parties that rocked this particular era, in an altogether believable tale. Recommended for fans of Rosen's other works and readers who enjoy historical fiction and authors such as Kristin Hannah and Elizabeth Gilbert.--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

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