"Love was a frivolous emotion, certainly no basis for a marriage-every young lady knew this. "Money was no fix for that girl, true-But please, God, she thought, let it be for me." (8) What freedom does money buy for women in this generation? Do the trappings of wealth justify the opportunity to escape a place like Five Points?Ħ. What are marriage markets and debuts, and how do these elaborate presentations work out for the women of the novel? For Alva, Consuelo Yznaga, or any of Alva’s young sisters or daughter? How much choice do these young women have to participate in finding an attractive suitor, and what risks do they face?ĥ. How do Alva’s increasingly dire circumstances change once she has married into the Vanderbilts family? Do these changes alter her essential nature or character? Does she stay devout to her sense of ethics or empathy?Ĥ.
Would you consider the city and surrounding environs a character in the novel? How does the setting-a budding New York City becoming a world-class capital for art, architecture, and society, and a hub for all walks of life-enhance the drama on the page?ģ. The author’s descriptions of tenement life in lower Manhattan are especially vivid and heartbreaking. She was twenty-one years old, ripened unpicked fruit rotting on the branch." (3) How would you characterize Alva’s circumstances at the start of the novel and as her story goes on? How does she begin to flourish?Ģ. A Well-Behaved Woman opens with this compelling passage: "When they asked about the Vanderbilts and the Belmonts, about their celebrations and depredations…when they asked why she did the extreme things she’d done, Alva said it all began quite simply: Once there was a desperate young woman whose mother was dead and whose father was dying almost as quickly as his money was running out…. To join the April 7 discussion, go to and click on the “Join a Meeting” tab at the top of the page, then enter the following meeting ID: 601 567 192.įor more information, email Rory Dicker, director of the Women’s Center.1. The discussion, originally scheduled at the Central Library in March, has moved online in accordance with the university’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and steps to protect the health and safety of the community. She funded the National Woman’s Party, which fought for women’s suffrage at the federal level.
This novel shares the story of Alva Smith, later Alva Vanderbilt and then Alva Belmont. The virtual meeting, which takes place from noon to 1 p.m., will focus on a novel by New York Times best-selling author Therese Anne Fowler. The Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, in partnership with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, will host an “inclusive book group” via Zoom online conferencing software on Tuesday, April 7, to discuss A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts.
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