52 books in 2011

[lumineaux]

35.  Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart

After my trip to Newport, RI a few weeks ago I picked this bargain paperback biography of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, and her daughter Consuelo. 

Alva built Marble House while she was still married to William K. Vanderbilt.  She divorced Willie K. (as he was known) and married Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, builder of Belcourt Castle.  After OHP Belmont's death, Alva became amazingly active in promoting women's sufferage.

Consuelo, Alva's only daughter, was married off at age 19 to the Duke of Marlborough.  She became a cousin by marriage to and good friends with Winston Churchill.  Consuelo's marriage also ended in divorce, annulment and a happer second marriage.  Consuelo also became involved in the promotion of women's rights in Great Britain.

The book bounces back and forth between Consuelo and Alva, not always strictly chronologically, and their long and storied lives.  It has moments of utter brilliance, such as when it describes the emotional blackmail used by Alva to get Consuelo to consent to marry the Duke, or when it discusses the difficulties of Consuelo's acclimation to being a Duchess.  On the other hand, the book is almost too heavy with information.  I love history books and attention to detail, but I found myself getting bogged down.  Stuart also shorts us on some of the most compelling bits of the story: Consuelo and her second husband made a fairly daring escape from France with a bunch of sick refugees in tow, about 3 steps ahead of the advancing Nazi troops.  I felt that this episode didn't get nearly the attention it deserved.  I also found the seemingly never-ending in-fighting among the various factions of the U.S. women's sufferage movement to be stupefyingly dull.  

Stuart is an even-handed biographer, relying heavily on excerpts from primary sources.  She deals with both Willie K. and the Duke of Marlborough fairly, refusing to succumb to the tendency to make one side of a divorce the villain of the piece.   Alva comes across as an extremely difficult person, a sentiment widely shared by her friends, family and contemporaries.  Stuart seems to like Consuelo much more, but that was also the feeling expressed by her contemporaries.

All in all a good biography with some boggy bits that I will skip if I opt to re-read it.