A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN A Novel of the Vanderbilts

Learning about the Vanderbilt family in the closing years of the nineteenth century through this audiobook seems far more fulfilling and unconflicted than being married into it. Fowler, best known for Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD, is in full command of the history, manners, and social structure of the era, and in Barrie Kreinik she has a narrator of particular skill and insight. Fowler's title is ironic in the modern sense, and Kreinik's rendering of narrative and of Fowler's heroine, Alva, carries that edginess, along with the air of independence and free thinking that we now value in the women of that time. More than a rewriting of history, this is history reimagined from a fresh angle, delivered here with energy, sensitivity, and flair. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2018]