Books like The Vanderbilt era by Louis Auchincloss

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece examines the glittering yet hollow glamour of the Roaring Twenties as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby pursues love, wealth, and identity across the social divide.

In post‑war New York, Newland Archer faces a dilemma when his fiancée’s cousin, the rebellious Ellen Olenska, challenges his elite society’s expectations and his own loyalty.

In Edith Wharton’s classic, Lily Bart, a beautiful and intelligent young woman devoted to luxury, struggles to navigate New York’s strict social hierarchy and moral expectations, ultimately confronting the limits of her independence.

A 19th‑century New York novel about inheritance, social standing, and the delicate dynamics between fathers and daughters, set against the backdrop of courtship and family life on Washington Square.

A novel about a streetcar tycoon turned financier in turn-of-the-century America, based on the true story of Charles Yerkes.

Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War Ameria, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. - Back cover.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Phebe Hand of Port Richmond on the Kill van Kull, Staten Island, New York. He was a descendant of Jan Aertsen van der Bilt the emigrant, who emigrated from Holland to the colony of New Netherland about 1650 and settled at Flatbush, Long Island. He married (1) Sophia Johnson (1795-1868), his first cousin in 1813 and (2) Frank Armstrong Crawford (1839-1885), his first cousin twice removed in 1869. Cornelius and Sophia were the parents of thirteen children. Seven generations of descendants are given. Includes numerous colored plates and historical items relating to the family's rise to fortune.