When Consuelo Vanderbilt\'s grandfather died, he was the richest man in America.
But the Story of Consuelo and Alva is more than a tale of enterprising social ambition, Gilded Age glamour, and the emptiness of w.
Her father soon started to spend the family fortune, enthusiastically supported by Consuelo\'s mother, Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society--forcing a heartbroken Consuelo into a marriage she did not want with the underfunded Duke of Marlborough.
When Consuelo Vanderbilt\'s grandfather died, he was the richest man in America