Gilded Age novels

In the spirit of "The Gilded Age" making it's return, here's a few novels set during the same time if you're hungry for more:

This sweeping novel of historical fiction is inspired by the true rags-to-riches story of Arabella Huntington—a woman whose great beauty was surpassed only by her exceptional business acumen, grit, and artistic eye, and who defied the constraints of her era to become the wealthiest self-made woman in America.

1867, Richmond, Virginia: Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham’s gambling parlor, Arabella stands apart. It’s not merely her statuesque beauty and practiced charm. Even at seventeen, Arabella possesses an unyielding grit, and a resolve to escape her background of struggle and poverty. 

Collis Huntington, railroad baron and self-made multimillionaire, is drawn to Arabella from their first meeting. Collis is married and thirty years her senior, yet they are well-matched in temperament, and flirtation rapidly escalates into an affair. With Collis’s help, Arabella eventually moves to New York, posing as a genteel, well-to-do Southern widow. Using Collis’s seed money and her own shrewd investing instincts, she begins to amass a fortune. 

Their relationship is an open secret, and no one is surprised when Collis marries Arabella after his wife’s death. But “The Four Hundred”—the elite circle that includes the Astors and Vanderbilts—have their rules. Arabella must earn her place in Society—not just through her vast wealth, but with taste, style, and impeccable behavior. There are some who suspect the scandalous truth, and will blackmail her for it. And then there is another threat—an unexpected, impossible romance that will test her ambition, her loyalties, and her heart...

An American Beauty brings to vivid life the glitter and drama of a captivating chapter in history—and a remarkable woman who lived by her own rules.

The Luxe series:

In a world of luxury and deception, where appearance matters above everything and breaking the social code means running the risk of being ostracized forever, five teenagers lead dangerously scandalous lives. This thrilling trip to the age of innocence is anything but innocent.

Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn. Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions. White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hook-ups. This is Manhattan, 1899.

Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone—from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker to the spiteful maid Lina Broud—threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future.

With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love. But when her carriage overturns near the East River, the girl whose glittering life lit up the city's gossip pages is swallowed by the rough current. As all of New York grieves, some begin to wonder whether life at the top proved too much for this ethereal beauty, or if, perhaps, someone wanted to see Manhattan's most celebrated daughter disappear...

As old friends become rivals, Manhattan’s most dazzling socialites find their futures threatened by whispers from the past. In this delicious sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Luxe, nothing is more dangerous than a scandal...or more precious than a secret.

True love. False friends. Scandalous gossip. This is Manhattan, 1899.

After bidding good-bye to New York’s brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise.

All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family’s only hope for redemption; New York’s most notorious cad, Henry Schoonmaker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind—including Henry; even Elizabeth’s scheming former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency.

In the thrilling third installment of Anna Godbersen’s bestselling Luxe series, Manhattan’s most envied residents appear to have everything they desire: Wealth. Beauty. Happiness. But sometimes the most practiced smiles hide the most scandalous secrets.

Jealous whispers. Old rivalries. New betrayals. This is Manhattan, 1899.

Two months after Elizabeth Holland’s dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana’s side, however, those watching New York’s favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city’s most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope’s finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope’s social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune—and her fame—is anything but secure.

In the dramatic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Luxe series, Manhattan’s most dazzling socialites chase dreams, cling to promises, and tempt fate. Only one question remains: Will they fade away or will they shine ever brighter?

New beginnings. Shocking revelations. Unexpected endings. This is Manhattan, 1899.

As spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new role as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father’s death comes to light, the Holland girls wonder at what cost a life of splendor comes.

Carolina Broad, society’s newest darling fans a flame from her past, oblivious to how it might burn her future. Penelope Schoonmaker is finally Manhattan royalty—but when a real prince visits the city, she covets a title that comes with a crown. Her husband, Henry, bravely went to war, only to discover that his father’s rule extends well beyond New York’s shores and that fighting for love may prove a losing battle.

Pearl and Ginevra grow up in the era known as the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. One lives above the stairs, the other below.

Surrounded by Astors and Vanderbilts, Pearl fills her days with teatime and shallow friendships, yearning for something more. A chance meeting with Mary Cassatt sparks her secret desire to be an artist. Meanwhile Ginevra, fresh off the boat from Italy, finds her own dreams out of reach as she joins the unwelcoming household as a servant and seamstress.

Kindred souls, the girls become fast friends but must keep their friendship hidden from Pearl’s controlling mother. Every summer, they meet in a hidden spot beneath the weeping beeches to talk of art and life, and their struggles to break the barriers of their lives.

Soon, the two young women must decide who they want to be in this world, and survive what it takes to get there…no matter what it takes.

From the bestselling author of GILDED SUMMERS comes a powerful novel of the last eight years of the American Women’s fight for suffrage.

The battle for the vote is on fire in America. The powerful and rich women of Newport, Rhode Island, are not only some of the most involved suffragettes, their wealth - especially that of the indomitable Alva Vanderbilt Belmont - nearly single-handedly funded the major suffrage parties. Yet they have been left out of history, tossed aside as mere socialites. In GILDED DREAMS, they reclaim their rightful place in history.

Pearl and Ginevra (GILDED SUMMERS) are two of its most ardent warriors. College graduates, professional women, wives, and mothers, these progressive women have fought their way through some of life’s harshest challenges, yet they survived, yet they thrive. Now they set their sights on the vote, the epitome of all they have struggled for, the embodiment of their dreams.

From the sinking of the Titanic, through World War 1, Pearl and Ginevra are once more put to the test as they fight against politics, outdated beliefs, and the most cutting opponent of all... other women. Yet they will not rest until their voices are heard, until they - and all the women of America - are allowed to cast their vote. But to gain it, they must overcome yet more obstacles, some that put their very lives in danger.

An emotional and empowering journey, GILDED DREAMS is a historical, action-packed love letter to the women who fought so hard for all women who stand on the shoulders of their triumph.

1886. Charlotte Gleason embarks from England with conflicting emotions. She is headed to New York City to marry one of America's wealthiest heirs—a man she has never even met.
When her doubts gain the upper hand, she swaps identities with her maid Dora. Charlotte wants a chance at "real life," even if it means giving up financial security. It's a risk she's willing to take.
But what begins as the whim of a spoiled rich girl becomes a test of survival beyond her blackest nightmare.
For the maid, Dora, it's the chance of a lifetime. She is thrust into a fairy tale life amid ball gowns and lavish mansions, yet she is tormented by the possibility of discovery. And what of the man who believes she is his intended? Can they find happiness sharing a life based on a lie?

Spend a season in glamorous 1895 Newport with three women looking for purpose and love.

Lucy Scarpelli, an Italian dressmaker from New York, befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's making her summer wardrobe. It's an unlikely friendship, but one that Rowena encourages by inviting Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating clothes that hide her physical injury, Rowena encourages Lucy to dream of a better future
One day Lucy encounters an intriguing man on the Cliff Walk, and love begins to blossom. Yet Lucy resists, for what Newport man would be interested in an Italian dressmaker working to support her family?
Rowena faces an arranged marriage to a wealthy heir she doesn't love. Dare a crippled girl hope for better?

And Lucy's teenage sister, Sofia, takes up with a man of dubious character. Can love blossom? Should it?
As the lives of three young women--and their unlikely suitors--become entangled in a web of secrets and sacrifice, will the season end with any of them finding true happiness?

Wealth. Security. Or love?

The prize possession of New York ingénue Ada Wallace is the bridal quilt she’s been working on for years. If only she’d find a rich man worthy of marrying.
When Ada finds herself responsible for the injury of a poor man and a boy, she takes them into her home out of guilt. But the man is someone from her past—a wealthy man who gave up everything to help the poor.
Their Christmas presence changes Ada’s view of the world, her faith, and her future.
What is she willing to sacrifice for true love?

This historical biography is based on the true story of Gilded Age débutante Sara Swan Whiting, a favorite of Mrs. Astor’s, and the scandal that ensued from her marriage to socialite Oliver H.P. Belmont. But how much is truth and how much is propaganda generated by rumors and the newspapers?
Newport, R.I. 1880 - American débutante Sara Swan Whiting has been trained for one purpose: to marry well into society. Together with her friends, Carrie Astor, and Edith Jones (Wharton) Sara débuts into society and is introduced to the bachelor’s of New York’s wealthiest families, hoping to find the perfect marriage.
‘Ethereally beautiful’ and ‘the spirit of the ball’, Sara garners many suitors. But none steal her heart, until destiny steps in and she is introduced to Oliver Belmont, the handsome son of financier August Belmont. Sara begins courting the handsome Mr. Belmont who is intent on escaping his father’s persistence that he finds a suitable career. Knowing that marriage will garner him a large stipend, Oliver chooses matrimony as an option to his dilemma.
While on an afternoon outing Oliver spontaneously proposes marriage, breaking protocol by not getting his parents approval first. Sara accepts the proposal – only to discover his parents disapprove of the match.
What develops is a true tale that will transport you through time as ‘American Gilt – Début’ unfolds. With information gathered from letters, historical newspapers and personal interviews, author J. D. Peterson weaves a compelling trilogy based on the true account of the Belmont-Whiting Scandal of 1883.

This historical biography is based on the true story of Gilded Age débutante Sara Swan Whiting, a favorite of Mrs. Astor’s, and the scandal that ensued from her marriage to socialite Oliver H.P. Belmont. But how much is truth and how much is propaganda generated by rumors and the newspapers?

Volume 2 begins in Paris,1883 – The new year finds Oliver and Sara enjoying their honeymoon on the Champs-Élysées. Soon Telltale signs of alcoholism cause uncharacteristic mood changes, making Oliver quarrelsome and temperamental. Sara grows frightened, realizing there is a darker side to her groom.

In “Absinthe”, book two of the AMERICAN GILT TRILOGY, readers are transported through time to the beauty and confines of propriety during America’s gilded age. With information gathered from family letters, historical newspapers and personal interviews, author J. D. Peterson weaves a compelling trilogy based on the true account of the Belmont-Whiting Scandal of 1883.

Based on the life of Sara Swan Whiting, ‘Scandal’ the final book in the American Gilt Trilogy continues in 1884 as Sara Swan Whiting, once a popular gilded age débutante finds herself disgraced by divorce and left with a child to raise alone. Previously an admired member of the social set, Sara is now shunned and the target of harsh judgment and criticism by her contemporaries in the wake of a divorce from her short-lived marriage to socialite Oliver H.P. Belmont, who continues his life unscathed by the scandal due to a double-standard of acceptable conduct for men.

But how much is truth and how much is propaganda generated by rumors and the newspapers? In this exciting finale to the American Gilt Trilogy readers are transported through time to the wealth and confines of America’s elite Gilded Age society.

Based on the true story ‘American Gilt – Scandal’ concludes with information gathered from letters, historical newspapers and personal interviews. Author J. D. Peterson weaves a compelling trilogy based on the historical account of the Belmont-Whiting Scandal of 1883.

The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and consume what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can’t imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to change. Nor can she guess that the agent of that change will not simply be the fire, but more so the man she meets that night...

Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his powerhouse coterie—including Potter Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.

But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.

Roddy and Val DeVere series:

In her Fifth Avenue mansion in autumn, 1898, silver heiress Val DeVere learns a third young woman's strangled body has been found nearby in New York's Central Park. The victim could be someone like Val's late mother-or her-for the Valentine Mackle DeVere is one generation from the Irish immigrants who now risk their lives toiling in the city that promised a better life.

Heartsick, Val joins her well-connected husband, Roddy (Roderick Windham DeVere), to press the mayor for action, but scandal-ridden city hall finds little time for the case of "disposable" young women who frequent the park at night.

A maverick police detective urges the DeVeres to help him find the killer, but his "evidence" ensnares a family friend and could send an innocent man to death row. The couple feel on trial when the detective baits them with Roddy's Old New York heritage: "Tell me this, Mr. DeVere...how many more murders before you and Mrs. DeVere cooperate to save the park your forefathers built?"

A formal dinner in palatial, Gilded Age Newport stuns Val DeVere when her closest friend whispers a terrifying rumor. The friend’s ultra-rich auntie’s fatal heart attack at Mrs. Astor’s annual ball last winter was murder.

When the aunt’s reclusive daughter—and heir—succumbs to “heart failure,” Val and husband Roddy probe the deaths to shield their dear friend who is next in line to inherit the family fortune—and sudden death.

Society’s “odd couple,” Val and Roddy, a.k.a. Valentine and Roderick DeVere, blend his Old New York savvy and her mountain West vision to ask: Is Newport truly Society’s “place to take root in,” or a dear friend’s place to die?

New York’s “Diamond Horseshoe” balcony in the Metropolitan Opera House glittered with ladies’ jewels in January 1899, and Society seated in private boxes heard Mozart’s murder victim sing his song of death—unaware that the sudden death of a “Coal King” in Box 18 will be ruled a homicide.
When opera-goers Val and Roddy DeVere are asked to investigate (“on the q.t.”), Val finds herself suspected of complicity in the murder.
The police have “material evidence” against her. Before a jury, Val’s lawyer husband reminds her, “‘material’ evidence can be the bright, shiny object that overrides all reason and fact.”

Toxic medicine, a fanatic Chicago detective, and a fatal plunge down a steep staircase embroil Val and Roddy DeVere in a dangerous quest for facts in 1899. Roddy’s fledgling business teeters as his partner begs him to free him from a detective’s “witch hunt.” The question: was the partner’s wife’s fatal free fall an accident? Or was it murder?

As a girl in the West, Valentine Mackle dodged quicksand along the rivers of the mining camps, but as Mrs. Roderick W. DeVere of New York’s Fifth Avenue, Val is sucked into Society’s own quicksand in spring, 1899, when a weekend at a country estate in the Hudson Valley turns deadly. Val’s “soul sister” drowns on family property, and the host’s best “practical jokes” double as death traps.

A Gilded Drowning Pool snarls Val and husband Roddy in a bogus adult health camp, a brothel, a town-and-country pocked with probable killers—and an ambitious police chief convinced that Val and Roddy DeVere played a part in the death that is ruled a homicide.

Newport Summer 1899—yachts, balls, and famed artists eager to paint portraits of Society’s “Queens.”
Western silver heiress Val Mackle DeVere (Mrs. Roderick W.) agrees to “sit” for a portrait for her beloved Roddy, only to stumble on a scene of bloody, grisly homicide at an art gallery.
Like a figure from Pompeii, the dead Newport gallery manager screams in silence, his hands like claws clutching at a gilt frame pulled down over his head and shoulders while blood darkens his cream-colored suit.
Impulsive, Val reaches for the murder weapon and will find herself suspected, shamed, and shunned as she seeks the killer while learning yet again a lesson taught by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV: “No city on earth is as hostile to outsiders as Newport.”

And finally, some from the author who started it all:

In the glittering high society of New York at the turn of the twentieth century, beautiful Lily Bart, aged twenty-nine, navigates a precarious social terrain. Born into a declining aristocratic family, her main asset is her charm and beauty - tools she must use wisely to secure a wealthy husband who can ensure her continued place among the elite.
Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth" is a brilliant and ultimately tragic exploration of the gilded cages in which women of the era were confined. Focusing on Lily's descent from the luminous center of high society to its despised fringes, the novel is a critical examination of the social mores and moral judgments of her time.
Lily, torn between the desire for luxury and her yearning for genuine affection, finds herself caught in a series of unfortunate engagements and diminishing prospects. Her decision seems to pull her further from the safety of a secure marriage and closer to social exile. Wharton masterfully portrays a world where the slightest misstep or rumor can ruin a woman, and societal pressures weigh heavily on individual destiny.
Witty, poignant, and exquisitely crafted, "The House of Mirth" not only dissects the manners and hierarchies of New York's upper class but also offers a heart-wrenching look at the human cost of maintaining such a facade. Lily Bart's journey is an enduring story of societal constraints and personal choices, making this novel a compelling portrait of a woman's struggle against her confines and a critical statement on the opulence and superficiality of the American Gilded Age.

In Edith Wharton's incisive novel "The Custom of the Country," readers meet one of the most unforgettable heroines in American literature: Undine Spragg, a strikingly beautiful Midwesterner who aspires to ascend New York City’s highest social echelons.

Wharton, with her characteristic wit and keen observations of class and societal norms, dissects the ambitions and pretensions of the American nouveau riche, contrasting them with the older, established customs of the European elite. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century New York and Paris, the novel is both a sharply drawn portrayal of a powerfully ambitious woman and a social satire that lays bare the mercenary nature of the Gilded Age.

"The Custom of the Country" stands as one of Wharton’s most scathing critiques of a society captivated by wealth and status. This novel, with its vivid characterizations and sharp social commentary, is a timeless piece that resonates with the ongoing conversations about gender, class, and the American Dream.

"The Age of Innocence" is a masterfully crafted novel that examines the choices between personal happiness, l, and social approval. Newland Archer, is a young, affluent lawyer who is engaged to May Welland, a suitable match within their social circle. However, the arrival of May's cousin, Ellen Olenska, who has separated from her European husband and carries an air of European sophistication and scandal, deeply intrigues Newland. As he falls in love with Ellen, he questions the values and rules of the elite world he inhabits.
Wharton's novel is not just a love triangle but also a critique of the rigid social norms of the time, offering a vivid picture of a society on the cusp of change and making "The Age of Innocence" a timeless, Pulitzer Prize-winning classic in American literature.