An American Beauty: A Novel of the Gilded Age Inspired by the True Story of Arabella Huntington Who Became the Richest Woman in the Country

“She hated having to eat breakfast when her body told her it was time for dinner and she wondered, for what had to be about the millionth time, what would happen if she didn’t walk up those steps and through that front door. If she just turned around and…left. Found something different for herself out there in the unknown corners of the world. Something untethered. Something better.”

As Belle returns home from Johnny’s parlor, she dreams of a different life than the one she is stuck in. Belle has been raised a pragmatist by her mother and her circumstances; however, even in the darkest of times, Belle always harbored dreams of a better life. The potent combination of Belle’s willingness to work and make hard choices, and her searing ambition, allows her to eventually realize these dreams.

“Just like Catherine herself, once it had surely graced a house more grand than this. And also like Catherine herself, it endured these less noble times, these less beautiful times, with a sort of solid stubbornness that defied every disaster around the bend.”

Catherine reflects on how the piano that stands in Yarrington House is a reflection of herself. The piano symbolizes Catherine’s elegant past and weary present. It also mirrors Catherine’s adaptability and determination to persevere through tough times, occupying a corner in a boarding house and helping create something beautiful so the family can survive.

“Nothing in this mortal world is certain. It was a phrase that Catherine had impressed upon her children over and over. Nothing is certain. Take what you can, when you can.”

Catherine’s experiences in her marriage, and the changing tide of fortunes that it brought, teach her not to depend on anything to be permanent in life. This further breeds an opportunistic outlook, where she encourages her daughters as well to grab what they can when possible. It is this attitude that leads Belle to capitalize on her relationship with Collis and eventually lift her family out of poverty.

“The fact is, no one dares speak for them, not even me. Speaking out would mean scrutiny falling upon me, upon my family. Upon the boarding house too, which we cannot afford. That’s not cowardice. That’s fact.”

Belle reflects on how she cannot speak up for the girls who work at Johnny’s parlor and were caught in the raid. Justice and fairness, especially for someone else, are ideals that Belle cannot afford in her current circumstances, especially as she lives her life by Catherine’s axiom. Belle does not see her choices, here and later in life, as immoral, unfair, or anything to apologize for, especially as they are motivated entirely by the desire to survive and rise above destitution. Belle’s attitude underlines The Tension Between Societal Expectation and Personal Ambition.

“She had been, in short, the inevitable result of everything she had been raised to be, frothy and naïve, a girl with barely a notion of her own universe, its rights and its monstrous wrongs. A girl who put her faith in daydreams and who could not, for the life of her, imagine a future where everything wouldn’t just continue on exactly as it always had, even when her true love had hardly a half dime in his pocket.”

Catherine reflects on the naive young girl she was when she left Virginia for the first time after marrying Richard. Catherine’s naivete is a result of her protected and privileged upbringing; she soon learns the ways of the world when she is stripped of that protection through hard life experiences. While Catherine grows up into a strong and stoic woman, another character who has the same early upbringing without the hard knocks from life remains entrenched in the mentality described in this passage throughout her life: Clara Huntington.

“On certain days, when Collis was in town, they would take an enclosed carriage and ride slowly through Central Park, joining a parade of others. It was meant to be, he informed her, a time for the city’s elite to see and be seen. It tickled them both to be a part of it, elite and unseen, their faces hidden behind curtains and glass.”

Belle and Collis ride through Central Park together in a closed carriage, observing, apart from, and amused by the rest of New York society. This instance is fairly representative of both Collis and Belle’s characters, and their relationship together. While both enjoy the security that financial success brings them, neither are particularly keen on being in the social limelight. They are happy just to be together and enjoy the comforts of their materially grand lives without indulging in the other aspects of New York high society, such as its power and politics.

“Emma was getting married. Emma was leaving. Emma would be…a wife. And then something even more peculiar happened. A sensation that Belle had never felt before, a sourness she had never before tasted, rose up strong and bitter, curling high into her throat.”

Belle learns that Emma, her sister, is going to be married, and experiences an intense jealousy. Despite all the material comfort and security Belle now enjoys in her life because of her association with Collis, a part of her still longs for some degree of acceptance and legitimacy. This is what fuels her brief bitterness toward Emma. Later in life, Belle is able to fight for and win this kind of legitimacy, first in a limited way when she steps out of the shadows as Collis’s lover, and later when she becomes his wife.

“She truly was pregnant with his child. She was not going to be shuffled off somewhere convenient to be shushed and stifled and told to obey. She was going to stake her claim in her lover’s life, and if that meant a new home, a new identity as a genteel Southern widow, so be it.”

Belle reflects on how she will not allow herself to be helpless and dependent, especially as she is now carrying Collis’s child. Belle’s determination to establish some degree of independence and control over her circumstances is what distinguishes her from the other women in the book. She not only seizes the opportunities presented to her, but also actively works on architecting circumstances that solidify her power. Belle is also inherently intelligent and resourceful enough to pull off these machinations.

“True, my better life isn’t exactly how I once pictured it would be. I am not a wife, but I am a mother. I didn’t meet a man who scorches my heart with true love’s flames, but I have something better: a man I respect, and who, I think, respects me in turn. Even if he doesn’t know all of my secrets.”

After Archer’s birth, Belle satisfies herself with the current state of her life. There are things still missing from her life that she once dreamed of, such as love and respectability in society; however, she also acknowledges that there is plenty to appreciate. Belle’s fierce ambition is tempered and strengthened by her pragmatism. This combination of traits allows her to stay grounded in reality even as she aspires to do better. Belle’s acceptance of her current situation is prudent, as there is not much else she can change about her circumstances. However, she does eventually get everything her heart desires, including a true love and the respectability of marriage.

“Clara glanced around the room. It was full of customers, of course, every table filled—why wouldn’t they be? She thought she recognized some of the people from church, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt, for instance, the Roosevelts. Mr. Astor, talking boisterously with a circle of friends.”

Clara goes to Delmonico’s with her governess for her 13th birthday. Delmonico’s restaurant was a prestigious destination and the site of many social events and balls during the Gilded Age, including the Patriarch’s Ball in the book. The people Clara spots at Delmonico’s were prominent figures in New York society and American history during this time (See: Background).

“All right, then. She would replant the beds, buy fresh pots of flowers. She would tame the roses and bring the rest of it back into luscious life, because she was the Yarrington who cared about shoots, who could coax them to thrive. She was the one who could make everything flourish, just like she’d told Collis all those years ago, beneath the tulip tree. She was the one.”

Belle acquires her first house and is determined to beautify not just the mansion but the overgrown garden that comes attached with it. Belle’s interest and skill in tending to gardens and greenery speaks to her self-professed ability to make things flourish. She is able to do this in all aspects of her life, from relationships to finance. Gardens and greenery are, accordingly, an important recurring motif in the book that represents her character.

“Some evenings her carriage would pass by Knickerbocker mansions with their windows alight, gay balls taking place inside, the crème de la crème of society celebrating within their walls, and Belle knew there would never be an inch of space spared in there for a woman like her. Not a hundredth of an inch, no matter how good she was now, no matter how many staid and proper pasts she invented. Those doors would never open.”

Belle reflects on how there are spaces in New York society that will always be denied to her. New York society during the Gilded Age was preoccupied with lineage and heritage; it was the “old money” families that occupied the upper echelons of society, i.e. those with privilege and pedigree, not just money (See: Background). Belle’s well-known position as Collis’s mistress automatically disqualifies her from acceptance into this circle. Even if she weren’t, though, because she is obviously not from one of the “old money” families, all the money at her disposal and an invented past will still not suffice. This passage highlights the limitations of The Influence of Beauty and Wealth on Social Mobility.

“She was fragile, she was mortal. Her heart was a slight, ridiculous muscle that would not rule her will, because she had worked too tirelessly and risen too far to consider a schoolgirl fantasy like love at first sight and think, Yes, why not, I’ll try that now.”

Belle feels an intense and undeniable attraction to Edward from the very first moment they meet. However, she refuses to indulge her feelings because she cannot afford to risk the life she has so painstakingly built. Catherine’s efforts to suppress desire and other softer emotions in her own life has rubbed off on her daughter, and Belle denies herself her heart’s desire until much later in life, when all risk has entirely fallen away.

“Collis lost one but won the other and in the end, Belle would change the title of Mother and Child to Temptation, and hang it prominently on her drawing room wall.”

Collis bids on and wins a painting for Belle that she has her heart set on. Art is a recurring motif with a wide range of meanings—signifying social mobility while also pointing to aspects of Belle’s character, such her deep love for Archer, the one person for whom she is tempted to risk her security and success. Edward advises Belle to bring her son back and not play by anyone’s rules except her own, and Belle is tempted to attempt this.

“Clara—dear Clara, who for years now has dined with me and joked with me and confided her secrets to me—recoiled now as if I was a snake. Her mother met my eyes. She walked calmly to Clara’s side and hooked her by the elbow. It was possession, that clench of her fingers along the shiny bland silk of Clara’s sleeve. Possession absolute.”

Belle encounters Clara and Elizabeth in a book shop and is stunned to see Clara, with whom she otherwise enjoys a good relationship with, recoil from her in Elizabeth’s presence. This alerts Belle to the kind of closeness that Elizabeth has with Clara by virtue of being her mother, a relationship that Belle will never enjoy with Clara. It also reminds her that she is being denied this same relationship with her own son because of Elizabeth. This is the encounter that finally prompts Belle to put her foot down and bring Archer back.

“Belle had no ambition for anyone but herself to enjoy her portrait. She had no plans to throw grand cotillions beneath it, or host rarefied dinners with it looming in the background (although, in the years to come, those dinners would happen).”

Belle has her portrait painted in Paris. This passage reflects Belle’s attitude toward art and society: Belle acquires art for personal pleasure, and not to be seen a certain way in society. Thus, she has her portrait painted merely because she wants to enjoy it herself, rather than to have it as a display piece in her house.

“Yet aside from their fashion and those mounds of diamonds, these Whitneys, these Morgans and Jeromes and Livingstons and Goelets, looked perfectly nondescript to her. She might have passed them on the street a thousand times over and never thought to herself, There goes an empress of the city, a master of destinies.”

Belle reflects on how the elite of New York society look as ordinary up close as any other person she may have passed on the street. Belle’s reflection underlines the arbitrariness of class exclusivity. Figures like Caroline Astor and Ward McAllister attempted to maintain this exclusivity through narrow borders, but the economic boom of the Gilded Age eventually wore down their attempts at gatekeeping. Power shifted from the hands of people like Astor to people like the Vanderbilts, an industrial family just like the Huntingtons, by virtue of their wealth (See: Background).

“I want you to know that I gave Collis everything of me, everything within my power. But I could not give him a child of his body. I could not give him…a world beyond rules. I realize now I never understood how much he ached for those things. You were the key to them both, Miss Yarrington.”

Elizabeth, who is on her death bed, acknowledges the value that Belle brings to Collis’s life. Besides her husband’s persistent infidelity, this is the seat of Elizabeth’s insecurity when it comes to Belle and Archer, and why she had the latter sent away. However, Elizabeth eventually comes to accept Belle’s irreplaceability in Collis’s life toward the end of her own. While this ought to have spelt freedom and absolution for Belle, Elizabeth rather binds Belle with another obligation: She extracts a promise that Belle remain true to Collis, which prevents her from following her heart with Edward for many more years.

“‘You asked about this thing between us? Shall I tell you what it is?’ Her tone lowered into silken venom. ‘It is the return of ruin to my life. It is risk and uncertainty and undoing, and the destruction of all whom I hold dear. And I will not be a part of ruin again. Not ever again, by God.’”

Edward professes his love for Belle after Collis proposes to her, and Belle rejects him in no uncertain terms. Part of this rejection is fueled by her promise to Elizabeth; part of it, however, is also motivated by her prioritization of personal ambition above all else, including desire, as indicated in what she says in this passage.

“Mary Alice wasn’t wrong to point out that Clara needed a husband. It seemed that every woman needed a husband, no matter her personal opinion on the subject. Wives were afforded a leniency, a freedom, that unmarried women were not and would never be.”

Mary Alice tells the Huntingtons that Clara ought to find a husband. Clara’s reflection on the truth of Mary Alice’s assertion highlights Women’s Agency in a Patriarchal Society. Despite the money and connections at Clara’s disposal, she still lacks a certain amount of freedom because she is not attached to a man. The one thing that all women during this time had in common was their inadvertent dependence on a man for any kind of social currency or power.

“It was a testament to them both, she would think in their final years together, to the enduring kinship of their souls, that in this bold moment Collis didn’t hesitate, that he asked no questions of her and implied no doubt. He didn’t even ask the price, but instead only looked back at her and nodded, his expression thoughtful but sure. ‘Of course,’ he said, and that was all.”

Belle embarks upon building a grand mansion for her and Collis at a prime location in New York. Historically, this is the house that marks the beginning of Arabella Huntington’s career as an art collector, as she eventually fills it with prized art (See: Background). In this instance, however, the passage reflects the nature of Belle and Collis’s partnership: He trusts her judgment, skill, and vision so implicitly, that he does not have a single question for Belle before he assents to her dream.

“She wasn’t a child any longer but she was, like almost every woman she knew, dependent upon someone else’s largesse to sponsor her life. She could not vote and she could not take a single step along the streets of Manhattan without a chaperone at her heels. She could not secure a job without the expectation of scandal, and she could not hope to shake hands with Caroline Astor again.”

Clara reflects on how, despite her age and means, she is still entirely dependent on others—reflecting the scarcity of Women’s Agency in a Patriarchal Society. She believes she is escaping this confinement through her relationship with Francis, as she is choosing her own husband. However, she does not realize that this marriage only further entrenches her in dependency upon a man. Clara’s naivete reflects the protected and privileged upbringing she has enjoyed all her life, which stands in sharp contrast to that of her stepmother.

“Belle’s past, those years and years that had led up to today, struck her as simultaneously indefensible and unavoidable. She hadn’t chosen the path she’d walked then, but of course, she had, she’d done what she’d done and ultimately her family hadn’t joined the legions of the wrecked and starving.”

Belle reflects on her past, especially as the revelation about her sex work at Johnny’s parlor emerges. In retrospect, Belle recognizes the dichotomy of her circumstances: On one hand, she had no agency in what she had to do, as Catherine engineered her employment with Johnny. On the other hand, she did what was necessary to elevate her family from poverty. Thus, Belle knows that if she erases that decision, she also forfeits all the positive outcomes that came out of it for herself and her family. This conflict encapsulates The Tension Between Societal Expectation and Personal Ambition.