Prologue: New York City, 1903 -- 1. Mrs. Astor Holds Court -- 2. The Vainglorious Vanderbilts -- 3. Enter the challenger -- 4. The Society Lady -- 5. The Society Gentleman -- 6. The Court Jester -- 7. The Arrivistes -- 8. The Edifice Complex -- 9. Palaces on Fifth Avenue -- 10. Mrs. Astor Joins the Race -- 11. Building for Eternity -- 12. The Unseen Armies -- 13. Clothing -- 14. Jewelry -- 15. Transportation -- 16. Masters of the Hudson -- 17. "The Inland Newport" -- 18. Monarch of the Smoky Mountains -- 19. The Kingdom by the Sea -- 20. Swells in Newport -- 21. The Social Season -- 22. The Society Dinner Party -- 23. Society Balls -- 24. The Dollar Princesses -- 25. A Breath of Scandal -- 26. Sailing to Oblivion

"A Season of Splendor takes you on a spectacular journey through this Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when old-money bluebloods and patricians confronted the nouveau riche - railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators - and forged an uneasy and dazzling new social order in New York City. Together, their extreme wealth, elaborate parties, marble mansions, shocking excesses, and delicious scandals transformed the social, architectural, and sartorial landscape."--BOOK JACKET