Archie and Amelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age-Fast Shipping

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Filled with glamour, mystery, and madness, Archie and Amélie is the true story chronicling a tumultuous love affair in the Gilded Age.

John Armstrong “Archie” Chanler was an heir to the Astor fortune,an eccentric, dashing, and handsome millionaire. Amélie Rives, Southern belleand the goddaughter of Robert E. Lee, was a daring author, a stunning temptress,and a woman ahead of her time.

Archie andAmélie seemed made for each other—both were passionate, intense, and driven by emotion—butthe very things that brought them together would soon tear them apart. Their marriagebegan with a “secret” wedding that found its way onto the front page of the New YorkTimes, to the dismay of Archie’s relatives and Amélie’s many gentleman friends. Tothe world, the couple appeared charmed, rich, and famous; they moved in social circlesthat included Oscar Wilde, Teddy Roosevelt, and Stanford White. But although theirlove was undeniable, they tormented each other, and their private life was troubledfrom the start.

They were the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald of their day—a celebratedcouple too dramatic and unconventional to last—but their tumultuous story has largelybeen forgotten. Now, Donna M. Lucey vividly brings to life these extraordinary loversand their sweeping, tragic romance.

“In the Virginia hunt country just outsideof Charlottesville, where I live, the older people still tell stories of a strangecouple who died some two generations ago. The stories involve ghosts, the mysteriousburning of a church, a murder at a millionaire’s house, a sensational lunacy trial,and a beautiful, scantily clad young woman prowling her gardens at night as if shewere searching for something or someone—or trying to walk off the effects of themorphine that was deranging her. I was inclined to dismiss all of this as tall talesVirginians love to spin out; but when I looked into these yarns I found proof thatthey were true. . . .”
—Donna M. Lucey on Archie and Amé
lie