Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage
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Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the Titanic’s elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers. The intimate atmosphere on board history’s most famous ship is recreated as Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely-seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement, presenting the very latest thinking on everything from when and how the lifeboats were loaded to the last tune played by the orchestra. Yet here too is a convincing evocation of the table talk at the famous Widener dinner party held in the Ritz Restaurant on the last night. And here we also experience the rustle of elegant undergarments as first-class ladies proceed down the grand staircase in their soigné evening gowns.
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Millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, artist Frank Millet and his friend White House aide Archie Butt, couturiere Lady Duff Gordon, writer Helen Churchill Candee, movie actress Dorothy Gibson, and a host of other travelers on this fateful crossing are also vividly brought to life within these pages. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the Titanic’s sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, “What would we have done?”
Praise
“Classy, delicious, wonderfully readable”--Christian Science Monitor
“A brilliant account…highly entertaining.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune
Praise
“Classy, delicious, wonderfully readable”--Christian Science Monitor
“A brilliant account…highly entertaining.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune