24th out of 68 books
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96 voters
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World
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 onboard history’s most famous ship is recreated as never before.
The Titanic has often been called “an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has n...more
The Titanic has often been called “an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has n...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
March 27th 2012
by Crown
(first published January 1st 2012)
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(Won in goodreads giveaway)
A nice addition to Titanic lore, evocative of the period and the people,especially the uppercrust, who endured the voyage of the Titanic,those who lived and those who perished.It's an easy read,rich with period detail, and an epigram for an age on the verge of dissolution. The gilded lilies who are the first class passengers on the fatal voyage are the frothy blossoms of a fading era and, as Brewster points out, it is almost as if the age required a premonition of hor...more
A nice addition to Titanic lore, evocative of the period and the people,especially the uppercrust, who endured the voyage of the Titanic,those who lived and those who perished.It's an easy read,rich with period detail, and an epigram for an age on the verge of dissolution. The gilded lilies who are the first class passengers on the fatal voyage are the frothy blossoms of a fading era and, as Brewster points out, it is almost as if the age required a premonition of hor...more
I appreciated the author's attempt to focus on one social level traveling aboard the Titanic but he seemed to have little idea of what to do with the story beyond the initial concept. I picked up Lives hoping to learn reams of details about Edwardian food, fashion, parties and travel. I wanted to lose myself in a book that would make me feel like a privileged passenger on the Titanic.
Unfortunately, I finished the book without any new understanding of what upper-class passengers talked about on t...more
Unfortunately, I finished the book without any new understanding of what upper-class passengers talked about on t...more
I have just finished reading “Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage” by Hugh Brewster. I found it to be an interesting book about the lives of many of the first-class passengers on the Titanic. It really helped me to learn about the Titanic.
The story begins with the underwater exploration of the Titanic. It talks about some of the artifacts, such as a small statue of a Greek goddess. It then begins to talk about the passengers’ lives before the Titanic and during the voyage. I felt like I was there experie...more
The story begins with the underwater exploration of the Titanic. It talks about some of the artifacts, such as a small statue of a Greek goddess. It then begins to talk about the passengers’ lives before the Titanic and during the voyage. I felt like I was there experie...more
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, written by Hugh Brewster is a well written book about the first-class passengers of the Titanic. This book explains the lives of many first-class passengers, and their experiences on the Titanic. Two characters that stood out to me was Frank Millet and Lady Duff Gordon. Frank Millet was the drummer boy in the civil war, created the White City, and many liked him for his nice, appealing qualities. Lady Duff Gordon was a well-known dress designer who was aboard the Tita...more
Things I liked about this book:
-informative
-gave clear and concise bios of the people on the ship
-well researched
-the back stories of everyone
Things I hated and wish had gone down with the ship
-the author's love of repeating catch phrases, such as referring to Dorothy Simpson as "the prettiest girl" because someone on the ship called her that. Once or twice...cute. About the twentieth, it was starting to make me a bit seasick (see what I did there)
-sometimes the "omigod foreboding music" got old...more
-informative
-gave clear and concise bios of the people on the ship
-well researched
-the back stories of everyone
Things I hated and wish had gone down with the ship
-the author's love of repeating catch phrases, such as referring to Dorothy Simpson as "the prettiest girl" because someone on the ship called her that. Once or twice...cute. About the twentieth, it was starting to make me a bit seasick (see what I did there)
-sometimes the "omigod foreboding music" got old...more
I have never understood why Cameron decided he had to create fictional characters for his movie when the stories of so many of the people who were really there were so interesting! I'd probably rate this book a lot higher if so much of it wasn't review for me, and even with the review it was an enjoyable read.
Lots of black-and-white pictures interlaced with the text, which I appreciated. Most of the other Titanic books I've read either had very few pictures (i.e., Walter Lord's two) or are most...more
Lots of black-and-white pictures interlaced with the text, which I appreciated. Most of the other Titanic books I've read either had very few pictures (i.e., Walter Lord's two) or are most...more
The 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking happened on April 15, 2012 the. It was on April 14, 1912 at approximately 11:40 PM the unsinkable luxury liner Titanic hit an iceberg and within hours sank taking 1,514 to their death. It was her maiden voyage, and she carried a total of 2,224 passengers and crew though she could have carried 3,339 (2,435 passengers and 892 crew members). But the Titanic only had 20 lifeboats which could have held 1,178 people. They held less that night – many being l...more
Author Hugh Brewster met Dr. Robert Ballard in 1984 when Mr. Brewster was the Editorial Director and Publisher of Madison Press Books in Toronto. He began working with Ballard to produce the international bestseller The Discovery of the Titanic and subsequently oversaw the creation of Titanic: An Illustrated History which inspired James Cameron's epic movie. While working on these books and others about the Titanic, he became acquainted with the many dedicated, knowledgeable Titanic historians a...more
I am not a hard core fan of everything Titanic however I do find this subject matter to be fascinating. Thus a reason I wanted to check this book out. I liked the concept that Mr. Brewster brought with this book by focusing on one type of class of passengers. However I think that I might have preferred to read about the third class passengers more. Only because I think that there lies more history in their story and I would have felt the more human aspect then I got from reading about the first...more
I have an abiding interest in the Titanic story and this book gave me a glimpse into the privileged lives of some of the first class passengers. Especially interesting to me were Lady Duff-Gordon and her husband Cosmo, both of whom survived the sinking. Lady Duff-Gordon was known professionally as Lucile. She was a well known fashion designer who designed many of the gowns worn by female passengers aboard the ship. It was fascinating to read about men such as Cosmo Duff Goron and Bruce Ismay who...more
2012 is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster so we're literally drowning in a sea of Titanic-related material. this book is one of the better and more interesting ones and puts the emphasis on the biographies of the most prominent 1st class passengers as opposed to the technicalities of the ship's demise -which we already know quite a bit about, thanks to James Cameron and the National Geographic.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4. the narrative is fast paced and lively and I finished the whole...more
3.5 stars rounded up to 4. the narrative is fast paced and lively and I finished the whole...more
(Won in Goodreads giveaway)
Incredibly well-researched book. But sometimes I got the feeling that the author isn't giving us all the steps that he took to come to his conclusions.
On page 32 the author starts a paragraph with the words "It is suspected..." that a woman described pseudonymously in another book "clutching her pet Pekinese" is actually Charlotte Drake Cardeza. Still not sure why "It is suspected..." we do find out that Myra Harper brought a Pekingese, Helen Bishop brought a lap dog,...more
Incredibly well-researched book. But sometimes I got the feeling that the author isn't giving us all the steps that he took to come to his conclusions.
On page 32 the author starts a paragraph with the words "It is suspected..." that a woman described pseudonymously in another book "clutching her pet Pekinese" is actually Charlotte Drake Cardeza. Still not sure why "It is suspected..." we do find out that Myra Harper brought a Pekingese, Helen Bishop brought a lap dog,...more
Hugh Brewster starts out by saying that in most examinations of the Titanic disaster, the ship is the main character and all the crew and passengers merely supporting characters – here he flips it. Yes, Titanic is the main event, but the focus is on all the people on the boat – who they were, what they did before getting on the ship, why they happened to be on that voyaged, and what happened after to those that survived.
It’s a fascinating look at a world since past – a microcosm of the Edwardian...more
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage by Huge Brewster: I like the way Mr. Brewster presented the story of the Titanic, and that of the more notable victims and survivors. While there is nothing earth shattering about the information imparted. It is well written, and well researched and blessedly far from dry. He gives a very balanced introduction and history of the people on board. I think this will appeal to those who might not know a lot about the movers and shakers on board. I like the overview and the...more
Not since Walter Lord's classic "A Night to Remember," have I been so captivated by a book on the fabled Titanic. This book focuses on the first class passengers and their lives prior to and after the disaster. Sort of "Downton Abbey" meets the Titanic. You will meet John Jacob Astor and his young teen bride and many others from the elite wealthy that traveled in first class on the doomed ship. I was fascinated to read that many of the survivors were so traumatized by the sinking that it signica...more
In February of 1912, twenty-four year old Alice Fortune had her palms read while vacationing in Egypt with her family. While gazing at her palms the fortune teller proclaimed, "You are in danger every time you travel on the sea, for I see you adrift on the ocean on an open boat. You will lose everything but your life. You will be saved but others will be lost." Two months later Alice, her two sisters and mother would live to tell the story of that fateful night but her father and brother would n...more
I'd probably give this a 3.5 out of five stars, so I rounded up here. This book is about the first class passengers on the ill-fated Titanic. It picks up with boarding in Southampton and delves into a group of the wealthiest, most famous passengers. Most get small biographical sketches, some of which are very interesting and some of which tend to drag on. Since there's not a lot of verifiable information about actions during the sinking, the author tends to speculate on what happened. It's all c...more
What a smashing read!
You might think the topic of The Titanic has been overdone. I did before reading this book. But I love books like this that are impeccably researched down to all the intimate, juicy, fascinating details. I have a special soft spot for authors who painstakingly research the beejuzzus out of an historical event, person or era, and then manage to present you with all these details in a fascinating and compelling manner.
Brewster does just this. You will learn a lot that you did...more
You might think the topic of The Titanic has been overdone. I did before reading this book. But I love books like this that are impeccably researched down to all the intimate, juicy, fascinating details. I have a special soft spot for authors who painstakingly research the beejuzzus out of an historical event, person or era, and then manage to present you with all these details in a fascinating and compelling manner.
Brewster does just this. You will learn a lot that you did...more
This was better than I thought it might be; my initial reaction was that it would be difficult to meld in a variety of stories with an actual timeline for the sinking without being too bogged down with detail, but Brewster arranges wonderful snapshots of individuals before/during/after. I found only one instance where it was as though the author had forgotten having mentioned a person before (Dorothy Gibson is introduced early on and re-introduced later, though I suspect he did so intentionally...more
It's hard to believe at this point that anything new could be written about the Titanic, but Brewster succeeds, digging up a great deal of information about the varied assortment of first class passengers on board the doomed ship. Passengers previously just names in other Titanic books - Major Archie Butt, Jacques Futrelle, the Duff Gordons, Major Arthur Peuchan, and many more - come to life with new and interesting details gleaned from Brewster's reading and research. For example, while it's we...more
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I have read a lot of books about the Titanic, watched a lot of documentaries, and have seen the movies. The one piece of information that I gathered from Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, that was new to me, was about the dogs of the Titanic. Several dogs were on the Titanic when she set sail and even three survived that night, much to the anger of some other survivors. Women, men, and children perished that night, yet three dogs survived. The other thing that I...more
I have read a lot of books about the Titanic, watched a lot of documentaries, and have seen the movies. The one piece of information that I gathered from Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, that was new to me, was about the dogs of the Titanic. Several dogs were on the Titanic when she set sail and even three survived that night, much to the anger of some other survivors. Women, men, and children perished that night, yet three dogs survived. The other thing that I...more
I really can't get enough of Titanic books - lucky for me so many have been/are being published this year! This one stood out to me because it focuses more on the people, and it's been my experience so far that a lot of books emphasize the ship and the events while the people are secondary or tertiary characters, especially those who weren't already famous at the time. This book would be useful for anyone researching people's lives at the dawn of the 20th century, as there are lots of little dai...more
Is this the start of a trilogy - is Brewster going to write Book 2 about second class passengers and Book 3 about steerage (Book 4 could be about crew; and maybe Book 5 about Carpathia?). I'd read them - I only picked this up because it's the 100 anniversary year, and after a monster blockbuster movie and books by Walter Lord, as well as the discovery of the ship itself and the always travelling museum, I don't think there was anything new left. Yet Brewster's book was full of much new, plus his...more
I have a passing interest in the Titanic and was looking forward to reading this for a book club.
Well the book is good and very well researched, I would say it is for more of a Titanic buff than a casual reader, definately for people who have read Walter Lord's A Night to Remember first, which I have not.
The book started slow, picked up with the sinking, and ended rather slowly as well, with understandable attempts to include all relevant details slowing down the narrative.
This book focuses more...more
Well the book is good and very well researched, I would say it is for more of a Titanic buff than a casual reader, definately for people who have read Walter Lord's A Night to Remember first, which I have not.
The book started slow, picked up with the sinking, and ended rather slowly as well, with understandable attempts to include all relevant details slowing down the narrative.
This book focuses more...more
It has been a long time since I have read a Titanic book, but even so I think this one is a little different than the ones I remember reading. One can tell a great amount of research has gone into this very readable and informative book, centering on the many of the people on board the Titanic and their backs stories. The usual descriptions of the dinners and the luxury found on the boat is there as well, but it also covers what many of the people did while on the boat. Somehow or another gettin...more
The book is well-researched and well-written, full of engaging details on the Titanic's first class passengers. Even though we all know the end to this true story, the author manages to inject considerable tension and suspense into the book by setting it up in a diary-like chronology, in time order. He has chosen several prominent passengers to detail throughout the book. Brewster begins with the more low-key events of these passengers boarding the vessel, then moves through an account of their...more
The book that I had read for a school project was "Gilded Lives,Fatal Voyage" by Hugh Brewster. I did not think it was a good book for me at all. I thought it was way to informational and gave details about some passengers lives and their backgrounds that were pointless. I didn't like how the author did not try to make it interesting when I started reading and I got bored.I did not want to keep on reading or waiting for something exciting to happen. I got bored and unless you like historical bo...more
A good year for books about the Titanic! This non-fiction examination focuses on the ship's first class passengers in particular, their backgrounds and their demises or later lives. A little repetitive, especially since there's a long section at the end with an alphabetized list of the passengers and how they fared, even though all that material has already been covered within the main body of the book. Very "Downton Abbey on the water" in terms of upper-class mores and expectations, so fans of...more
Like tons of other people, I am a Titanic junkie, and that meant that this book was a real pleasure for me to read. I learned lots of new things about the biographies of some of the rich and famous aboard, and I particularly enjoyed some of the myth debunking that went on. I wasn't crazy about all of the re-created conversations/ situations--and in fact, early on I almost abandoned the book because of them--but there was enough real history (as opposed to "they very well may have blah blah") to...more
The concept was excellent but until you get about 1/2 way through the book, each passenger the author talks about is very limited and often gets lost as the paragraph transitions to a new passenger and their life. A little more cohesion and more information about specific passengers would help. The chapter on Lady Duff Gordon was the best on account of the amount of time devoted to her. Also, there were at least 2 typos--yes its nitpicky but if you publish a book it should be reviewed enough to...more
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Being able to create books about history is a dream job for me since I’ve always been enthralled by history. When I was growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, our house was just around the corner from the town library. And I haunted its children’s section—reading sometimes four or five books a week. Historical fiction titles by writers like Geoffrey Trease and Rosemary Sutcliffe were particular favour...more
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