Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “A Night to Remember” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

A Night to Remember

Walter Lord,

Nathaniel Philbrick (Goodreads Author) (Introduction)

4.04 · Rating details · 17,708 ratings · 1,441 reviews

First published in 1955, A Night to Remember remains a completely riveting account of the Titanic's fatal collision and the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in fu ...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for $11.99

Paperback, 208 pages

Published January 7th 2005 by Holt McDougal (first published 1955)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about A Night to Remember, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Voyage on the Great Titanic by Ellen Emerson White

The Discovery of the Titanic by Robert D. Ballard

Best Titanic Books

137 books — 173 voters

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

Non-fiction Disaster Books

288 books — 294 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.04 ·

Rating details

· 17,708 ratings · 1,441 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of A Night to Remember

Feb 15, 2010 Matt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: maritime-history, titanic

“All the [lifeboats] together could carry 1178 people. On this Sunday night there were 2207 on board the Titanic. This mathematical discrepancy was known by none of the passengers and few of the crew, but most of them wouldn’t have cared anyhow. The Titanic was unsinkable. Everybody said so. When Mrs. Albert Caldwell was watching the deck hands carry up luggage at Southampton, she asked one of them, ‘Is this ship really unsinkable?’ ‘Yes, lady,’ he answered. ‘God himself could not sink this ship ...more

flag 134 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2016 Diane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, audiobooks, nonfiction

Wow, I can see why this book is considered a classic in narrative nonfiction. In fact, I picked up this book because Nathaniel Philbrick, himself a master writer, told the New York Times that this was one of his favorite books of the genre. (The other nonfiction book he mentioned was Alfred Lansing's Endurance, which I also agree was excellent.)

A Night to Remember gives a gripping, detailed account of what happened the night the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, killing more Wow, I can see why this book is considered a classic in narrative nonfiction. In fact, I picked up this book because Nathaniel Philbrick, himself a master writer, told the New York Times that this was one of his favorite books of the genre. (The other nonfiction book he mentioned was Alfred Lansing's Endurance, which I also agree was excellent.)

A Night to Remember gives a gripping, detailed account of what happened the night the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people. Originally published in 1955, Walter Lord had interviewed survivors and reviewed documents to create this incredible narrative of the events surrounding April 15, 1912. I also liked the context Lord gave to the tragedy:

Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence. Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life. For 100 years the Western world had been at peace.* For 100 years technology had steadily improved. For 100 years the benefits of peace and industry seemed to be filtering satisfactorily through society. In retrospect, there may seem less grounds for confidence, but at the time most articulate people felt life was all right.

The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship" — perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement — going down the first time it sailed.

But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth meant so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year? Scores of ministers preached that the Titanic was a heaven-sent lesson to awaken people from their complacency, to punish them for a top-heavy faith in material progress. If it was a lesson, it worked — people have never been sure of anything since.

*I think Mr. Lord has overlooked a few dozen wars in this eloquent-and-yet-untrue sentence, including the American Civil War, the Napoleonic wars, and innumerable conflicts involving the British Empire. Other than that, this passage is great.

I listened to this book on audio and was so engrossed I finished it in one session. Highly recommended.

Favorite Quote
"What troubled people especially was not just the tragedy — or even its needlessness — but the element of fate in it all. If the Titanic had heeded any of the six ice messages on Sunday ... if ice conditions had been normal ... if the night had been rough or moonlit ... if she had seen the berg 15 seconds sooner — or 15 seconds later ... if she had hit the ice any other way ... if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher ... if she had carried enough boats ... if the Californian had only come ... Had any one of those 'ifs' turned out right, every life might have been saved. But they all went against her — a classic Greek tragedy."
...more

flag 73 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2010 Lobstergirl rated it liked it

James Cameron's vision of the Titanic decided that the most compelling and lucrative story would focus on two young lovers who had just met. Looking at the passenger manifest, where survivors are listed in italics and the dead are not, suggests how blandly offensive this vision is. It's hard to argue with the chivalry of "women and children first," but for family after family, particularly among first class passengers, fathers and husbands went down with the ship while mothers, wives, and kiddie James Cameron's vision of the Titanic decided that the most compelling and lucrative story would focus on two young lovers who had just met. Looking at the passenger manifest, where survivors are listed in italics and the dead are not, suggests how blandly offensive this vision is. It's hard to argue with the chivalry of "women and children first," but for family after family, particularly among first class passengers, fathers and husbands went down with the ship while mothers, wives, and kiddies (and often the female servants of the very wealthy) rowed away in lifeboats. Arthur Ryerson, scion of the steel and iron family, took off his lifebelt when he saw that his wife's maid, Victorine, didn't have one. Ryerson, his wife, and three of their children were returning from France to the U.S. for the funeral of his son, who had been thrown from a car the week before. Ryerson Senior perished. John Jacob Astor asked if he could accompany his wife, who was pregnant, into a boat; request denied. She and her maid survived; Astor and his manservant died. A strange calm descended over the doomed elite: Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet changed into their evening clothes so they could "go down like gentlemen." Mrs. Isador Straus refused to leave her husband (the founder of Macy's) and they watched the hubbub, arms entwined, as in another part of the ship steerage passengers, many of whom didn't speak English, clutched rosaries and prayed. But character was not uniformly spread amongst the nobility. As the ship disappeared beneath the waves, Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon in Lifeboat 1 remarked to her secretary: "There is your beautiful nightdress gone."

Lord engagingly writes of these swells:

There was a wonderful intimacy about this little world of the Edwardian rich. There was no flicker of surprise when they bumped into each other, whether at the Pyramids (a great favorite), the Cowes regatta, or the springs at Baden-Baden. They seemed to get the same ideas at the same time, and one of these ideas was to make the maiden voyage of the largest ship in the world.

The sinking of the Titanic marked the end of an era in many ways, Lord argues, fairly convincingly. The American aristocracy ceased being noble and became merely wealthy. The sense of noblesse oblige went. People continued to make fortunes, but the war and the income tax bit into the unrelieved joyousness of being obscenely moneyed. "Men would go on being brave, but never again would they be brave in quite the same way." ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

May 19, 2008 Bronwyn rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone who wants to read a true and accurate account of the titanic disaster

Recommended to Bronwyn by: no one, bought it at a second hand store

this is a very good book about the sinking of the titanic, probably the best and most accurate of the books written about the titanic disaster, a movie(a night to remember) was made from it, and it tells you what really happened instead of exaggerations, and lies, so it is without a doubt among the best of the books written about the titanic disaster, and I would recommend it to anyone would is interested in the titanic and wants to read a true account

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2020 Juli rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-audiobooks-2020

Today's cruise ships are basically floating cities. Able to carry more than 6000 people, the Oasis of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Line) is 5 times the size of the Titanic. But back in its day, more than 100 years ago, the Titanic was a wonder. It took thousands of men more than 2 years to build her. Titanic was 4 city blocks long and could carry more than 2,400 people. She was new....she was massive....and she was doomed. 2 years to build.....and the largest ship afloat in April 1912 took just und Today's cruise ships are basically floating cities. Able to carry more than 6000 people, the Oasis of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Line) is 5 times the size of the Titanic. But back in its day, more than 100 years ago, the Titanic was a wonder. It took thousands of men more than 2 years to build her. Titanic was 4 city blocks long and could carry more than 2,400 people. She was new....she was massive....and she was doomed. 2 years to build.....and the largest ship afloat in April 1912 took just under 3 hours to sink.

Walter Lord tells the story of one of the most famous ocean disasters from before the ship struck an iceberg to the aftermath of the sinking. Walter Lord interviewed more than 60 survivors of the disaster to write the book. A Night to Remember was an instant bestseller in 1955. A film version was released in 1958. Lord even consulted on the filming of the 1997 movie Titanic.

I'm not sure why the fate of the Titanic is such a compelling story. It might be the huge loss of lives, the loss of such a grand ship on its first voyage, passengers with such disparate lives all doomed to the same fate....or a combination of all of it. First Class passenger John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest men in the world in 1912, drowned in the Atlantic alongside poor immigrants from steerage. It hits home when you compare ticket prices in today's money....those who paid the equivalent of $50,000 for a first class passage died alongside those who struggled to raise the $460 for a steerage ticket. Lord hits home with the difference in treatment of the classes on board when he points out that only one first class child died....but 52 children from steerage perished. Some passengers in steerage never even made it up to the boat deck for a chance of a seat in a lifeboat.

I'm sure it's his interviews with so many survivors that makes this book so realistic. His descriptions are vivid and made me feel like I was almost there. I listened to the audio version of this book. A combination of Lord's story-telling and Fred Williams excellent narration kept me engrossed in the story from start to finish. I have read many many books on the Titanic, watched movies, listened to podcasts....for me, it's a story I just seem obsessed with. It's horrific...and mesmerizing at the same time. Lord makes the story about the people....not just the event. He tells the story of an Italian woman crying for her children on board the Carpathia, only to be reunited with them both; the first class passenger who refused to leave her Great Dane on board the ship so perished with her dog; and the stunned silence of the women in the lifeboats as they realized they had just witnessed more than 1000 people drown. It's about more than a luxurious boat that didn't survive its first Atlantic crossing.....it's about the loss of more than 1,500 people and the story of the last 3 hours of their lives.

Great book! The audio (Blackstone) is just shy of 5 1/2 hours long. Fred Williams does a great job of narrating. He reads at a steady pace and has a nice voice. Very entertaining listening experience.

Walter Lord also wrote books about Dunkirk and the attack on Pearl Harbor. I've got both on my TBR list now! ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Jun 01, 2009 Evan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arr-matey-seagoing-fare, survival, 2009-reads, adventure-truelife, __in-my-collection, freezin-ur-ass-off

This is sort of the primary, classic book on the Titanic disaster. Published in 1955, it's short and smoothly written -- covering the viewpoints of a large cast and changing centers of perspective with ease. There have been four movies made about the Titanic in the sound era (there were several silent movies about or loosely based on it). I've seen three of the four and have the other one on VHS to watch. The first was a 1943 German, Nazi-produced spectacle that mainly was made, it seemed, as an This is sort of the primary, classic book on the Titanic disaster. Published in 1955, it's short and smoothly written -- covering the viewpoints of a large cast and changing centers of perspective with ease. There have been four movies made about the Titanic in the sound era (there were several silent movies about or loosely based on it). I've seen three of the four and have the other one on VHS to watch. The first was a 1943 German, Nazi-produced spectacle that mainly was made, it seemed, as an anti-British propaganda piece. The special effects were so good that the ship sinking model shots were re-used in the 1958 Brit version, based on this book: "A Night to Remember." In the interim, Hollywood made an attempt in 1953, called simply "Titanic," starring Barbara Stanwyck. For some reason, I've never found the time to watch it, even though I own it (*see 2016 addendum, bottom of review). I find it hard to imagine that it could surpass the 1958 British film: a soberly compelling version that remains my favorite. It seems most in spirit of the book.
James Cameron's 1997 version is for little girls. Blah.

Reading on...rating soon to come.

This is a breeze to read. Very vivid, full of detail. The only thing that causes a slight slowdown is the sheer number of characters. To Lord's credit, he reminds us frequently of the positions and titles of the characters, so we don't have to go back or jog our memories trying to remember who these people are. I love when authors do that. I'm for easy. As I'm reading this I'm realizing how well the 1958 film captured this account and how badly the hokey 1997 film did.

FINAL:
Enjoyed this greatly. I especially enjoyed Lord's analysis of the class snobbery and attitudes of the time that led to a higher percentage of deaths among the third-class passengers vs. the first and second classes, and the media's disinterest at the time to hearing the stories of the common people in preference to the Astors and the other robber-baron types. On the other hand, he is fair, and gives credit to almost everyone for having class and dignity. I hesitate to call Lord's treatment of the issues "socially conscious," I just think he was trying to be more "fair and balanced" as a historian than other writers had been previously.
There are probably other books that go into greater detail on certain aspects of this story, but I can't imagine there being a better entire book on the Titanic than this.

--------
* Addendum: 2016:

In the intervening years since I wrote this review, I did end up seeing the 1953 Titanic movie, and it is an entertaining potboiler vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, all gussied up in high-gloss duds and 20th-Century Fox production values and familial bad blood. Kind of Stella Dallas on the high seas. Barbara can suffer in mink just as well on a cruise liner as in a mansion. It's grand entertainment, but not a very good Titanic movie.
...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 04, 2017 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, audio, library, movie, concierge, survival, history

Book on CD read by Walter Jarvis

On April 15, 1912, the greatest ship to ever sail struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. This is a chronological tale of what the people aboard the Titanic recall of that night’s events.

This is a re-read. I first read it before I joined either Shelfari or Goodreads, so I have no record of when I read it. I believe it was in the 1980s; I know it was long before the hugely successful movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. If memory serves, I ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 Bill Rogers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Because I'm cruel and evil, I'm going to ruin this book for you with a spoiler. The ship sinks, folks.

What, you already knew that? You've heard the story before, once or twice, maybe? In fact, do you think the Titanic story is overblown in our culture? Are you tired of it? You can blame Walter Lord. But don't blame him too much; he wrote an amazing book.

Lord was something of a harmless crank with a bit of a fascination with this big honkin' ship that had run into an iceberg a few decades before. ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2012 Kat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fict, udate

When I was about 15, I was completely obsessed with the Titanic (yep, that's the year the movie came out!), and I brought every book I could find about it. And at the time, hyping up the movie, there was a lot of books available.

A couple of years later, the obsession had faded and it wasn't until the 100th anniversary of the sinking in mid-April that my interest was piqued again. So I picked up a copy of A Night to Remember.

Written in 1955, it reads with a surprisingly modern and appealing voice ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Apr 15, 2014 Shaun rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2015

If...

If the Titanic had heeded any of the six ice messages on Sunday....if ice conditions had been normal...if the night had been rough or moonlit...if she had seen the berg 15 seconds sooner--or later...if she had hit the ice any other way...if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher...if she had carried enough boats...if the Californian had only come. Had any one of these "ifs" turned out right, every life might have been saved. But they all went against her--a classic Greek tragedy.

...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2014 GoldGato rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, catastrophe, spring, history, maritime

I've never trusted the month of April. It should be the month of flowers and bunnies and eggs and bees, which it is. But April is also the month of disasters...the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Chernobyl, the Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine and, of course, the Sinking of the Titanic. The 'S' is capitalized.

Prior to reading Walter Lord's version of the Sinking, the Titanic was just another shipwreck to me, but forever after, it is THE shipwreck. Under Lord's framing, it's also the end of the Gilded ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2017 Brian Eshleman rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, audible

I don't know how the author does it, but he manages a sumptuous notice of detail and a very brisk, but not quite hurried pace – of course perfect for a narrative centering on the Titanic. He also draws some interesting cultural conclusions which point to its place in history and why it still fascinates us. ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2017 Manybooks rated it it was ok

Shelves: history, titanic, disasters, book-reviews

Walter Lord's A Night to Remember (which I absolutely adored as a teenager) is basically and for all intents and purposes a live action, riveting account of the sinking of the Titanic, from start to finish, from the time the iceberg was hit to when the sadly oh so very few survivors were picked up, had finally reached the Carpathia (and I can well understand how and why this novel was made into a movie, although I have not seen it).

Now as a teenager, the massive amounts of emotionally fraught p Walter Lord's A Night to Remember (which I absolutely adored as a teenager) is basically and for all intents and purposes a live action, riveting account of the sinking of the Titanic, from start to finish, from the time the iceberg was hit to when the sadly oh so very few survivors were picked up, had finally reached the Carpathia (and I can well understand how and why this novel was made into a movie, although I have not seen it).

Now as a teenager, the massive amounts of emotionally fraught presented textual information and details were very much intriguing and certainly kept me hooked and reading all night (as I started A Night to Remember at around nine in the evening after I had completed my required homework and finished at six in the morning the next day) and I still even now much appreciate how both compassionately and with a sense of fair play, Walter Lord tells his story, recounts the sinking of the Titanic and the tragedy of the so many lives lost. However, during my recent reread, precisely those very aspects of A Night to Remember I so loved as a teenager, namely the informative often in ones' face textual and narrative details, the cinematic, play-by-play action and scope of events, I am finding at times and actually even generally more than a bit overused, overdone, exaggerated and simply too much, with the reader almost overcome by the latter and so much so that the main and necessary areas of criticism, the rather callous and lighthearted ignoring of the received warnings of icebergs because the Titanic was deemed unsinkable and especially that there were not enough lifeboats for the passengers and that steerage, that third class passengers were generally and even quite deliberately ignored, that due to their social standing, their lives were not deemed as valuable as those travelling in first or second class, almost swept away (and no pun intended) with and by the overabundance and meticulous descriptions of even the smallest and most insignificant points of information (in other words that for older adult I, A Night to Remember reads and feels as just too annoyingly cinematic). Still recommended and a historically accurate and often painfully emotional read, but while as a teenager, I would have definitely rated Walter Lord's A Night to Remember with four stars, I now can and will only consider a high two star ranking at best. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2019 Sean Chick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The more I read about the Titanic the more I dislike James Cameron's film, with its reliance on spectacle, mockery/slander of historical figures (Lightoller, Captain Smith, Guggenheim, etc.), and a corny love story, when the real sinking was a horror show. Sadly, Cameron is not alone, as nearly every film (there are over 15 feature length movies) is based on fictional characters although the actual sinking contains a wealth of stories. Many of them are here in this account, done in a documentary The more I read about the Titanic the more I dislike James Cameron's film, with its reliance on spectacle, mockery/slander of historical figures (Lightoller, Captain Smith, Guggenheim, etc.), and a corny love story, when the real sinking was a horror show. Sadly, Cameron is not alone, as nearly every film (there are over 15 feature length movies) is based on fictional characters although the actual sinking contains a wealth of stories. Many of them are here in this account, done in a documentary style, blow by blow, as Titanic hits an Iceberg, sinks, and the survivors are brought to New York City. While the names can sometimes start to mesh together, the tight and sparse style has the effect of making the book seem utterly reliable and unsensational, so that the moments of horror, heroism, cowardice, and humor seem more real than other books that lapse into purple prose.

The book is very much a window into the social concerns and blind spots of its day. While the book remains focused on individuals, class is important. Lord supposed that the world of 1912, when 3rd class was kept at bay from 1st and 2nd class was at an end. The arch of history though does not "bend towards justice" but instead toward decline, death, and change. The working class, at the height of its powers in 1955 (when this was published), is now thoroughly abused by the right, left, and center. Furthermore, the racism Lord comments on is one we have partially forgotten in the obsession with "whiteness." On Titanic it was the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic feeling of superiority to the Irish, French, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Chinese, and Japanese. We can argue that that world ended post World War II, but I doubt we are far enough removed from history or human nature as shown by the interplay in world politics not to mention personal experiences.

Lastly, Lord does not despise the upper class of the day. He notes their shortcomings but cannot help but admire how the three richest men onboard (Astor, Strauss, Guggenheim) faced and accepted death. Could you see any of our corporate overlords, replete with rainbow flags and assurances of their morale superiority, doing the same? I am convinced most would either force their way onto to a boat, or fall crying to their knees. Guggenheim, by contrast, was last seen declaring "We are dressed in our best and are prepared to go down as gentlemen." ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2018 Medhat The Book Fanatic rated it really liked it

Shelves: april-2019-tbr, short-listed-2018-tbr, april-tbr-2018

I have tried many times to read A Night To Remember, and I always ended-up putting it aside.

This time, however, the reading experience was quite different. Six days earlier, I started 'Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories Of Those Who Survived', and as I learned a lot about survivors' post-Titanic life, I formed some kind of an attachment and an understanding to them; thus, I guess, I was meant to read A Night To Remember, the story of the sinking right after reading about the event ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Dec 15, 2019 Bob Mayer rated it it was amazing

The great story of a great tragedy.
What's interesting is that when we went to see Titanic, the girls sitting behind us didn't know the ship was going to sink. They were quite surprised at that plot twist.
Reading-- it's important. As is history.
I cover the 7 Cascade Events leading to the Titanic sinking in Stuff Doesn't Just Happen: The Gift of Failure. There are some little details that aren't widely know, such as the officer having the key to the locker where the binoculars were held didn't boa ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Nov 27, 2016 Bill Lynas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A truely matter of fact account of the sinking of the Titanic, brilliantly told. It's interesting that although first published only about 40 years after the disaster people still had differnt memories of the events that happened. This version is an excellent unabridged audio CD, read by the ever reliable Martin Jarvis. ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 27, 2015 Kimberley doruyter rated it liked it

one thing becomes clear reading this book.
titanic was a major cock-up.
could more have gone wrong on one sea journey.

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2012 Geevee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-history, american-history, european-history, transport, history-general

Walter Lord's book is itself over half a century old (published 1956) and yet it remains highly readable justifying its "classic" tag.

Where Lord excels is that he interviewed 63 survivors and weaved their recollections with many other written sources and testimonies to tell a story.

And a fine story it is. He hooks the reader on the first page by placing you firmly in 1912 and on board the second of White Star Line's Olympic class ships, and at the time of her voyage the largest ship afloat, and ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 09, 2019 Yousra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I watched this video showing the sinking of the Titanic in real time while reading this book to try and get the most authentic experience of this tragedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs9w5...

And.. wow.
Absolutely amazing.
A must read for anyone who was as obsessed with the Titanic as I was when I was a kid. A great, genuine, detailed, touching and true account of this horrible tragedy.

"As the sea closed over the Titanic, Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon in boat 1 remarked to her
secretary Miss Francate ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 25, 2017 Michael Britt rated it really liked it

I really can't decide what the best rating for this book would be. It's an amazing recollection of first-hand experiences from the night the Titanic went down. The Titanic is one of my favorite stories from history. Might have come from seeing it in theaters as a kid, but I'm not 100% certain. But this book is far more interesting than the movie, only because it's true.

It's interesting to hear just how calm everyone was up until people started physically seeing the water inside the ship. Even t ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2013 Kathryn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, recommended-by-gr, ebooks, reading-list-2015

This has been on my TBR list for a while, but I felt an urge to get it read earlier this year, given that I was going on a cruise myself. I decided it would be best left until after I returned, just in case it made me a little edgy!!

It was an interesting read, although there wasn’t anything of major importance that I wasn’t already aware of - but still amazing to think that people were firmly convinced that the Titanic was unsinkable. Although, having cruised on a large ocean liner now myself, I ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jul 11, 2015 K.D. Absolutely rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoirs, disaster, non-fiction

They say that this book is the definitive source when it comes to the story of Titanic and I agree. I learned so much details from this book that I did not see in the James Cameron 1997 hit. Even if I watched that movie 20+ times (and still occasionally have that urge), I still had that insatiable need to know more about what happened. But when I finally closed this book? Enough, I said. I'm truly satiated.

A Night to Remember is 1955 Walter Lord's (1917-2002) non-fiction work detailing what happ ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2016 Max rated it it was amazing

Shelves: world-history

Lord delivers a riveting account of a tragedy that symbolized the end of an age. The Titanic, the grandest of luxury liners, heedlessly speeds forward into the night as the wealthy elite indulge. They meet their destiny in the elemental forces. The Titanic’s demise eerily foreshadows the profound changes coming as the world soon unravels in the Great War. The prevailing confidence that man can control nature and his fate is shattered. A far more uncertain world is revealed.

The actions of the cr ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2017 ALLEN rated it really liked it

Walter Lord's immensely factual 1955 book about the sinking of the Titanic gave rise to an absolutely first-rate British semi-documentary film of the same name (1958), and has served as source authority to most sinking-of books and movies ever since, at least in part.

While some aspects of the doomed liner's design, manufacture and demise are known to us that were not known to author Lord, lately the "revelations" have tended toward conspiracy theories and relative minutiae such as criticizing t ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2012 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, adventure, audio-books, read-2012, history

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Walter Lord's retelling of the fatal voyage of the Titanic, read by Martin Jarvis.

1/10. As the RMS Titanic sails to New York, an iceberg is spotted.

2/10. The Titanic's captain tries to discover how badly the ship's been damaged by the iceberg.

3/10. The stricken passengers of the RMS Titanic leave their cabins and head to the ship's decks.

4/10. As the sinking Titanic issues an SOS, women and children are ordered into the lifeboats.

5/10. With only women and children allowed ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2014 Debra rated it really liked it

4.5 stars

Such a riveting book about the sinking of the titanic. This book is full of tragedy : third class passengers being locked below, life boats not full, not enough life boats, ignored warnings about ice, massive loss of life, etc. But it was also about heroism. The band playing until the very end, the men who stayed behind to keep sending out SOS messages knowing that by doing so they would surely not survive. Walter Lord did an amazing amount of research in writing this book. He interview ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2017 Niki (nikilovestoread) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american-history, nonfiction, favorites, titanic

This book, published first in 1955, is a treasure trove of information about that fateful night on the Titanic. It is really well written and you feel as if you are right there in the midst of the disaster. I've watched quite a few documentaries about the Titanic and really enjoyed this book as well. I highly recommend it. I plan to get other books by Walter Lord as he was a wonderful, nonfiction writer. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2017 Shirley Revill rated it liked it

I love any book that is about the white star line ships and this one was no exception.
This is a classic. Recommended.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2020 Danielle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-completed-books

This was written in 1955 when there wasn't the obsession with the Titanic that has resulted in the numerous amount of books, documentaries and movies in our culture. So it's kind of like the first "real deal" Buck about the topic. Besides that, it's written in an extremely engaging fashion! It's not tedious as you would think eyewitness accounts of many people would be. It's riveting and engaging and suspenseful. The author did an excellent job! It's a short book I only a hundred and fifty pages ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: A Night to Remember - Walter Lord / 4 Stars	3	14	Aug 25, 2017 05:11PM
Play Book Tag: A Night to Remember / Watler Lord - 5*****	3	28	Apr 07, 2017 04:55AM
Irony in A Night To Remember	8	101	Jan 04, 2015 05:19AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

History

825 users

Nonfiction

752 users

Historical

102 users

Classics

101 users

Audiobook

29 users

Adventure > Survival

29 users

Biography

25 users

North American Hi... > American History

22 users

Literature > 20th Century

21 users

Adventure

21 users

See top shelves…

About Walter Lord

Walter Lord

113 followers

Walter Lord was an American author, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account, A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

In 2009, Jenny Lawrence edited and published The Way It Was: Walter Lord on His Life and Books.

Books by Walter Lord

The Miracle of Dunkirk (Wordsworth Collection)

Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway

Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons

More…

News & Interviews

42 New and Upcoming Historical Fiction Novels

Care to travel to past times for some serious drama? Check out this season's biggest historical fiction novels and be transported to tales of...

Trivia About A Night to Remember

25 trivia questions
2 quizzes

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from A Night to Remember

“The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship" -- perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement -- going down the first time it sailed.

But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth mean so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?” — 8 likes

“Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.” — 6 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

A Night to Remember

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Walter Lord

Books by Walter Lord

News & Interviews

Trivia About A Night to Remember

Quotes from A Night to Remember

See a Problem?

Preview — A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

A Night to Remember

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Walter Lord

Books by Walter Lord

News & Interviews

Trivia About A Night to Remember

Quotes from A Night to Remember

new topic
Discuss This Book