Here at last is the true memorial ... a book well worthy of marking the centenary of the crystal-clear night when the immense ship slid to her terrible doom” — Simon Winchester
“An astonishing work, of meticulous research, which allows us to know, in painful detail, the men and women on that fateful voyage. Even now, a hundred years later, Mr. Davenport-Hines finds a new, and heart-breaking, story to tell.” — Julian Fellowes, Creator and Executive Producer of "Downton Abbey"
“Paints a provocative portrait of the “upstairs, downstairs” social stratification in play aboard the doomed ship. A-” — Entertainment Weekly
“The story of the Titanic has been told many times; this one takes a sociological perspective, with the confident, graceful prose of fine fiction.” — Wall Street Journal
“Impressive in both its writing and reporting... It’s a romp. You don’t know who will be strolling down the deck next.” — USA Today
“A shattering human story that is also, when told as well as Davenport-Hines tells it, utterly compelling.” — Sunday Times (UK), lead review
“Eloquent and absorbing… It will stay afloat long after the armada of other Titanic books have gone down.” — The Telegraph (UK)
“This will not be the last book on the Titanic, but it is a safe bet that there will not be a better.” — The Spectator (UK), lead review
“Meticulous... detailed account.” — Women's Wear Daily.com
“This intelligent book focuses not on the ship so much as its passengers. Bolstered by photographs of the people who built, staffed, sailed on and survived the Titanic, Davenport-Hines finds a slew of new points of view from which to scan history.” — Denver Post
Paints a provocative portrait of the “upstairs, downstairs” social stratification in play aboard the doomed ship. A-
A shattering human story that is also, when told as well as Davenport-Hines tells it, utterly compelling.
Here at last is the true memorial ... a book well worthy of marking the centenary of the crystal-clear night when the immense ship slid to her terrible doom
This will not be the last book on the Titanic, but it is a safe bet that there will not be a better.
An astonishing work, of meticulous research, which allows us to know, in painful detail, the men and women on that fateful voyage. Even now, a hundred years later, Mr. Davenport-Hines finds a new, and heart-breaking, story to tell.
Impressive in both its writing and reporting... It’s a romp. You don’t know who will be strolling down the deck next.
Eloquent and absorbing… It will stay afloat long after the armada of other Titanic books have gone down.
Meticulous... detailed account.
This intelligent book focuses not on the ship so much as its passengers. Bolstered by photographs of the people who built, staffed, sailed on and survived the Titanic, Davenport-Hines finds a slew of new points of view from which to scan history.
The story of the Titanic has been told many times; this one takes a sociological perspective, with the confident, graceful prose of fine fiction.
The story of the Titanic has been told many times; this one takes a sociological perspective, with the confident, graceful prose of fine fiction.
Impressive in both its writing and reporting... It’s a romp. You don’t know who will be strolling down the deck next.
A moving account of the people who sailed into maritime history on the doomed Titanic. In this eloquent, meticulously researched biography of the ship's international "cast of characters," biographer, historian and journalist Davenport-Hines (Ettie: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough, 2008, etc.) commemorates the centenary of the "most terrible wreck in the history of shipping." Rather than highlight the class divisions and antagonisms that James Cameron brought to the fore in his 1997 film, the author examines what the actual voyage meant to the different people involved with the ship. For some, an "Atlantic crossing was a regular trip they made twice or more often a year." For others, the trip meant separation from everything they had ever known. However mundane or momentous, a sea voyage was an event that reshaped human relationships on either side of the Atlantic. In his treatment of the voyagers themselves, Davenport-Hines is as democratic as his premise. He devotes one chapter to each type of person on board--sailors, crewmembers, first-, second- and third-class passengers. His stories about such notable figures as Ben Guggenheim, John Jacob Astor and Lady Duff Gordon stand side by side with those of ordinary men and women. Davenport-Hines also offers compelling portraits of the Titanic's powerful godfathers: "Lord [William James] Pirrie, whose shipyard built it, Bruce Ismay, whose company operated it, and Pierpont Morgan, who owned it." The book has all the inevitability and pathos of Greek tragedy, but by maintaining the personal dimension, the author transforms a narrative of monumental hubris meeting human error into a haunting story of real, intersecting lives on a collision course with destiny.
