Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage

One of my first picks for summer reading was this account of the Titanic.  I am not sure what exactly I thought I would be getting but I was surprised how far into the book we went before the Titanic hit the iceberg.

Hugh Brewster is the author.  He manages to give great insight into the people who made up the Gilded Age, sharing how so many of these "movers and shakers" of the time landed on the maiden voyage of this unsinkable vessel.  Among the passagenger list:   Margaret "The Unsinkable Molly" Brown,  Lady Duff Gordon, Dorothy Gibson, Helen Candee, Bruce Ismay, Frank Millet, Archibald Butt,  Benjamin Guggenheim, and the Astors--John Jacob Astor and his wife, Madeleine.

I was fascinated by their backstories (who knew there was so much divorce back then?) and stunned by their wealth, evidenced in part by tthe lists of what they packed for the voyage.  But the early part of the book still seemed to lag for me.  I was most interested in the fateful night and how these people fared.  Perhaps I should be ashamed of myself for this because these people had lives beyond that night and I should be more interested in those lives, not simply the final moments. 

Eventually, I did skip a few pages in the middle, around 20 or so. 

Possibly the most interesting part of the book was the postscript where Mr. Brewster gave additional information on the survivors.  So many accounts seem to stop with the ship going under or with the passengers on the Carpathia.  But Mr. Brewster continues with the arrival in New York followed by the investigation.  Then he round it out by detailing what happened to many of the survivors.  For some, that fateful voyage cost them everything--their money, their reputations and the life they had known.  Others managed to move onward and upward from the experience, finding a new calling for themselves. 

It is an interesting read for anyone fascinated by the Gilded Age or the Titanic story.  However be aware this is less about the ship and that night and more about the people on board the ship.


Amazon link to Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First Class Passengers and Their World