Book Description: "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 not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian 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."

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"It was a brilliant crowd...a rare gathering of beautiful women and splendid men." ---Lily May Futrelle

This quote at the very beginning of the book is probably why so many of us love Titanic stories: we are sad that these beautiful people had to experience such horrible tragedy. We are also the tiniest bit reassured when we are reminded that tragedy is not a respecter of persons and is often left to chance. Horrible things can happen no matter how rich and famous one is.

Books like this take me forever to read, not because they're dull but because I usually can't go two pages without finding a reason to stop and research something. I really enjoyed reading the mini biographies constructed around an in depth look at high society before WWI destroyed the Gilded Age of America and Great Britain. ( )

Lejos de ser la típica historia sobre el hundimiento del Titanic, este libro indaga por primera vez en la sociedad que iba a bordo del barco de lujo y que se hundió para simbolizar el tránsito al siglo XX. El autor narra, con admirable pulso narrativo, la historia íntima del naufragio, con el entramado social, político y económico que sustentaba al efímero prodigio. Vemos desfilar a las grandes fortunas europeas y norteamericanas del momento "los Astor o los Guggenheim", a artistas, periodistas y escritores, conocemos la moda de la época a través de una de las grandes damas de la alta costura e incluso se nos muestra el equipamiento tecnológico del barco, pionero en su época. Más que la historia de un hundimiento, Titanic es el fascinante relato de una sociedad y de un mundo que estaba a punto de desaparecer, justo en el momento más álgido de su esplendor.

Well documented bios of the First Class passengers, as well as bios of certain Crew Members, the Captain, etc. Numerous
photos - all in B&W- are well presented to show the fashions, and decor of the day. Experiences aboard the Carpathia and upon arrival in New York finish the main story. Excellent resources for further reading are included in the back of the book, as well as further info on already introduced Personell. Not the best source for the Titanic, but very well written, and informative. Recommended for History buffs! ( )

I loved the idea of this extremely well-researched novel, but the actual reading experience fell short for me.

In the beginning the author did a good job of introducing the illustrious passengers, giving for each a short history of who they were and what they had accomplished, and then describing what their shipboard activities were likely to have been and who they probably hung out with. I also appreciated the many photographs included in the book. The chapters often included a picture of the person who was described, and I had not seen many of these before. Like many (most?) people I am endlessly fascinated by the Titanic and this section was very effective for me, giving me a real sense of the passengers as living breathing people with lives outside the context of the iconic disaster.

But eventually my interest level waned. For some reason the author felt compelled to devote a substantial chunk of time to a boring and unnecessary outing of many of the passengers; the chapter could have been subtitled "The following people, in addition to the interesting accomplishments I have already described, were probably or certainly gay, and here is the evidence."

In other ways as well - and this is probably more a fault of my aging brain than the author's technique - it was a case of too much information. There was so much detail. By the time the sinking happened I could no longer remember who was who and whether or not a person whose earlier story caught my fancy was one of those who made it. The author closed with a brief description of the post-Titanic lives of some of the key survivors; which again would have been more interesting to me if I could have kept their stories straight.

Note: It's not exactly new information, but one thing that struck me powerfully in this account is what an awesome lady Margaret Brown was. I am off to Amazon to see if I can find a biography. ( )

Years ago I read two other books about the sinking of the Titanic. I read Walter Lord's book in the late 1960s and some other book in about the 90s. In looking at the elite guest list, this current book gives a bit of a different perspective to the story. In a way, the elite list was the 'easy' story. They were the ones about which much had been written in the newspapers and to whom much had happened in that they had privileged lives which allowed them to travel and live in multiple and far away places. Although I remembered that John Jacob Aster had been aboard the Titanic, I did not remember many of the others, such as Major Butt. Learning about them, especially the women (though because of the musical, everyone knows that 'Molly' Brown was aboard), was very entertaining. It was interesting to see how many were treated by the press and their own compatriots after the tragedy. So sad what humans will do and say to others without being fully informed or thinking about how they would react in the same circumstances. A worthy read. ( )