Titanic Lives, Richard DavenportHines
Titanic Lives, Richard DavenportHines
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Titanic Lives

Author: Richard Davenport-Hines

Narrator: John Sackville

Unabridged: 14 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/05/2012

Synopsis

Marking the centenary of the Titanic disaster, Titanic Lives is an utterly compelling exploration of the lives on board the most famous ship in history. On the night of 14 April 1912, midway through her maiden voyage, the seemingly unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg, sustaining a 300-feet gash as six compartments were wrenched open to the Atlantic Ocean. In little over two hours, the palatial liner nose-dived to the bottom of the sea. More than 1,500 people perished in the freezing waters. But who were they? In Titanic Lives, Richard Davenport-Hines brings to life in fascinating and absorbing detail the stories of the men who built and owned the ship, the crew who serviced her and the passengers of all classes who sailed on her. The Titanic was a floating microcosm of Edwardian society – at the bottom of the ship was third class, filled with economic migrants and political and religious refugees hoping for a better life in the New World. Above them were hundreds of second-class passengers buoyed up by their prosperous respectability. On the upper decks were the hereditary rich and those of inconceivable wealth – American titans of industry such as John Jacob Astor IV, who was found with $4000 in sodden notes in his pockets. In this epic, sweeping history we are introduced to this broad cast of characters, from every class and every continent, as we follow their lives on board the ship through to the supreme dramatic climax of the disaster itself. Published to coincide with the centenary of the sinking, Titanic Lives is an impeccably researched and utterly riveting history which re-creates the complexities, disparities and tensions of life one hundred years ago.

About Richard Davenport-Hines

Richard Davenport-Hinesis the acclaimed biographer of W. H. Auden and the Macmillan dynasty. He is also the author of Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris and The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics. He is a regular contributor to the U.K. publications Literary Review, Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jane on May 17, 2012

The overall effect of this book--or the 100 pages of it I read before deciding there were other books that needed reading and this one wasn't worth the effort--is a bit like reading one of those history articles in the UK's Daily Mail, or maybe our very own Chicago Tribune except that's being a bit......more

Goodreads review by Amy on December 12, 2019

At least 4 survivors died on an anniversary of the disaster, the last in 1975. And it still kills me that the lifeboats were not completely full! This book tells some of the life stories of the passengers & crew of the Titanic, derived from letters sent before embarking, interviews after the fact, and......more

Goodreads review by Marie on May 31, 2012

Voyagers of the Titanic starts slow, but the deliberateness of the author in telling his story thoroughly is worth the wait, until the build-up to the actual sinking of the Titanic. Davenport-Hines chose to profile passengers from First, Second, and Third class, and along with biographic information......more

Goodreads review by Marica on February 13, 2018

La nave affonda Mi è stato proposto da un amico che fa lo storico e mi aspettavo un saggio sull'immigrazione negli USA. Mi ha sempre affascinato la complessità etnica e culturale che in tre secoli si è trasformata nell'attuale popolazione degli Stati Uniti. In realtà la lettura non ha soddisfatto le......more

Goodreads review by Ajla on April 19, 2018

Even though I've been reading and learning about Titanic for more than a decade, there is still a lot of information that I have yet to discover. Therefore I am very happy I read this book.......more

Quotes

‘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 ‘Eloquent and absorbing… As well as being a fascinating work of social history, Titanic Lives is a remarkable study of empathy and its absence. As such it will stay afloat long after the armada of other Titanic books have gone down.’ Frances Wilson, Daily Telegraph ‘Though it seems shameful to admit it, the one certain benefit we have derived from the tragedy is a shattering human story that is also, when told as well as Davenport-Hines tells it, utterly compelling.’ John Carey, Sunday Times ‘[A] gripping study … the author paints a richly atmospheric portrait of an age when class consciousness was at its apogee.’ Literary Review ‘a substantial new account…This may well be, at last, the definitive Titanic book… Davenport-Hines relishes historical background and details, but he also has a good eye for riveting details…powerfully original. Davenport-Hines gives a brilliant account of the great global adventure of migration… This book is a considerable moral as well as historical achievement.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘brilliant social history’ The Spectator ‘[an] excellent new book’ Evening Standard ‘moving, original and deeply researched’ The Guardian ‘Though it seems shameful to admit it, the one certain benefit we have derived from the tragedy is a shattering human story that is also, when told as well as Davenport-Hines tells it, utterly compelling.’ John Carey, Sunday Times ‘With great sensitivity, Davenport-Hines dissects the apartheid-like social distinctions on board. After 100 years … Titanic’s last night is still terrifying.’ Nigel Jones, Guardian ‘Richard Davenport-Hines’s immaculately researched history brings an extraordinary cavalcade of characters to vivid life’ Sunday Telegraph

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