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The story of the "unsinkable" TITANIC. 'A stunning book, incomparably the best on its subject and one of the most exciting books.' - NY Times Book Review '...presented in such superb narrative style. It is a book to remember.' - Chicago Tribune She was four city blocks long, with the latest, most ingenious safety devices; a French "side-walk cafe", private promenade decks - but only twenty lifeboats for the two thousand, two hundred and seven passengers on board. Gliding through a calm sea, disdainful of all obstacles, the TITANIC brushed an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later she upended and sank. Only seven hundred and five survivors were picked up from her half-filled boats. Here recounted are the drama, horror and tragedy of that grim, heart-breaking night.
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Review:
James Cameron's 1997 Titanic movie is a smash hit, but Walter Lord's 1955 classic remains in some ways unsurpassed. Lord interviewed scores of Titanic passengers, fashioning a gripping you-are-there account of the ship's sinking that you can read in half the time it takes to see the film. The book boasts many perfect movie moments not found in Cameron's film. When the ship hits the berg, passengers see "tiny splinters of ice in the air, fine as dust, that give off myriads of bright colors whenever caught in the glow of the deck lights." Survivors saw dawn reflected off other icebergs in a rainbow of shades, depending on their angle toward the sun: pink, mauve, white, deep blue--a landscape so eerie, a little boy tells his mom, "Oh, Muddie, look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it."
From the Publisher:
A Titanic funnel falls, almost hitting a lifeboat--and consequently washing it 30 yards away from the wreck, saving all lives aboard. One man calmly rides the vertical boat down as it sinks, steps into the sea, and doesn't even get his head wet while waiting to be successfully rescued. On one side of the boat, almost no males are permitted in the lifeboats; on the other, even a male Pekingese dog gets a seat. Lord includes a crucial, tragically ironic drama Cameron couldn't fit into the film: the failure of the nearby ship Californian to save all those aboard the sinking vessel because distress lights were misread as random flickering and the telegraph was an early wind-up model that no one wound.
Lord's account is also smarter about the horrifying class structure of the disaster, which Cameron reduces to hollow Hollywood formula. No children died in the First and Second Class decks; 53 out of 76 children in steerage died. According to the press, which regarded the lower-class passengers as a small loss to society, "The night was a magnificent confirmation of women and children first, yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men." As the ship sank, writes Lord, "the poop deck, normally Third Class space ... was suddenly becoming attractive to all kinds of people." Lord's logic is as cold as the Atlantic, and his bitter wit is quite dry.
"Devotion, gallantry...Benjamin Guggenheim changing to evening clothes to meet death; Mrs. Isador Straus clinging to her husband, refusing to get in a lifeboat; Arthur Ryerson giving his life belt to his wife's maid...It is a book to remember."
--Chicago Tribune
--Chicago Tribune
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- PublisherNiagara
- Publication date1997
- ISBN 10 0708958745
- ISBN 13 9780708958742
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002161867
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