Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the TitanicтАЩs elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers.┬а
The Titanic has often been called "An exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,тАЭ 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 linerтАЩs 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 shipтАЩs brief life and tragic denouement and presents compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers:┬аmillionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; President Taft's closest aide, Major Archibald Butt;┬аwriter Helen Churchill Candee; the artist Frank Millet;┬аmovie actress Dorothy Gibson; the celebrated couturiere Lady Duff Gordon;┬аaristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes; and a host of other travelers. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the TitanicтАЩs sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, тАЬWhat would we have done?тАЭ