Shadow of the Titanic - Andrew Wilson

Shadow of the Titanic

By Andrew Wilson

  • Release Date: 2012-03-06
  • Genre: History
Score: 4
4
From 83 Ratings

Description

A riveting and groundbreaking account of what happened to the survivors of the Titanic.

We think we know the story of the Titanic—the once majestic and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—but very little has been written about the vessel’s 705 survivors. How did the events of that horrific night in the icy waters of the North Atlantic affect the lives of those who lived to tell the tale?

Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, diaries, and interviews with their family members, award-winning journalist Andrew Wilson brings to life the survivors’ colorful voices, from the famous, like heiress Madeleine Astor, to the lesser known second-and third-class passengers, such as the Navratil brothers, who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father.

More than one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to this enduringly captivating story.

Reviews

  • Excellent and engaging!

    5
    By lpdevotee
    One of the few real life story type books I’ve read, that isn’t written so boring it puts you to sleep. Engaging, and an absolutely thrilling read.
  • Conjecture and Opinion, Not Facts Dominate

    2
    By CBibliophile
    I was interested in the more human and personal sides of the titanic story. Which the book did cover……. but it supplements firm facts and survivor testimony with an excess of the author’s own psychoanalytical conjecture. Worth noting here that the author has no formal psychology education. The personal stories are unfortunately colored, even muddied with the author’s distinct opinions. Throughout the book he describes what survivors thought or felt - not from what the survivor has said themselves, rather what the author thinks their mental states and motivations were and he represents that as fact. It is more a tableau of caricatures invented by the author than a telling of survivors’ own stories. Further, he depicts nearly all the women survivors as delusional and opportunistic to the extreme while painting even the most morally questionable male characters in a far more favorable light. The survivors accounts of the tragedy and the aftermath of their lives is peppered with a very sexist view, for example giving his opinion on how “promiscuous” a female survivor was, etc. I recommend skipping this one and going for some of the more well written factual Titanic books.
  • A Must Read...Titanic's Morning After Story

    5
    By by Doug Olsen
    An incredible and spellbinding Book that finally tells us what happened to the Passengers after the Titanic went down. We all know the infamous story of the luxury liner's maiden voyage into history...but what about the people who were on it. This tells us what happened in the hours, days and years after they were rescued. Ever wonder what happened to Madeleine Astor, Bruce Ismay, Lady Duff Gordon and the other celebs of 1912? Also the lesser known survivors who we are meeting for the first time. An extremely well written and riveting work that tells how that Night To Remember didn't really End That Night! From 1912 to the present day the disaster lives on. A very real collection of the unromantic stories we never knew about. Excellent Book, easy read and hard to put down! -Doug Olsen
  • A must read for those wanting a more complete story

    4
    By Sennheister
    After reading the book I came away with a stronger appreciation for the event that truly changed naval and world history, by following the fate of those who survived and tried to lead normal lives. I would have liked to have read about the captain of the rescue ship Carpathia and what happened to him and his ship post disaster (spoiler alert, Carpathia sank during the first World War) but overall a greatly researched historical record of those who were (un)fortunate enough to be saved.