The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era

Russell (Young and Damned and Fair) recounts the story of the Titanic through the experiences of six first-class passengers and their families in this elegantly written and impressively researched account that takes a uniquely wide-angled view of the disaster. Among those profiled are British aristocrat Noëlle Leslie, countess of Rothes; Thomas Andrews, managing director of the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built; German-American philanthropist Ida Straus; John Thayer, vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his son, Jack; and Dorothy Gibson, “one of the highest-paid actresses in the world.” Russell adroitly sketches the backgrounds of his main characters as he tracks their movements during the fateful trip, drawing from hundreds of sources to describe the ship’s Turkish baths, first-class dining saloon, six-course meals, and boiler rooms. Along the way, he offers crash courses in the decline of the English aristocracy, the Irish home rule movement, the rise of American industrialists, and the fallout from the 1881 assassination of czar Alexander II, among other subjects, and corrects the rumor that third-class passengers were locked in their quarters on the night the ship sank. The result is a scrupulous and entertaining portrait of “a world that was by turns victim and author of the tragedies that overtook it.” [em]Agent: Brettne Bloom, the Book Group. (Dec.) [/em]