Titanic Lives
Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew
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Titanic Lives
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Narrated by:
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John Sackville
About this listen
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.
©2012 Richard Davenport-Hines (P)2011 HarperCollinsListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
‘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
What listeners say about Titanic Lives
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amanda
- 25-03-24
excellent
brilliant narration - in depth study of the Titanic and, in particular, the people. Recommended
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth
- 06-02-15
Good performance, mediocre book
Too many people to keep track of, and too much minutiae of their lives (with no way of keeping track of what happened to whom, which would have made these stories much more poignant. Narration is good, and when dealing with the disaster and aftermath for those who were saved and who survived those who died, the book really starts to come alive.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stuart Taylor
- 21-06-24
Absolutely fascinating!
I have read plenty about Titanic over the years, but this book is quite different to all the rest in focusing on the human side of the tragedy. Rather than treating the passengers like an anonymous mass of doomed humanity, "Titanic Lives" traces numerous individuals and their families whether as passengers, crew, constructors, financiers, news reporters etc. The facts about the ship and the events of the voyage are all there, but they are placed very much within the human and social context of the time which makes for a much more vivid picture of what the real human impact of the tragedy was. It is generally well read by John Sackville (apart from the truly awful attempts at regional accents - please don't do that again, it's embarrassing!).
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aussie1988
- 17-09-24
Excellent, would highly recommend
Excellent would highly recommend, interesting information that I hadn't heard about before. well read.
will listen to it again
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Rachel
- 30-04-12
Organization required
This was a good, book but it wasn't what it said it would be~I would say a good 60% of it had little or nothing to do with Titanic. The book jumped around a lot one minute they're talking about embarkation on Titanic, and the next moment they are at the trials after it sank. It needed to be organized a bit better but there was a lot of information.
One good point he mentioned what the breakfast menus were on the ships, in all three classes, (though it was in very different points in the book) that was very interesting and was something I hadn't known before.
This book veered off to tangents very often, and too often in my opinion. It talked about a lot of things that had nothing to do with Titanic and I feel that it could've been shorter and there could've been more stories about Titanic. There're a lot of stories I know, as someone who has been a Titanic buff for years, that were not mentioned in this book at all.
He never mentioned Morgan Robertson's book "Futility" which was a foreshadow of the whole disaster written in 1898 I thought that would've been a fascinating thing to explore but it wasn't mentioned. The whole story about the Allison family was really gripping, and it was barely mentioned not really mentioned at all actually and yet they went on and on and on about immigrants from different ships in different time periods for what felt like hours, it was interesting, and I learned a lot, but it wasn't about Titanic which was why bought this book.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bethpaws
- 05-04-24
Engaging and interesting
The Journey of icebergs top and tail the stories of the lives of a variety of passengers from Titanic which gloriously reinforces the view that human grandeur and wealth can still be at the mercy of a more powerful mother nature and fate.
Sometimes judgemental, not always impartial and with a smattering of artistic licence, the book has themed chapters covering the lives of passengers of all classes and crew, placing them against an interesting backdrop of Edwardian history.
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