Product Description

The classic minute-by-minute account of the sinking of the Titanic, in a 50th anniversary edition with a new introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick

First published in 1955, A Night to Remember remains a completely riveting account of the Titanic's fatal collision and the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below decks, sought help in vain.

Available for the first time in trade paperback and with a new introduction for the 50th anniversary edition by Nathaniel Phil-brick, author of In the Heart of the Sea and Sea of Glory, Walter Lord's classic minute-by-minute re-creation is as vivid now as it was upon first publication fifty years ago. From the initial distress flares to the struggles of those left adrift for hours in freezing waters, this semicentennial edition brings that moonlit night in 1912 to life for a new generation of readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35715 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-07
• Released on: 2004-12-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780805077643
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com 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."

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.

From Library Journal
Publicity surrounding the Academy Award- winning motion picture Titanic makes this a sure-to-circulate choice. Lord's classic time-travel tale drawn from survivors' accounts remains the best Titanic story after all these years. The analysis of the event moves from reports of pretrip hype through the ambiance of the fated last evening to first reports of trouble, loading life boats, and rescue efforts. Though the recording features no atmosphere music or sound effects, Fred Williams's reading sounds so like a news report that the immediacy engages the reader from the start. Highly recommended for all collections.ASandy Glover, West Linn P.L., OR
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"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

"One of the most exciting books of this or any year."
-- The New York Times -- Review

...as seamless and skillful as you're going to get, from the analysis of 1912's upper-class-biased press coverage to the Vietnam Memorialesque passenger list that concludes the book... If God is indeed in the details, it's clear why this is many a researcher's Titanic bible. Grade: A. -- Entertainment Weekly

Customer Reviews

An absorbing read...
Dear Amazon.com Readers,

With a passenger list in the back, detailing those who survived and those who didn't, "A Night to Remember," is a harrowing account of the Titanic's ill-fated journey from Europe to the United States.

The book really tells of the people who spent fortunes to get aboard the Titanic, the most luxurious cruiseliner of the time. I really don't think that this book can be compared to the movie "Titanic." They are both such different stories, that saying one is like the other is missing the point.

"A Night to Remember is much more than Hollywook hype. It is really more of a personal account of what happened aboard the ship, and the horrors of the sinking and of the rescues (most people died, only a few survived). I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the saga of the Titanic. This book is based solidly on fact, which is one reason I like it so much. I remember reading this several years ago, and being kept up at night as a result.

A Riveting Classic
I first read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" in the summer of 1968 as part of my required reading list for freshman year of high school. I was so fascinated by the account that I read it at least three times that summer and early fall. It brought to chilling life one of the greatest maritime disasters in history. As I read the dog-eared, yellowing, crinkled-paper copy of the paperback (its purchase price was sixty-cents back then) once again last year as a "mature" 42 year old, Mr. Lord's brilliant account of the tragedy still held my attention. His vivid, detailed, yet smooth flowing narrative brought back the excitement as felt as a young teenager, in a way that few books have. I recently viewed the movie "Titanic" with my fourteen year old daughter. The movie was thoroughly enjoyable, but there were some aspects of the book (such as the spectre of a rescue ship only a few precious miles away)that could have added to the drama. The book is worth reading both as literature as well as history.

Classic Book - Though Now Dated
This is a classic book on the sinking of the Titanic and the first book I ever read on the subject. It should be understood before reading this book that our collective understanding of the Titanic disaster has moved on since the time A Night to Remember was first published in 1956. For example upon discovering the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic in 1985 it was clear that the Titanic had indeed broken in half and rested upon the sea bed in two halves. As anybody who has seen the 1958 film "A Night To Remember" will realise this book presents the ship as sinking whole, which was not the case. But this is not to say that this book does not have a lot of outstanding information to impart to the interested reader. The book considers the Titanic from the time in 1907 when she was conceived, the building of the Titanic, the maiden voyage and the sinking and finally the subsequent investigations and recriminations. Particularly thought provoking is the full listing of the passengers at the back of the book including those who survived along with those who perished. What I found particularly shocking was the listing of Third Class Passengers, with its very low numbers of survivors. Walter Lord's book is very easy to read, though the subject matter is somewhat more difficult to digest, due to the overwhelming nature of the Titanic tragedy.