Extraordinary reading - Rated 
I'm a bit sceptical when it comes to reading items on the most famous liner in the world, after watching the films that Hollywood churned out during the years about the disaster. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, it is gripping, enthralling and gives you an, often sad, insight into the last hours if the Titanic.
The eyewitness accounts by the survivors are well written, and are accompanied by very good illustrations. At times the book is a little too detailed, but I would recommend it to any Titanic enthusiast.
Superb starter for 10 - Rated 
As a researcher for a tv show I needed the titanic history fast. This provided it in a very entertaining way. Now I am trawling through the court transcripts but the book gave me a good sounding in the disaster. Well worth the read. I would also recomend A Night To Remember which is a fantastic book and sets out the tone of multiple narratives so well all would be cinema fans should look to the book for inspiration.
compelling, enthralling - Rated 
i've been into all things titanic since seeing the film and this is a must read. it tells the story of what happened the night titanic sank through the eyes of the survivors. the details are incredible and it really brings home the scale of the tragedy.
Compelling accounts of tragedy! - Rated 
This book gives four informative, exciting, compelling accounts of the Titanic tragedy. The Lightholler report, being the only survivor amongst the senior officers & quite liberally mentioned by the other authors, is particularly interesting. The stoic response by the vast majority of obviously doomed male passengers to the prospect of drowning in sub-zero temperature water, as they stood orderly by, or assisted in the loading of women & children in the life-boats, is quite staggering. One of the storytellers has a sad, old-fashioned tendency to describe many of the non-English speaking survivors in very disparaging terms. Indeed, Gracie quite often comes across as annoyingly pompous in his descriptions. On the other hand the short report of the surviving wirelessman is totally unstuffy & hugely readable. The inquiries' treatment of Ismay, the President of Titanic's Company & a survivor against all the odds for single males, is particularly interesting . The book also highlights some of the movie's mistakes, especially the breaking off of the stern section prior to sinking. On the whole a good book & worth buying.
riveting, but sometimes hard to read - Rated 
Overall, this book was virtually impossible to put down. To hear the story of the Titanic as told by some of its survivors, puts you right there in the water with them. There are only two drawbacks to this book. The first one is that the English written in 1912's vernacular is sometimes a bit cumbersome. The second one is that Archibald Gracie's book, while interesting, sometimes gets bogged down in details. However, despite some minor drawbacks for the 90's reader, I would recommend this book for anyone with even a slight interest in the story of the Titanic beyond what we got to see in James Cameron's movie.
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