A Night to Remember

By: Walter Lord

Narrated by: Fred Williams

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

The "unsinkable” Titanic was four city blocks long, with a French “sidewalk café,” private promenade decks, and the latest, most ingenious safety devices… but only twenty lifeboats for the 2,207 passengers and crew on board.

Gliding through a calm sea, disdainful of all obstacles, the Titanic brushed an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later, she upended and sank. Only 705 survivors were picked up from the half-filled boats of “the ship that God Himself couldn’t sink.”

Walter Lord’s classic minute-by-minute re-creation is as vivid now as it was upon first publication more than sixty years ago. From the initial distress flares to the struggles of those left adrift for hours in freezing waters, this audio presentation will bring that moonlit night in 1912 to life for a new generation of readers.

©1955 Walter Lord (P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the most exciting books of this or any year." ( New York Times )

“[T]he best Titanic story…. the immediacy engages the reader from the start." ( Library Journal)

“[As] seamless and skillful as you’re going to get….it’s clear why this is many a researcher’s Titanic bible.” ( Entertainment Weekly)

Great Read!!

I’ve always loved this book and Mr. Williams does a great job narrating it!! Mr. Lord brings the history of the sinking to life.

I mostly read autobiographies

Everything about this book is astonishing. This book gave me a lot of insight into the character of people.

Interesting Story

I’ve always been fascinated by the Titanic tragedy and this was a really interesting perspective. I learned a lot I never knew before. Good narration too!

excellent story best for true facts

best narrator after listening to about 30 or more books. This book is so full of facts that you do feel like you are right there on that shjp

Night that changed so much.

This disaster changed the way travel on the high seas was executed by increasing safety measures.
It changed the world with the loss of so many of the gilded age and impacted economic conditions. This night changed the wealth of many and ended an era of greatest.

Real world discussion

So very well done. its much better than any of the movies that have glamourized that night. I've listened to it a couple of times and each time something different captures my attention. if you like authentic history told well, then this is a must.

Succinct but thorough

This was a joy to read. It left out the crap that so many other Titanic books dwell on and covered a wealth of material in less pages.

Classic account of the maritime disaster!

This is the classic 1955 account by Walter Lord of the infamous Titanic disaster. Well read and unabridged, it faithfully recounts the events of that terrible night that the “unsinkable “ship went down in 1912. Very well researched and narrated.

A Tour de Force!

A definitive account of the tragedy, as told by those who lived through it. Taken largely from eyewitness survivor accounts, this is an account of the tragic event told in real-time, with a 360 degree view of the events as they unfolded. As such, it provides a richer understanding of the events happening than even the eyewitnesses would've had at the time, seeing only their own piece of the puzzle. The author throws in some further detail to give a broader understanding of the historical context of the time and the far-reaching ramifications of the night's events, though keeps this to a minimum. The book starts with the sighting of the iceberg and ends with the arrival of the survivors in New York. I found myself wishing for a bit more of a lead-in so I felt I knew the people involved more fully and wishing I knew more of what became of the survivors after their ordeal was over. But the focus of the book was tight and it was enthralling in the telling. I found myself unable to stop listening, even though I knew the outcome already, and listened to the whole thing in barely more than one sitting. It was really engrossing. I'm still at a loss as to the actions of the California, which seems to have so needlessly cost lives, but I don't fault the author for that. A remarkable account of the Titanic's sinking taken from original sources and told in as captivating a way as any novel or movie might be. Really well done and I can't recommend it enough.

Edited to add that I liked the narrator and felt his sober handling of the subject matter was very appropriate. Also, for those who might worry (as I did) that this would be a grim and depressing book, it really isn't. Though the subject matter is tragic, of course. the matter-of-fact approach combined with the fact that all of the accounts are from those who survived (and not much included about the grief of the survivors as most were still in shock as the book ended) lends itself to a book that acknowledges, but doesn't linger over, the emotional impact of the tragedy. We don't witness people's last moments, for the most part. It's more the death of the ship, a way of life, the end of an Era, rather than the prolonged pathos of individuals lost. I fully expected to be sobbing by the end of the account and was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't--the author educates but doesn't seem to be going for the emotional jugular. Perhaps it simply wasn't necessary, as the emotional impact of that night may have still been resounding when this was written decades ago. Perhaps the author simply had a different goal in mind. But it was nice to be able to learn more about the facts of that night without ending up a frazzled sobbing mess. I wish I hadn't put off reading this for so long out of fear that would happen.

Good chronology of events, factually based

I felt like the author did a great job presenting the accounts leading up to the tragedy and thereafter . Listened on audio and enjoyed the narration.