New York Times Bestseller
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Wall Street Journal Bestseller
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Barnes & Noble Best Books 2017
New York Times Bestseller ✳︎ Wall Street Journal Bestseller ✳︎ Barnes & Noble Best Books 2017
“The Last Castle, with its engaging narrative and array of detail, allows us to pay a visit [to] one of American history’s most stately pleasure domes....
She brings the place to life...”
“A true tale of American excess, generosity, and perseverance.”
“THE LAST CASTLE is Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence spring to life...Biltmore is an ideal vessel for an exploration of our worship of affluence and social cachet, and more importantly, the American myth of classlessness. THE LAST CASTLE plumbs these themes and history with subtle insight and élan.”
“A soaring and gorgeous American story.”
Before paparazzi pounced on reality TV stars, gossip columnists stalked the scions and debutantes of the Gilded Age...
Before the fictional Crawley family of Downton Abbey...
There lived the real-life Vanderbilt family of The Last Castle.
This narrative nonfiction book takes the reader on a Gilded Age journey from the height of excess to the depths of family tragedy in the glittering true story behind the largest home—ever—in America and the amazing struggles of those who resided within its walls.
Constructed in the fading days of the Gilded Age, Biltmore House is a colossally huge, 175,000-square-foot chateau located not in New York, Newport, Bar Harbor or Los Angeles, but rather tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Its architect was Gilded Age legend Richard Morris Hunt, the man behind its enchanting grounds was the father of landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the woods surrounding the palatial home—roughly 125,000 acres worth of land—were the site of America's first attempt at managed forestry.
But it was also home to remarkable individuals whose lives were forever changed by their time in Appalachia, and whose tenure there left an impact on a community that is still felt today. It is an intimate look at George, Edith and Cornelia Vanderbilt: a man with a dream, the woman who saved it, and the child who completed their fairytale tableau.
With guest appearances by Edith Wharton, Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, Teddy Roosevelt and more, The Last Castle spans world wars, financial crises, and unspeakable tragedy. The Last Castle is a saga of brute achievement, inspiring generosity and unlikely endurance.