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The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home, by Denise Kiernan
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Review
“The Last Castle is a soaring and gorgeous American story that gripped me from the very first page. With a historian’s keen insight and a poet’s gift for language, Denise Kiernan depicts life at Biltmore with such skill, I felt like I was there through it all: weddings, divorces, elaborate (and slightly bizarre) balls, financial glory, financial ruin, murder, suicide, natural disasters, betrayals, love, loss, despair, and triumph. The story of George and Edith Vanderbilt’s remarkable lives will stay with me for a long time to come.” (Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy)“If you inherited billions, how would you spend it? Don't bother building America's largest and most lavish home. It's already been done in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where more than a million visitors a year stroll the grounds of Biltmore Estate. Yet only in the pages of Denise Kiernan's The Last Castle will they come to know George Vanderbilt, the bookish heir who began Biltmore in his 20s, and his determined widow, Edith, who kept it alive as a working estate and a time capsule of the Gilded Age. In the pages of The Last Castle, Kiernan serves up a true tale of American excess, generosity, and perseverance.” (Bill Dedman, New York Times bestselling author of Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune)"This is as much a story about the creation of Biltmore House as it is a window into what it was like to be an American at the turn of the 20th century. Kiernan makes Edith and George Vanderbilt, among the wealthiest Americans at the time, feel like living, breathing human beings navigating life's obstacles in this magnificent book. And she tells the story of how one fiercely devoted woman was able to save the home her husband loved." (-Kate Andersen Brower, author FIRST WOMEN: The Grace & Power of America's Modern First Ladies and THE RESIDENCE: Inside the Private World of the White House)"The rich have secrets. In her well-researched and captivating book, Denise Kiernan tells the fascinating story of how a phenomenally wealthy Vanderbilt scion transformed a rural North Carolina town by building the ultimate rich man's folly and reveals the eccentricities, heartaches, and even money problems of these Social Register denizens and their friends and employees." (Meryl Gordon, author of Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend)"This is a timely and timeless American story of wealth and the responsibility and opportunity it carries. In Kiernan’s hands, this mashup of Downton Abbey-like extravagance set amid the “rugged mountain simplicity” of Appalachia reads like a Southern fairy tale — Brothers Grimm meets Gone with the Wind. A passionately researched family saga of death and divorce, suicide and sickness, fortunes gained and lost, spanning two world wars and set at the crux of the Gilded Age yielding to the modern era, The Last Castle is ultimately a story of fortitude and survival. A stunning and important achievement." (Neal Thompson, author of A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It Or Not!" Ripley)"Ms. Kiernan's research is prodigious....she brings the place to life. And she doesn't leave out the juicy bits from the family history: adultery, bankruptcy, suicide." (The Wall Street Journal)“The book’s vitality lies in the details [Kiernan] reveals about the architects, writers, artists and peers of the Vanderbilts who spent time at Biltmore.” (The New York Times Book Review)“Evocative, meticulously researched. . . Kiernan brings a deft eye for detail and observation to a very different kind of story. . . . Her re-creation of Biltmore’s origins hits like a flute of fine champagne while lending social context to the mansion. . . . ‘The Last Castle’ is Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence sprung 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. “ (Knoxville News-Sentinel)"But reading The Last Castle, the flowing novel-like narrative really is 'about America.' It's about celebrity culture, wealth disparity, the remarkable charity and foresight of a few wealthy people, the urge to create and maintain a family legacy and, in its darker moments, the ever-present potential for personal tragedy. It's grounded in Kiernan's years of globe-trotting research and yet also immediately relevant to the topics that clog social media in 2017." (Asheville Citizen-Times)"A story that brings the glitz and glamour of the British royal family to American soil.... Reigning royalty of the Gilded Age, Edith and George Vanderbilt, and their lifetime of financial excess, ruins, scandal, and perseverance come alive on these pages. (RealSimple.com)
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About the Author
Denise Kiernan’s previous book, The Girls of Atomic City, is a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR bestseller, and was named one of Amazon’s Top 100 Best Books of 2013. Kiernan has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Discover, and many more publications. She has also worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during its Emmy award–winning first season and producing for media outlets such as ESPN and MSNBC. She has been a featured guest on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” PBS NewsHour, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
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Product details
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Atria Books; Reprint edition (May 1, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1476794057
ISBN-13: 978-1476794051
Product Dimensions:
6 x 1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.2 out of 5 stars
247 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#7,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Last Castle is a phenomenal read. When I went to school in North Carolina years ago, I visited Biltmore House several times so as soon I learned about this book, I was dying to read it. I am so glad it lived up to my expectations. Denise Kiernan chronicles the tale of George Vanderbilt, the man who ultimately built the largest residence ever constructed in the United States – 175,000 square feet on 125,000 acres of rugged wilderness. Biltmore House contains 250 rooms in all including: 33 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 3 kitchens, 2 bowling alleys, an indoor pool, and a library with 65 fireplaces to supplement the complicated heating system necessary to keep the house warm in the winter. In The Last Castle, Kiernan comprehensively describes how Biltmore House came into existence from George’s first purchase of land in the Asheville, North Carolina area to the final completion and opening of the Music Room in 1976 long after the home became a tourist destination. With the confidence and financial cluelessness of someone who inherited untold wealth, George Vanderbilt never worried about funds nor created any type of budget within which those assisting with the building had to adhere. As a result, Biltmore House was incredibly expensive to erect and subsequently operate, and as a result, it severely and irreparably impacted the family’s finances. Numerous rooms were not completed, and plans for various parts of the property abandoned. As I read about the process of building Biltmore House, I found it very hard to imagine undertaking such a project with little or no budget planning.While George had the idea to build Biltmore House and hired the various individuals to implement his idea, Edith is the individual who protected both Biltmore House and the Asheville area and ensured that her husband’s legacy would remain. She was devoted to the area and the Biltmore’s employees. I found Edith fascinating and was pleased that Kiernan devoted substantial pages to Edith’s story. She lived for a long time after George died and left quite a legacy of her own.Not only does Denise Kiernan thoroughly and thoughtfully recreate the timeline for and the process that went into the building of Biltmore House, she also places this monumental endeavor into its historical context. Adding historical context is either skillfully accomplished or haphazardly included in a manner that makes the story disjointed and hard to follow. Thankfully, Kiernan masterfully incorporates the history of both the Vanderbilt family and George’s wife Edith Stuyvesant Dresser’s family, events such as the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania, both World Wars, the development of Forestry Programs (such as the one developed at Biltmore House), and the impact of the Great Depression; I never found myself wondering why a topic was being addressed or how I was suddenly reading about some new subject. The Last Castle flows beautifully, and I learned copious amounts of information about both the Vanderbilts and Biltmore House and in addition the decades spanned by the building of this magnificent mansion.The book abounds with fascinating facts and details from the late 1800’s to the death of George and Edith’s daughter Cornelia’s death in 1976. The highlights for me were the descriptions of John Singer Sargent painting various portraits at Biltmore House, the innovative refrigeration, wiring and elevator systems installed at the house, that Teddy Roosevelt was visiting Biltmore House when the idea for the teddy bear came about, and that Edith’s second marriage was to Elbridge Gerry, the individual who inspired the term “gerrymanderingâ€. I also was unaware that George and Edith had almost traveled on the Titanic but chosen last minute to take an earlier ship. The historical information included in the book was a true highlight for me.The Last Castle provides a glimpse into the Gilded Age, an era of excess and untold wealth, and one man’s decision to build the grandest home in the United States. I highly recommend this fabulous book. Thanks to Touchstone and Goodreads Giveaways for the chance to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.
Since I've always been interested in the Vanderbilt's story, I was anxious to read more about Biltmore. We've been there 3 times and each time has been a thrill. There is no place like it. "The Last Castle" tells plenty about the house, but as important to me, it tells more about George and Edith and the men who helped make Biltmore what it was, and is. Some of the chapters got into deep detail, which might not be interesting to some people, but since most of it was new to me, I found it interesting, because no other book I've read, including "Lady on the Hill" delved as deeply in the lives of people who, for the most part, were unknown to me-- not the famous, but the teachers and forrest workers who taught at the schools on the grounds. But my main interest was the house. I would have liked to know more about how it was to actually live there. Why is there no ballroom? Why wasn't the Halloween room mentioned? And surprising to me was that George and Edith only lived there in the Fall and Winter. They spent more time in Europe, NYC and Washington DC. The book has been fascinating to read. I began to read it 4 days ago and am finished. I'm going to re-buy "Lady on the Hill" and read it again. But "The Last Castle" was superb. I am anxious to go back for another visit.
I am giving this book a 3 star rating. To me that means it was a good book, nothing special but worth the price paid. I read some of the reviews of other GR members and it appears that some were rather disappointed in this book for a variety of reasons. I guess I can understand that feeling as I too was initially disappointed. I have visited Biltmore a couple of times but my last visit was nearly 20 years ago and curiosity got the better of me so I Googled the site and discovered that things have changed considerably since my last visit. I think tickets on my last visit were $35/person and now they are $65-75. Some changes are easier to accept than others I guess. Anyway I studied architecture in college with an emphasis on architectural history. Needless to say Biltmore was an item of discussion in my History of American Architecture course. So my primary interest in this book was the architecture and construction of Biltmore. From the title alone, and I should know better than this, one would expect this book to be solely about the house and therein is where my disappointment and that of the other GR members probably lies. This book is about more than the house, much more.The book is about building a monument to a dying era and way of life and how that monument is transformed into an example of successful evolution. We are informed of George Washington Vanderbilt's life, a brief history of his family and the source of their wealth and George's place in that family and way of life. His decision to remove himself and his mother to the wilds of North Carolina to build this enormous edifice in the middle of no where is difficult to understand especially considering the daunting logistical challenges that the project entails. I would certainly have enjoyed reading about how those challenges were met but while the building of the house and the grounds is discussed it is not discussed in the detail the title would lead you to believe. I think it is fair to say that this book is not about the building of the house but about the process of building and the affects of building and the process on the owner and those around him and especially on the community in which this structure is sited.As Biltmore is being constructed George is educated by those he has hired about new ideas and ways of advancing notions of preservation, forestry, agriculture, farming and the harnessing of natural resources. He, and later his bride Edith, become engaged in advancing local arts and crafts as a way of bringing economic growth and opportunity to the people that were now their neighbors. For this story the author goes on at length about Biltmore after the death of George. A good deal of the Biltmore story rightfully centers on George's widow Edith and her efforts to make Biltmore profitable once it becomes clear that the age of houses like Biltmore is a time past and not to return. She guides the house's transformation into something that will sustain it and keep it viable as the times change. From Edith the baton passed to her daughter, Cornelia and from her to Edith's grandsons the Cecil brothers. Today the house is still in the private ownership of the Cecil family and is a profitable and expensive tourist attraction of the City of Asheville. The book is titled "The Last Castle" but unlike the abandoned ruins of those castles of ages past this one has evolved and managed to stay alive and vital and an asset to its surrounding community. This is a history of more than a great house it is about a family and a community that all changed to meet the challenges life presented them with. (less)
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