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The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home
The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home
The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home
Audiobook10 hours

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home

Written by Denise Kiernan

Narrated by Denise Kiernan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Girls of Atomic City comes the fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore—the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.

Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.

Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.

The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. The Last Castle is the unique American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 26, 2017
ISBN9781501238239
Author

Denise Kiernan

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, 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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Reviews for The Last Castle

Rating: 3.902010005527638 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Who is giving this book 4.5 stars? First of all, the author reading her own book sounds like she is reading slides from a lecture. This is difficult to follow and mostly uninteresting. Lost me after a few hours in.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am obsessed with learning about Biltmore House and George Vanderbilt’s family. This book provides an extremely detailed and thorough history of both. I’ve learned more about Biltmore and the family from this book than any other I’ve read. The family suffered so much tragedy while making it a priority to help others less fortunate. They truly cared about their community. The perseverance of Edith to carry out her husband’s dreams is admirable. Biltmore is such an amazing place to me and I’m awestruck every time I visit. The author also writes about Asheville, NC to include famous people and well known businesses such as,Thomas Wolfe and Grove Park Inn.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating look at the construction of Biltmore House along with the lives of George Washington Vanderbilt and his descendants, who have been shrouded in mystery for many years.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Just couldn’t get past the boring narration. Like listening to a textbook.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am fascinated by the Biltmore and this book gives a glimpse into not just the history of the house but the family behind it. Great book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was an interesting book filled with a myriad of names and minute details that had me overwhelmed, bored and curious all throughout the book. It’s amazing to hear about families whose names are synonymous with today’s investment firms and successful American businesses at the turn of the 20th Century. The freedom with which the ultra wealthy traveled before the age of the airplane was also astonishing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I adore going to Asheville and seeing Biltmore House each time. If you ever get to go visit Biltmore then listen to this audiobook, it truly will paint a picture of not only of the house but the details of the people who lived there. Fantastic book and great listen if you love the history and stories of the Gilded Age.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well-researched, we’ll-written, but not necessarily well-told. Definitely need to visit Asheville now!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The complexities and interweavings of the family were beautifully on display. Today, the Biltmore House stands in tribute to all those who safeguarded her.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    If you don’t know how evil and Satanic the Vanderbilt family IS and was, you might want to do some research!! Check out their underground child sex trafficking tunnels and the underground pool area used for child satanic rituals, Adrenochrome harvesting and torture!! These people are NOT to be looked up to in any way!! They are Devil worshippers who have been preying on our children for centuries
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great overview of the history of the American castle in Asheville.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Before taking a trip to the Biltmore House, my book club read this book. It is very informative and added so much to the trip. I learned much I didn't know, especially about the landscape and forestry efforts on the original property, which were so far ahead of that time period. It was interesting to read about the people that designed, constructed, and ultimately lived in the home and why it is important that it be conserved. It continues to offer so much to the people of Asheville.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I was a child, my family toured the Biltmore on one of our family vacations and so I was familiar with the broad outlines of this massive home associated with the Vanderbilts. This history provides many details about how the estate came to be, and more interestingly, how it remained in the family's hands when so many other Gilded Age homes of the wealthy were sold, repurposed, or torn down. I was impressed more with Edith Dresser, George Vanderbilt's wife, than with George himself, as she managed to keep the house and much of the estate in the family and running after his death and made significant impacts in the local North Carolina community. Overall, this book makes for a good history to read those seeking more background about the Vanderbilt family and the impressive Biltmore.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you are interested in visiting Biltmore, then this book will enhance your pleasure and understanding of seeing the home in person. There were a lot of details of the people who populated the home either living there or visiting during the Gilded age. I came away impressed by the Vanderbilt’s foresight in starting forestry and woodworking, woven homespun, and homemaking schools.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The writing is so dry and yes I know it is historically accurate non-fiction, yet the events and discussion of the building of The Biltmore and the reforestation of the property is quite boring - mind-numbing and, dry- so unless you really want to learn how bizarre the rich were in this time period (think of a woman wearing cats pelts tails and heads as an evening costume and a guy building the biggest house in the US, for no reason other than 'he could' and owning a stunning amount of property) you may want to step back a bit. Yes, this is a Kindle Unlimited book so I am not out any cash, but I just thought that there would be something more here to make me feel the way George and Edith felt about this house. The second half of this book made it a little more bearable as we got into more personal issues and a more recognizable time period- for me at least.I have never seen it and this book is most likely going to appeal to historians, architects, forestry managers, or botanists. This will also appeal to those who want to learn more about the Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age.For me, it was just so much blah, blah, blah interspersed with an occasional interesting historical fact or tidbit. Most of this book seems to be written based on letters and perhaps diaries and a lot of research- which is flawless but has no feeling. The character list is HUGE and some of the names are confusing.I did manage to finish this book, but I still never 'felt' anything. The last half of this book takes a huge turn and gets fairly personal and stays with the historical bent. There are a lot of pictures at the end of the Kindle edition, but they are poorly captioned.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well written and researched history of the Biltmore House, the grandest of the gilded age homes. Financed by George Washington Vanderbilt, and designed by Richard Morris Hunt, Biltmore, located in Asheville, NC still stands. Considered by many in its day as Vanderbilt's folly, Biltmore is the epitome of the Vanderbilt family's wealth, power and privilege of the early 20th century. Woven into the story of the creation of the home and its environs is the story of Edith Dresser, eventual wife of GWV, and how after his untimely demise at age 51, she managed to sell resources, consolidate efforts and ultimately open her home to the public so as to preserve her husband's legacy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a nonfiction book about the building of the Biltmore and the Vanderbilts. The Biltmore is America's largest home and was built in the early 1900s, the Gilded Age. It was George Vanderbilt's project - he feel in love with the natural beauty of the Asheville, NC area and hired Frederick Law Olmsted to work on the grounds (something like 125,000 acres) and Richard Morris Hunt to build the home. George married Edith Dresser after almost finishing Biltmore and she did much to support the Asheville community and to keep Biltmore financially viable after George's early death. This book has plenty in it - information about the families, the building of the house, the grounds and forestry, the Asheville locals, and celebrity gossip. But despite all that I somehow found it a little light on the details. I wanted a bit more in depth analysis of almost every aspect presented. This was interesting and easy to read, but wasn't quite as great as I wanted it to be. I'd still recommend it to anyone interested in the story of the Biltmore estate.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    When I was a kid I visited Biltmore House and was awed and amazed. That experience had me looking forward to reading this book, however, I had to force myself to finish this book it was so boring. First off the buying of the land and the building of the house by George Washington Vanderbilt beginning in 1888. George and his mother who both suffered from poor health believed that the mountain air would be good for their health. However, she wouldn't live long enough to live in it. Now, writing about building something isn't easy to make it sound interesting but it is possible as Erik Larsson does in Devil in the White City as he describes the building of a city within a city and makes it sound completely fascinating. Kienan fails here. It's like a listing of items that get checked off.The great Fredrick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park among a million other things including the White City at the World's Fair of 1893 and Richard Morris Hunt who designed the pedestal for the Statute of Liberty among a million other things, as well as the White City, were the ones who designed Biltmore House. The grounds had been badly deforested and needed to be replanted which with the help of Olmstead and Gifford Pinchot and Carl Schenck forested the land. Pinchot would leave to start up the U.S. Forestry Service for Roosevelt and Carl Schenck would come in and take his place. Schenck would set up a school for forest rangers on the grounds of Biltmore. Biltmore would set up a nursery that would grow trees and shrubs to be planted.George would not see the point in marrying for a long time. He believed in seeing the world before settling down. He would be thirty-six when he married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, in 1898. His sisters would put his best friend William Vrandhurst Osgood "Billy", "Willie" Field up to get the two together since they were going to be on the same ship crossing the Atlantic going toward France with a stop in London. She spends more time with Field than she does Vanderbilt though. Edith has the name but not the riches. She has three other sisters and a brother Daniel. Both her parents have been dead for some time and they were raised by a grandmother who is also now dead. But the two don't get together then. Willie and George head on to India but then when they come back, Field has to go away on business and George is left to his own devices and finds himself meeting up with Edith in Paris where the two fall in love and decide to marry there.Soon the two are joined by a daughter Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt. She is born in North Carolina and the state welcomes her completely as one of their own calling her a "Tar Heel Nell". Cornelia will be brought up along with the servants and villagers' kids and with a sense that she needs to give back to the community like her parents do. Edith opens up Biltmore Industries a crafts and clothing operation and helps to support the women who run it which provides people with the ability to learn a trade and to sell their crafts. This makes her no money it all goes to the Institute and the people who are in it. She also opens up a school for those who want to learn how to be a domestic servant and she opens schools for the children on the grounds of Biltmore.Biltmore was never finished as George essentially ran out of money that he could devote to it. The music room, for instance, has a ceiling that is unfinished. As a matter of fact, through some bad investments, George wasn't doing so well financially. He would begin to look for ways to cut back. Which would begin a trend over the years as land is sold off (over 88,000 acres to form the Pisgah National Forest the first protected government land to come from private lands) and other things are done to save Biltmore from being torn down or parceled off.Something that bothers me a great deal in this book is all of the describing of what people wear. I realize that Edith and Cornelia were some sorts of fashion plates perhaps, but it got quite boring real quick. Again this is the most boring interesting book ever. And I know this isn't the author's fault, it's even in the title, the loss that she describes isn't just the real estate it's all the dead bodies in this book. So many people die in this book. And not just from old age. There are suicides, murder, sickness, stress, and a ship sinking. It's a real downer to read that one more person has died like some kind of Shakespearean tragedy. And if they weren't dying they were getting divorced. The Kennedy curse is to die young, the Vanderbilt curse is to get divorced. This at a time when people could and did divorce, but not in great numbers. This book did have a few brief moments of interest such as when it talked about the authors Edith Wharton winning the Pulitzer and when it talked about Thomas Wolfe throughout. However, these pieces of information seemed to meander off of the main point as though she was looking for something interesting to tie into it. I was disappointed that such a grand house would receive a book that would let it down. It didn't even live up to it's title. The author provides all the information but fails to provide it in an interesting way. I give this book two and a half stars out of five stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you are expecting a book written solely about Biltmore House and its occupants, then likely you will be disappointed in the rambling nature of this book. Author Denise Kiernan has written a discourse on much more just the house itself. She has included much of the history of the times, the people and the events that shaped the house from its beginning to the present day. While some events do appear to be filler for the book, most of it explains what the owners of the house experienced in the building and the maintaining of such a vast undertaking. Still under private ownership while other estates are not, the author painstakingly illustrates the beginnings and the changes that had to be made by the people who inherited it. All the dreams and hopes as well as the heartbreak and tragedies that occurred are well researched and explained in this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A well written and easy flowing account of George W. Vanderbilt and his family tied to the building and maintaining of Biltmore, his famous estate, and its impact on Ashville, North Carolina. Kiernan creates a fascinating story starting with the second generation of the Cornelius Vanderbilt empire that led us to the Guilded Age.George's share of the wealth leads him to find a way to create something with it that culminated into the building of Biltmore the largest house in the United States. Along with the house the surrounding area of Ashville, North Carolina is swept up in the process spawning a sub-economy tied to the creation and the excess. The many millions that were poured into George's dream eventually takes its toll as the burden of upkeep and the drain on the vast resources of his wealth becomes nearly unsustainable.The impressions I received of the venture were twofold. I was astonished that the scope of the undertaking in which the purpose became somewhat lost other than to build a vast estate because the money seemed inexhaustible. On the other side largely due to the efforts and generosity of his wife Edith I saw how this display of wealth also translated into the common people of the area many of whose lives were enriched and fostered.It becomes a lesson of sorts about the excess and skewed accumulation of wealth that we see to this day in the power of the new technologies. It makes me wonder if the lesson has changed or is only modified some.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story of George Washington Vanderbilt's magnificent Biltmore Estate in western North Carolina. Kiernan's exhaustive research focuses not only on the men who financed and designed the house and grounds, but also on George's wife Edith and daughter Cornelia and their contributions to the community. Considering the unhappy fates of many other grand houses of the Gilded Age, it's a testament to George's descendants' love for this estate that it survived intact into the present.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a well researched biography and the largest home in America and the family that created it. It is located in Asheville, North Carolina and was the home of George Vanderbilt (inheritor of his wealth from his dad tycoon Commodore Vanderbilt) and wife Edith and their offspring. He rejected life in New York and Newport, Rhode Island where the rich hung out during that era and chose the forests and mountains of the Carolinas for his vision. This was a family that uses their wealth not just to be ostentatious but to help the people in the surrounding community and beyond. Now it is between 65 and 85 dollars to see the estate (which I cheeped out on when we were there) that I now think would be worth the money.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good look at the largest home in America, Biltmore Estate. This book tells the story of George Vanderbilt and his wife, Edith. George's love for Asheville and it's surrounding countryside inspired him to build a castle which would bring new life to the tiny North Carolina town. The story of Biltmore Estate is flush with triumphs and tragedies. I think it helps to have visited the estate before reading this book. That way you can envision it as you read. Fortunately, I had visited and all the rooms were in my mind as I read. Good reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the mid-1890s George Vanderbilt built America's largest residential home in Western North Carolina. He called it Biltmore. He also purchased land--and lots of it. Much of the land he purchased is now the Pisgah National Forest. The book details how Vanderbilt brought a responsible forest management program to that acreage and how it came to be in the hands of the United States Forestry Service. He also built an Episcopal Church and community he called Biltmore Village. The village provided employment for the village's residents with profits, when they eventually came, going to the Estate, similar to a feudal system. George was a bachelor when he envisioned and built Biltmore, but the book shows how Edith Stuyvesant Dresser came to be his bride and her passion for serving the community. It also details the measures she took upon his death to ensure the estate would be viable when their daughter came of age and that George's legacy would continue. The home began allowing guest tours in 1930 as an income for the estate. When Vanderbilt envisioned Biltmore, he never really thought through how much a home and estate that size would cost to run. It turned out to be a huge drain on the family's finances. The music room was never completed in the lifetimes of George, Edith, or their daughter Cornelia. The book talks about many of the persons in the circle of friends of both George and Edith, about Cornelia's failed marriage and subsequent romantic interests, and about regional authors. She also discusses the nearby Grove Park Inn and its owner. While the book is a very interesting read, it does not very compelling. The author lists repositories used in her research. The only local repository she utilized was the local public library's North Carolina room. I feel she probably missed out on many great resources by not using the Southern Historical Collection at UNC Chapel Hill, the archives of Western Carolina University, the archives of Appalachian State University, and the State Archives of North Carolina. Perhaps the most glaring omission in the book is the lack of a full description of what is available to tourists visiting the estate today. While she did provide the 2016 admission costs in passing, no mention was made of what that included. The winery was never mentioned--a newer Biltmore industry that generates income for the estate. Biltmore is about a 90-minute drive from my front door, and I enjoy visiting the house and estate. Perhaps I can thank George Vanderbilt's inability to see money doesn't grow on trees for the opportunity to visit the estate today.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Last Castle is a phenomenal read. 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 “gerrymandering”. 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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The 175,000 square foot Biltmore was constructed in the waning years of America's Gilded Age by the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Vanderbilt, couched within his beloved mountains surrounding Asheville, N.C. Although the focus of this historical work is scheduled to be published at the end of September 2017 is the Biltmore Estate, the book also explores the mistress of the Biltmore Estate, George's wife who he married after its construction, who I believe had a larger presence in Asheville than her husband. Other dignities and their connection to the Vanderbilts discussed in this book included Richard Morris Hunt, Frederick Law Olmsted, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Singer Sargent. Having visited the Biltmore Estate twice and especially loving his personal library of approximately 24,000 books, I was interested in the origin of many of its furnishing. If you are an aficionado of the late 19th - early 20th century United States history, this needs to be a must read.