Customer Reviews

A Guide to Newport's Cliff Walk (RI): Tales of Seaside Mansions and the Gilded Age Elite

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This is more of a travel book. It is an informative book and perfect for someone that is planning to visit Cliff Walk and the homes on the tour. However, it does not give a lot of background information of the homes or the people who built and lived in them. It only has some general stories about for example the Vanderbilts and Astors. But I was hoping for more history as well as more photos. There are exterior photos of all of the mansions and no interior photos. What is good- is that it gives ideas for where to park and where to walk which would be helpful to someone visiting Newport for the first time.

I visited Newport and walked the Cliff Walk, or should I have said, hiked? It is a marvelous three miles of gorgeous acreage of the "backyards" of the summer "cottages" built more than a hundred years ago, impossible to duplicate today. The other side of the walk consists of the Atlantic Ocean, with no guard rails, it's just you and the sea. The book details the history of these mansions, as well as Newport itself, and also cautions the reader to truly beware on "the Walk" as a wrong twist of the foot could tumble you into the ocean.
The book is an enchanting blend of pictures and narrative, written companionably to present a sublime image of one of Newport's greatest assets. It is marked to let the reader know where he is each step of the way. One word of warning, leave the book back at the motel, or read it before venturing out on Cliff Walk. One needs total concentration out there.