Luxury Liners: Life on Board [Hardcover]

Catherine Donzel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Catherine Donzel is a historian and coauthor of a number of books on travel themes. She lives in Paris.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Vendome Press; 1st Am. ed. edition (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865651736
• ISBN-13: 978-0865651739
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 9.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships > Passenger
  • #97 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships > Pictorial

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars All Style, No Substance!, August 27, 2007

By 

TomEnroute (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luxury Liners: Life on Board (Hardcover)

I had this book on my wish list and received it as a birthday gift. What a huge disappointment! There are some beautiful photographs, but a number of the double page shots lose their impact with a big crease down the middle. Many of the photos (a full page shot of Charton Heston???) outweigh the importance of their subject matter and appear to be there just to make the book larger.

The author's flowery overblown style of prose, filled with exagerations, is bad enough but the number of acutual factual errors is frightening. Anyone with a minimal knowledge of ocean liner history could produce a long list. Here are just a few: Yes, Ocean liners did dock in most major ports before the 1930's. No, New York has never had a "transatlantic railway terminal." At 21,000 tons the HAPAG liner New York was never considered a "superliner." A photo of a "1914 trunk" with a 2 Normandie (1935-39) baggage labels ???. I guess her publishers don't have any fact checkers.

I would recommend to any ocean liner liner enthusiast that you only buy this book if you find it for a dollar at a garage sale. This author should stick to writing books about subjects about which she has some knowledge.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Concentrates on book layout, not the subject at hand..., January 11, 2008

By 

Nachtjager (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luxury Liners: Life on Board (Hardcover)

I agree with the previous review, this book is a GROSS disappointment. It's a large and impressive looking volume at first, but the facts contained within are very poorly researched and there are countless errors regarding the photos and the liners in general.

My bigger problem, however, is that this book should perhaps be better titled "Life on Board the French Line" or "Life on the Ile de France" because honestly, 80% of the photos relate to the Ile or to the French Line. Even photos of the memorabilia almost all show CGT items, with a noteworthy amount of attention paid to the P&O Line for some reason.

If you're looking for photos or information on any Cunard, White Star Line, North German Lloyd, HAPAG, or U.S. Lines ship, forget it, there's nothing here for you. And that's not an exaggeration.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luxury Liners, January 10, 2007

By 

Karsten Topelmann - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Luxury Liners: Life on Board (Hardcover)

A fantastic book, worth it's money..... excellent art direction for layout and styling.... giant images printed in amazing quality....I like the enormous amount of nostalgic photos showing opulence and luxury of ocean travel (dining rooms!) , but also immigrants leaving Europe with a heavy heart.... I liked the inclusion of posters, menues and close-ups of silverware and passenger lists....the double-spread photo of the FRANCE (on pages 74/75)in stormy weather listing at an extreme angle makes you feel good to sit in the easy chair in your home in front of the fireplace turning the pages....