Tess’ loyalty and affections will undergo many additional stress tests. All these characters survive, but the aftermath in New York is scarcely celebratory, with newspapers gossiping and a Senate inquiry delving into the horrific events. On board, Tess catches the eye of a wealthy businessman as well as a rock-solid sailor. Lucy turns into a selfish, capricious mistress, but Tess endures in hopes of dressmaking work. In Alcott’s version, just before the ship leaves Europe, Lady Lucy hires a maid, Tess Collins, whose real passion is designing and sewing clothes. The behavior of the privileged, in particular Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his couturier wife Lady Lucy, raised many questions including rumors of bribery and murder. Out of some 2,223 people on board the Titanic, only 706 survived, 60 percent from first class, mainly women, and 25 percent from steerage. Published to coincide with the centenary of the famous shipping disaster, Alcott’s debut wraps a conventional tale of love and wish fulfillment around the much more interesting historical facts. It’s Titanic revisited, in a romance focused on the survivors and the scandal, seen from the perspective of an aspiring seamstress whose fortunes intertwine with real characters from the epic tragedy.
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May 2023
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