Synopses & Reviews
John Jakes, the godfather of the historical novel (Los Angeles Times), leaves the South to travel north for an epic tale of scandalous doings in one of the worlds most famous resorts. In the late nineteenth century, Newport, Rhode Island, was a cauldron of undeclared class warfare where reputations were made and lost in a whirlwind of parties and fancied slights. Where giant marble mansions called cottages arose and whereamid the glamour of yacht races, tennis matches, and costume ballsdepression, even madness, sometimes followed social failure.
In 1893, Sam Driver, railroad mogul and one of the few surviving robber barons of the lawless years after the Civil War, knocks on the door of fabled Newport together with his daughter, Jenny, determined not to be turned away a second time.
The first time, his new money was tainted by his rapacious reputation and his dealings with some of the most dishonest businessmen of the era. The Drivers find that some who know Sams past wont let it rest. One enemy with a pedigree of wealth and position vows to slam every door in Sams face.
But Sam plunges in, determined to win a place in the strange, rarefied world of Newports brief summer season, presided over by social gadflies Ward McAllister and the androgynous Harry Lehr, both of whom will assist the Drivers . . . for a price. Sams daughter wants the best that Newport offers but finds herself drawn into a dangerous romance with an impoverished young Irishman.
The Gods of Newport brings this gilded age of excess to thrilling life. It was a time and place whose extremes of greed, conspicuous consumption, and social striving have an astonishing resonance and relevance for the America we see around us today.
Review
John Jakes is the best historical novelist of our time. (Patricia Cornwell) He is, quite simply, a master of the ancient art of storytelling. (The New York Times Book Review)
Synopsis
Determined to secure entry into the elite social circles of late nineteenth-century Rhode Island, former robber baron Sam Driver enlists the help of a pair of social gadflies but finds his efforts complicated by his daughter's dangerous romance with an impoverished young Irishman. 150,000 first printing.
Synopsis
In the late nineteenth century, Newport, Rhode Island-with its giant marble mansions, lavish dinner parties, and vicious social climbing- is a summer playground of the very rich. Into this rarefied world comes infamous railroad mogul and robber baron Sam Driver. He wants his beautiful daughter to have the best Newport has to offer-even if that means breaking all the rules...
About the Author
John Jakes is the bestselling author of Charleston, the Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South trilogy, On Secret Service, California Gold, Homeland, and American Dreams. Descended from a soldier of the Virginia Continental Line who fought in the American Revolution, Jakes is one of today’s most distinguished authors of historical fiction.