Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Gods of Newport
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
The Gods of Newport
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
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, along with his daughter, Jenny, who is determined not to be turned away a second time.
Previously, Sam's new money was considered 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 Sam's past won't let it rest. One enemy with a pedigree of wealth and position vows to slam every door in Sam's face.
But Sam plunges in, determined to win a place in the strange, rarefied world of Newport's 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. Sam's 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.
Listeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"The prolific Jakes scores with a lush new historical saga set on the glamorous, windswept shores of late-nineteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, the summer playground of the fabulously wealthy....Jakes displays his characteristic flair for class melodrama....He has fashioned yet another breezy...piece of historical fiction, sure to please his many fans." (Booklist)