The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home

Today's post is on The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan. It is 400 pages long and is published by Touchstone. The cover is a picture of Biltmore. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of Biltmore and the Vanderbilt family. There is no foul language, no sex, and no voilence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- The fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore—the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.
The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.
Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best-known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.
Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.
The Last Castle is the uniquely American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

Review- I went into this book just expecting a history of a house but instead is about not just the house but the people who built it, loved it, and lived in it. Kiernan starts with the history of two families, the Vanderbilts and the Dressers. Who were they, what was their world like, and how did that influence the house that was to become Biltmore. Moving from the beginnings of family lines quickly to the lives of the two principal characters was interesting but it was the house I wanted to know more about. George Vanderbilt loved the area around Biltmore and Edith Vanderbilt loved the people who lived there. Together they changed the face of Ashville, North Carolina forever. The research for this book is impressive and massive with so many little details about the lives of those around Biltmore. If you are interested in the Vanderbilt family or the Biltmore House then you have to read this book.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.