Every Man For Himself

by Beryl Bainbridge

After taking on the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in her previous book, The Birthday Boys, the novelist tackles a much larger 1912 disaster: the sinking of the Titanic. The narrator, a 22-year-old named Morgan, brushes up against real-life victims such as John James Astor early in the voyage, while falling in love with the beautiful and unobtainable Wallis Ellery. The deadly maiden voyage of the world's largest ocean liner becomes a journey of self-discovery in this portentous, postmodern work.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Literature, British Literature, Contemporary

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often set among the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Award twice and was nominated for the Booker Prize five times. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the maiden voyage of the Titanic is a familiar one, but Bainbridge still managed an impressively fresh reimagination of the personal experiences of a rich young Anglo-American who has been adopted by the family of J.P. Morgan. His journey is somewhat picaresque - he spends most of the voyage scheming, drinking, gambling and chasing women, and any heroic qualities he has only emerge near the end as he helps co-ordinate the evacuation and contrives an unlikely Hollywood style escape that conveniently allows him to live to tell the tale.

The story is largely a microcosm of the British class system, and the disaster prefigures its wider collapse into the Great War, as loss of face outweighs technical concerns and the comfort and social experience of the first class passengers is paramount. The tone is less overtly comic than Bainbridge's early novels, but there are still plenty of funny moments.

Incidentally, I was not impressed by the print quality in this Abacus paperback edition - many of the pages suffered from a rather distracting column of slightly squashed characters down the middle, which suggests that there may have been a paper or printer fault somewhere. This never made the book unreadable but was decidedly annoying.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A man bears the weight of his own body without knowing it, but he soon feels the weight of any other object. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget- but not himself.”
This is another variation of the Titanic story, this time by Beryl Bainbridge. It was shortlisted for the Booker in 1996. Spoiler Alert: it sinks! This is a fictionalised account, although a number of real-life characters do flit in and out: Thomas Andrews, Ismay, Astor, Captain Smith, Lady Duff Gordon and others. There is a first-person narrator, who is a young relative of J P Morgan, or at least an adoptee: it isn’t that clear. He is rather handily called Morgan. The fictional characters are mainly in first class and are a fairly typical assortment. These include an opera singer with a dubious past, a rather obvious caricature of a Jewish tailor, assorted young adults interacting in fairly typical ways. Morgan is in his early 20s. In the folio edition, which I read, the illustrations were by Bainbridge herself (the best part of the book it must be said).
Bainbridge spends only the last quarter of the book on the sinking. The first three quarters deals with the comings and goings of the first class passengers, the circle around Morgan. As you would expect, there’s nothing new here and the cavortings of the youngish and rich do lose their attraction after a while. It seemed to me to be a wasted opportunity to ignore most of the passengers. Bainbridge has a good imagination and tells a fair story, but this just didn’t really resonate with me.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short, almost restrained, novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Prize when published in 1996. It tells the story of Morgan, a relative of J.P. Morgan, who feels, "destined to be a participant rather than a spectator of singular events". When a man dies in his arms shortly before he is to return to the States, he leaves his uncle's house almost secretly (a stolen picture of his mother tucked away) and gets the milk train to Southampton. For the young man is surely about to participate in a major world event by boarding Titanic on her maiden voyage.

Although we are soon aware that Morgan is not quite the same as his upper class friends, he fits seamlessly into first class. His family background is slightly troubled, unknown, but then other passengers have their secrets too. What is interesting about this novel is the way Bainbridge shows how all these people are almost trapped together - a large, unhappy family. They travel to the same places, went to the same schools, shared social lives and even mistresses. The novel cleverly tells the story of life aboard, with all the little intrigues, love affairs and gossip. The author uses many real life characters - Lady Duff Gordon, Thomas Andrews, Bruce Ismay and Astor populate the pages, but as we know what is coming that overshadows everything that happens. This really is a clever read, which recreates life on board and the pressure these young men were under when calamity happened to be brave and not get in a 'funk'; when to be a man was to feel shame at surviving.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something endlessly fascinating about the sinking of the Titanic. Perhaps it is the idea that people were going about their business, enjoying their lives, until hours before they were suddenly swept away into oblivion. Perhaps it is the number of blunders that contributed to this disaster and how easily most of them could have been avoided. Perhaps it is the feeling you get that certain events are destined and nothing could prevent it happening, or the indiscriminate way some people survived while others died. Or perhaps just the unparalleled opportunity it gives us to glimpse man at his best and his worst, extremely courageous or abjectly cowardly, facing death with a bravery you cannot imagine, or scrambling to save only himself without regard for others at all.

Whatever the allure, I confess to being always willing to be drawn into another tale of the events of that cold April night. In that regard, however, I do not find this to be one of the better told accounts. I did not connect to Morgan, and certainly not to his rich and pompous friends, or find his behavior either before or during the disaster to be particularly enlightening. The first half of the book plods, but the second half that deals with the sinking itself moves at a pace that takes your breath. I feel that must have been how it seemed to those on board--a slow and easy ride, right up until the moment it was excruciatingly over.

I enjoyed the book, but was not overly impressed, and I was astonished to know that it was short-listed for the Booker. If you want to read a tale about the Titanic, I highly recommend A Night to Remember.

To my own good fortune, this book was published in 1996, thus fulfilling a criteria for a challenge I have taken on for the summer...so, everything is good.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was... puzzling? Underwhelming? Unsatisfying? My first Beryl Bainbridge and my gut feel that she's not for me seems to have been proven right. I don't know, this should have been just the thing for me: the maiden voyage of the Titanic, exposés of class and wealth, issues of masculinity and gender roles in a crisis... but it all felt rather flat and a bit aimless. Was that the point? The effete leisured classes of the Edwardian era cruising their way to the catastrophe of WW1? But that doesn't quite work as half the wealthy passengers are American, including our narrator, and thus relatively distanced from the war until 1917 when, ironically, another drowned liner, the Lusitania, was one factor that drew them in.

Bainbridge can certainly write an elegant sentence but I found this a chilly, unengaging piece which deliberately leaves the fate of the Titanic till about 85% of the way through the book then wraps it up in an open-ended chapter. That in itself wouldn't necessarily have been a problem given that we know what's going to happen - but I expected something involving and sharp and instead I got flaccid and flabby.

Having read A Night to Remember in the last few months, I felt Bainbridge had read exactly the same source and so the actual disaster felt familiar - she does infuse these chaotic scenes with energy and urgency, but nothing that I hadn't seen before.

It's especially disconcerting that the opportunity to gives faces and voices to the steerage passengers isn't taken. So many of the official accounts focus on the first class famous and wealthy names that I'd have expected Bainbridge to rebalance the narrative, even if only through imaginative fiction. But no. There is the incursion of a steerage class woman who sings and is taken up by a tailor and the Duff Gordons, but this is a minor event in the scheme of the book.

I also struggled to understand the significance of coincidence in the shape of the novel: our narrator meets a passenger who just happens to have known his parents and more about his early life than he does himself. But to offset the idea that the group are elites who share the same schools, universities, lovers and marriage partners, we also have the unconvincing scenario of the narrator being involved in a death in the opening pages that then turns out to have a connection to a fellow passenger, but definitely not an elite and wealthy one.

So I'm not quite sure what to make of this - it's short enough for me to have finished but I'm left rather, ahem, adrift as to what the book is trying to do and say.

[GoldGato · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book puzzled me. How can you screw up the Titanic story? But it just did nothing for me, which seems to put my review in the minority. Lots of bland talk, blah blah blah blah. Yup, way to make the greatest maritime incident in history bee-oar-ing...with three syllables. I had to smack myself awake.

Book Season = Winter (maybe the cold will lead you to a gentle sleep)

[Kath B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1996 and is a fascinating story of how life might have been on board the ship before and during the disaster.

Narrated by J.P. Morgan, a privileged, if troubled, young man in his twenties, the reader is introduced straight away to the scandalous difference in accommodation and access for the wealthy travellers compared to those in second and third class reinforcing the expectations of those who felt truly entitled to their places in life as well as aboard ship. The author skillfully plays on these themes to show that death does not differentiate between rich and poor when the boat begins to sink - although, significantly, it is the wealthier class (women and children) that are allowed into the lifeboats first.

Morgan is a really well-developed character - a young man who is conscious that he has been extremely lucky in his life till now but doesn't know whether or not he really belongs. He was adopted by a wealthy family, and cannot seem to reconcile himself to his current situation, feeling a significant amount of guilt and anxiety about his position whilst at the same time he seems incapable of throwing off his rich flighty friends with their lack of responsibilities.

As the story moves to its dramatic conclusion we are introduced to a range of other characters, some of whom are based on real people, and their reasons for being on board. They provide further interest to Morgan's story as they all have an influence, good and bad, on him, as he contemplates his future following the voyage.

The final part of the book is brilliantly described with passengers finding it hard to come to terms with what's going on and stranded in disbelief that it could be happening to them. There is a dreamlike quality to the scenes of the band playing on and people continuing to drink and play cards as the ship begins to go down.

This is an excellent read - one of my favourites of the year. A must-read for anyone interested in anything to do with The Titanic or the social history of the time.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I was obsessed with the sinking of the Titanic. I recall watching James Cameron's movie multiple times on VHS, and I asked my parents to get me Daniel Allen Butler's Unsinkable for Christmas, which I read multiple times. Something about the ship caught this young boy's interest, and wouldn't let go; I remember observing the efforts to salvage what remained of the wreck back then, and although I haven't thought of the ship in years, seeing this novel rejuvenated this old interest.

Anyone expecting to find out more about the Titanic itself is bound to be disappointed, as it becomes clear very early on that Beryl Bainbridge's real interest lies not in the technical specifics of the transatlantic liner itself, or the minutae regarding its tragedy, but rather in the fates of the selected characters onboard. In Every Man for Himself, the ship becomes a canvas for young Morgan, a relative of the famous American magnate, on which his relationships with his fellow passengers are painted. Because we all know how the story of the ship's maiden voyage ultimately ends, it's a clever way to at least delay the inevitable, and focus on the interesting - the microcosm that formed the ship's deck and below it, when people from so many different social classes found themselves confined in the same vessel for a long journey.

While I found Morgan to be a sympathetic figure, the rest of the cast struck me as almost impossibly dull - many upper-class characters are understandably unsympathetic, but sadly they are the ones Morgan mostly surrounds himself with - he doesn't get the chance to mingle with the passengers from the lower classes, which I think would make for a much, much more interesting book. As much as I enjoyed Bainbridge's sneering at the snobbish, upper-class morality that has prevailed to this day, I wish I could have seen the young, idealistic Morgan interact with those whom he claimed to support, and not just those with whom the luck of his birth he found himself bound to.

If you are expecting a fast-paced and entertaining novel, then perhaps this is not the book for you, as for most of its volume the story moves along like molasses, only to pick up near the very end. I enjoyed the little tidbits given by the author, which hint at the disaster to come - but mostly found myself strangely dissociated and disengaged from both the liner and its passengers, which was not at all what I expected when I began reading it, and even the author's prose couldn't keep me involved until the very end, which for me was the best written part of the entire novel - the pacing picks up dramatically, and so does the writing, which conveys the tragedy and despair of that moment well. Still, despite being a nominee for the 1996 Booker Prize, I found it to be surprisingly forgettable - not one I'd revisit or recommend.

[Bruce MacBain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized account of the sinking of the Titanic, originally published in 1996 and now reissued, as have been so many other books on the subject, to coincide with the centenary of the disaster. Beryl Bainbridge was a distinguished writer and this book either won, or was a finalist for, a number of prestigious awards. It is with some diffidence, then, that I confess that I didn’t like it. The book is nine-tenths over before the ship hits the iceberg and I found myself increasingly impatient with the convoluted relationships of a cast of fictitious characters whom I could neither believe in nor care about—despite the fact that they are all doomed but don’t know it. The first-person narrator is a callow young American who is born and raised in poverty until it is discovered somehow that he is related to millionaire J. P. Morgan. His fellow passengers include a caricatured Jewish tailor, an international man of mystery, an opera diva with a dark past, and a number of interchangeable bright young things. How much more interesting were the real passengers—the Astors, Strauses, and Gugenheims—who here only flit through the background! And when the catastrophe does finally occur, the narrative is, to my ear anyway, surprisingly flat. This is, in my humble opinion, a book to forget about the Night to Remember.

[Jean-Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all know how this story ends, and yet I savored every page Beryl Bainbridge's exquisite telling. The narrator can be a real prick—he is 'nephew' to J. P. Morgan and a tremendous snob, who looks down on anyone not in his social class, and needs only half an excuse to mention his connections—soliloquy of the solipsist. Bainbridge's protagonists usually have working class backgrounds and it was fun—until tragedy struck, that is—to see her explore how the other half lives. Those in steerage hardly get a mention, almost as if the book was written in condemnation of the rich, who do not come off well. There's a single narrator as opposed to a different narrator for every chapter, which she does in several of her later novels.

Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews, Molly Brown ('Mrs Brown of Denver') are names familiar to any student of history, and/or anyone who grew up with the 1997 film, and they feature in Bainbridge's version as well. Where's Jack? Where's Rose? Only kidding. This book, completely unrelated except by subject, came out a year before the movie, and in certain scenes the two mirror each other (and probably real events) rather closely—Bainbridge and Cameron likely dipped into the same research materials.

Every man for himself is right—cynical as it is, and barring a very small number of exceptions—however much we like to pretend otherwise.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We drank just enough to heighten our perceptions, so that when we began our inspection of the ship I fancy we'd loosened that grey veil of sophistication common to our kind.

What had happened was no more than a photograph snapped long ago, in another country, its chemical impression now fading.

(of Bruce Ismay)...he did have layers, bur like an onion they were all the same.

There are some stories that affect us in a deep, inescapable way, and the Titanic saga is surely one of those. This book made me do some historical research into the Titanic passengers Bainbridge’s characters are based on, which turned into an hours-long rabbit hole for me. There’s so much to read online, especially now following the Titan tragedy this past week. The book leaves us with a number of questions, but isn't that the whole enigma of the Titanic story - so very many questions that will never be answered. I was so reminded of Allan Wolf's YA book The Watch That Ends the Night that I had to order that one to reread. These two books could certainly be read in tandem. 5 stars.

[Courtney Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if reading this book before Cameron's calculated tear-jerker came out was even more affecting than it was reading it afterwards. Like re-reading Pride & Prejudice this days and trying to keep the text separate from the filmic palimpsest that's layered over top of it, reading 'Every Man for Himself' without seeing Kate and Leonardo running about the place is almost impossible.

The protagonist - an un-named young man closely but mysteriously attached to J Pierpont Morgan - also reminded me hugely of the ill-starred young people of Waugh's 'Vile Bodies'. He half-sees and half-understands the complex relationships he moves through as he negotiates the first-class passengers, and observes those on lower decks. His role is primarily to tell the stories of those around him, and over four short, feverish days he holds you gripped until the inevitable end.

Next I'm seeking out 'The Birthday Boys'.

[Trelawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bainbridge is definitely becoming a favourite. In this short novel she chronicles the fate of the passengers of the Titanic on their doomed voyage to New York. She focuses mainly on the first class passengers (some real, some fictional). Bainbridge lays bare the secrets and relationships of the rich and privileged as they cross the ocean to return to wives or family or to embark on their career. The tragedy of the Titanic remains in the background for much of the narrative with the characters blissfully unaware of what lies ahead. If they were told they were about to make history they might assume it was for arriving in port ahead of time. Many believed, for far too long, that the Titanic was indeed unsinkable and that all would be well. Thus, when realisation dawned it was all the more tragic. It is a beautifully told story.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving account of the privileged few aboard the doomed first and only voyage of Titanic, the unsinkable ship.
Beautifully written, you could almost feel the chill in the air and see the stars above!
The last few pages have you drawn into the despair and for some that were still convinced the ship wouldn't sink and just carried on.
Recommended even if one knows what happens.
The writing is exquisite!

[Priya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the most tightly written books I've ever read. With not one superfluous word, Bainbridge advances the story at an impressive pace and creates tension in a situation where we know the inevitable outcome.

[Bradley Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a chilling account of Titanic and the doomed voyage. While I found the first half confusing and struggled to get into the story, I eventually became captivated and wondered who all was going to make it into a boat. The main reason for a low rating is the ending was lackluster. The sinking took place so quickly, and this seemed like a missed opportunity to show us some new dimensions of these characters.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set on the Titanic, I found the first part of this rather slow going and it was definitely being towards a 3* read. I'm the last 1/4 however, once the iceberg struck, it became gripping and I couldn't put it down.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart novel set on the Titanic as it makes its maiden and final voyage across the Atlantic in 1912. Bainbridge examines a small group of the wealthy upper class passengers as they bicker, amuse themselves and fall in love, heedless of the fate that awaits them. She demonstrates the closed interconnected community of the rich, and their position in society, paradoxically both solid and precarious.

The narrator of the book is Morgan, a relative of JP Morgan, whose shadowy early life makes him both an insider and an outsider amongst the other wealthy passengers. I enjoyed his ironic, self-deprecating tone as he poked fun at his friends and relatives. There were plenty of Bainbridge’s typical throwaway lines, easy to miss but perceptive and penetrating when caught. Steerage passengers and crew play only a supporting part, appearing briefly and occasionally in the eye line of the self obsessed first class, but their presence adds meaning to the narrative.

This book may disappoint readers who are looking for more of the drama and sentimentality that often accompanies books about the Titanic. The disaster itself takes only a few pages at the end, and is outlined in broad strokes, although there is plenty of foreshadowing leading up to this denouement. However, I really liked its perspective and how it evoked the doom of both a small group on the ship and a wider class of society, and found it thought provoking and interesting.

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a magnificent imagination Beryl Bainbridge was blessed with in creating life on board Titanic, on her fatal maiden voyage. It seemed very realistic and l felt sure that the writing was grounded on considerable research. The narrator is Morgan, a young passenger and erstwhile draughtsman on the ship, and a connection of the wealthy American Bank, JP Morgan. He has his own state room suite on board and much of our time is spent with his wealthy clique on board. We are introduced to some of the lesser mortals and become aware of social tensions at a time just prior to the outbreak of the first world war.

Many of the shallow, idle rich we encounter on board, and briefly in the water, seem no great loss to mankind. The Americans and the Brits seemed equally snobby in their attitudes toward lesser mortals. Good old days? I think not.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always think I like Beryl Bainbridge's writing. Then I read one of her books and I find myself struggling to stay engaged and I wonder what is wrong with me - because it can't be her. She's Beryl Bainbridge and I'm just me. It must be me.

I had moments of enjoyment but this was one of those books that once it was put down I had to do a little mental battle to pick it up again. Perhaps it's not a good choice when you're on holiday and there is so much else going on that is fun and distracting?

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The voyage of the Titanic as seen through the eyes of an adopted nephew of J.P. Morgan. “I was destined to be a participant rather than a spectator of singular events,” he states. I had some trouble keeping his fellow passengers straight, but I enjoyed the little moments of dramatic irony where people are joking about accidents and praising the ship’s stability. The whole book is strangely detached given its focus on a famous tragedy, but the last chapter, and especially the last paragraph, are terrific.

[Graceann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please see my detailed review at Amazon Graceann's "Every Man for Himself" Review"

Quite a letdown after the excellent prose in Testament of Youth. No character development and nobody worth caring about. I'm glad it was such a short book so that I didn't waste any more time on it than necessary.

[JoBerlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In diesem Roman beschreibt Beryl Bainbridge die Jungfernfahrt der RMS Titanic bis hin zur letzten Nacht, der Nacht des Untergangs. Spannend schreibt die Autorin und lässt mich geradezu atemlos die Seiten umblättern und umblättern.
Herausragend ist aber nicht nur Konstrukt und exzellenter Stil, eindrucksvoll ist die Darstellung insbesondere der Klasse-1-Passagiere, es handelt sich hier um amerikanische Millionäre, englischen (Geld)adel und wohlbetuchte Erben. Ein Reisender bemerkt dazu: „ …. [sie] lebten nicht in der normalen Welt, vielmehr seien sie durch ihren Reichtum, ihre einsame Kindheit, ihre engstirnige Erziehung und ihren Mangel an sittlichem Empfinden von der Wirklichkeit getrennt. Die Intelligenteren unter ihnen mochten versuchen, aus diesen Kreisen auszubrechen, eine Zeitlang womöglich sogar mit Erfolg, würden jedoch mit der Unausweichlichkeit eines Bumerangs am Ende wieder da landen, wo sie hergekommen waren.“ Wie agieren nun diese verwöhnten, vielleicht sogar lebensuntüchtigen Menschen angesichts der Katastrophe?
Beryl Bainbridges Roman ist für mich eine beglückende Entdeckung, Neuauflagen ihrer Bücher wären so, so wünschenswert!

Die deutsche Ausgabe "Nachtlicht" ist nur noch antiquarisch zu bekommen.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fully expect this to be the best book I read in 2023. 'Every Man for Himself' won the Whitbread prize for fiction in 1996 and it's not hard to see why. The story of the Titanic's maiden voyage is well known and so the finale is no great surprise but as Hilary Mantel says in an extract of a Sunday Times review included on the fly page 'the cost of raising the Titanic is prohibitive, Bainbridge does the next best thing'.
In essence the story involves a number of very well heeled first class passengers and their concerns and foibles. The real story of course, is the giant, unsinkable vessel steaming across the ocean on its maiden voyage heading towards its inevitable fate. The wealthy passengers know nothing of what is to come so enjoy lives of inconsequence aboard the most luxurious liner in the world.
fabulous.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The multiple Oscar-winning film, Titanic, appeared in 1997. Whether Beryl Bainbridge’s novel, Every Man For Himself, was already in the planning before that movie was cenceived is a matter open to conjecture or the biographer. Even if the novelist chose the subject deliberately to coincide with the launch of a blockbuster, the novel has to be read on its own considerable merits, which did indeed include a Whitbread Prize, a nomination for a Booker and a Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. The book’s subject matter, however, might at first sight, and especially now that we are so familiar with the feature film, suggest repetition or mere cliché. After all, what more is there to be said about an event that has already been done to death in multimedia? In attempting such a project, a novelist of the stature of Beryl Bainbridge might have run the risk of being seen to court populism or, even, worse, triteness. But Every Man For Himself succeeds. It transcends all such possible criticism by virtue of its refined literary style, the subtlety of its characters and ultimately the credibility of its scenario.

The bones of the Titanic story are covered, but unlike the feature film they do not form the very gist of the spectacle. Despite one of the book’s characters having been involved in the ship’s design and construction, here we are spared redundant detail of dimension, quantity and material. This is not a novel about a ship, despite the almost continual sense of visual opulence that pervades the experience. On the contrary, this is a novel about the people on board, or more accurately a particular class, who sailed in her. In Beryl Bainbridge’s novel we are among the upper crust, or at least those who aspire to join them, many decks above the steerage who, just like they do anywhere, populate a level of society that the ‘comfortable’ know to exist but only rarely acknowledge.

Thus Every Man For Himself, despite its brevity, successfully addresses the vast minefield of British social class relations. At the start of this voyage, those class relations seem to be rigidly contrasted in lower versus upper decks, in steerage dorms versus plush cabins. And these differences are not merely economic, since identity and assumption are also in play. But when crisis materialises, the price of a passenger’s ticket contributes nothing towards the ability to survive. A vision of new equality arises when, clearly, the planned facilities cannot cope, and never could have doped, since those who conceived the boat could not conceive of its demise.

But it is in the book’s metaphorical mode that this short novel transcends and exceeds much of what has been written or shot about the fate of the Titanic. In the same way that the ship’s designers could not conceive of a collision so catastrophic that it might sink an unsinkable vessel, perhaps those who assumed existing class relations were permanent could also not conceive of a war so devastating it would ruin a continent and simply erase convention. It was not just a ship that sank on this voyage, but also the rigid societal divisions that inspired its very design.

Of course we already know the plot of Every Man For Himself. Eventually even the book’s scenario makes sense. But the real danger of writing such a novel is that it becomes subservient to those events we already know, destined merely to repeat them. But Beryl Bainbridge is several cuts above this class of writer and the book transcends the familiar to address universal themes simply through its intense study of character. Thus clichés, even the less obvious, are all avoided.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adoptee of the banker JP Morgan with an orphaned, uncertain past, takes first-class passage on the maiden, and of course only, voyage of the RMS Titanic.

Spent largely in the company of bankers, magnates, and his flighty friends -a vacuous bunch of young socialites, gauche sons and daughters of the great and good- he also comes into contact with members of the working-class from amongst the crew.

As the ship sails inevitably towards disaster, the callow narrator becomes increasingly in thrall to an enigmatic businessman called Scurra who, alongside the horrific incidents that followed the breaching and sinking of that fateful ship, illustrates to him some fundamental facts of life, best incapsulated in Bainbridge's chosen title.

As with any novel set on the Titanic, the ironies come thick and heavy. The socialites toast their youth and the joy of being alive, make some sport with supposed omens, even start a book on the estimated arrival time at New York "barring accidents", which gets a laugh.

Then there are the occasional details of people and objects which were due to travel but didn't, such as JP Morgan himself and his art collection, "all those wonderful Rubenses and Rembrandts" which a change of plan saved for posterity.

And lastly, we get the seemingly incredulous (yet historically true) behaviour of some of the passengers as the end approaches, continuing their games of cards regardless, dancing the foxtrot as the orchestra plays on while the waters rush round, indulging in childish tiffs, rendered all the more pathetic by the gravity of the real crisis at hand.

For all that though, Every Man for Himself is not really about the Titanic. Don't get me wrong, it tells the story of the sinking sure enough, and there are some highly visual scenes which would make for a stunning cinematic experience to knock spots off Cameron's overblown clunker (most especially when the narrator is finally washed into the waves), but the death of the ship is secondary to the death of something more personal, the narrator's illusions.

That's a difficult narrative undertaking when the drama of the disaster far outweighs any individual rites of passage, but Bainbridge is a bold, brilliant writer with a keen intelligence behind all she does, so against the odds she pulls it off.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrated by a young man called Morgan who is related to J P Morgan who owned the shipping line. Morgan is rich, aimless and seems to attract tragedy. Mysteries about the Titanic and also the passengers surround the few days of the voyage. The sinking of the Titanic was brilliantly written. The calmness of the water, the slow unfolding of events. Written mostly from the first class point of view and captures their tight-knit, elitist world. The novel concentrates on their lives and the disaster is always looming in the background.

[Hollie]

Not the best book I've ever read, really hard going, I found that I didn't really care about the characters. I wanted to read about the Titanic, not a side story and then the last 80 pages or so of when it sank. I love reading about the Titanic but there wasn't enough about it in the book, to be honest it could have been set anywhere. The last few pages where it got to the part about the ship sinking was really good, just a shame about the rest of the book.

[Lisa Matheny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This stunk. I just didn't care for or about the characters. I tried to read it or over 70 pages and realized life is short and I shouldn't waste another minute trying to gather interest for her characters. Don't waste your time reading this drivel. I didn't finish the book. I have more important things to do like visit the lavatory.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Titanic hasn’t held the same fascination for me as I believe it has for others, I’ve never even seen the film as, after all, we all know the ending. Going into this book, therefore, I was interested in the direction Beryl Bainbridge would take, would else she could add to the story that hasn’t been done before.

We follow Morgan, nephew, although indirectly, of J.P Morgan as he embarks on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, going home to New York to perhaps finally decide at twenty-one, what he wants to do with his life. He and his other young, primarily male, wealthy friends spend their few days abroad the boat, carousing, arguing, dining and gossiping amongst the other wealthy first class passengers on board. Morgan is not your average dilettante as is shown when his background is fleshed out and explored throughout the novel and he associates with staff and a steerage passenger on the ship whose lives, despite his efforts to bond, are so different from his own.

I lost my patience, however, with the frivolity and snobbery of Morgan and his friends, there are constant references to people ‘knowing their place’ which riled me and despite hints that Morgan is more than this, different from his friends, I’m not sure I was convinced. His character almost seems a caricature of what a young man would be at the time, lines like ‘She’s only a girl but her intelligence is formidable’ and ‘I like people to know their place, just as long as I’m not required to step on them.’ In hindsight, I wondered if this emphasis on class was intended to show that class only takes us so far as when disaster strikes there is a great equalization but the escape efforts from the ship show that even then class played a part.

The other aspect of the novel that irritated me was the constant ironic references to the disaster with characters saying, “To be young, to be lucky enough to be here at such a time”, and when discussing the arrival time, “Tuesday night, yes. Barring accidents,” at which they both laughed’ as well as the ‘omens’ and other prescient lines that are too many to mentioned.
There are some intriguing characters on board, Scurra, Adele and Rosenfelder, and the ships architect Thomas Andrews and there are scenes played out that keep the story not simply a tale of a disaster at sea. Beryl Bainbridge also does a wonderful job of describing the ship and the design, at least of the first class decks, the grand staircase, the details and luxury. This is very much a novel about a certain class of people and their experience of the disaster and when it finally happens the chapter is as intense as you would expect, actually quite hard to read.

I was intrigued as to how much of the novel was based in fact knowing very little about the details and went down a Wikipedia hole of searching for information. What struck me was not only that Bainbridge had clearly done her research but the facts I found out about the disaster, why the ship may have crumpled so easily, why there were so few lifeboats, the rescue and the survivors and how the disaster changed maritime rules and operations. The title of the novel implies a free for all when the ship struck ice but this doesn’t seem to be what occurred although force did have to be used and instead the phrase is used by Scurra to justify his selfishness in relationships. This enigmatic character is definitely one of the strongest in the novel but is not the only one to whom hidden depths can be attributed. The fact that we don’t find out more just accentuates the tragedy of the disaster, that 1500 lives were lost in one terrible night.

Some Favorite lines

‘There is no way of knowing how one will react to danger until faced with it. Nor can we know what capacity we have for nobility and self-sacrifice unless something happens to rouse such conceits into activity.’

‘Brief as the moment had been we had nonetheless clearly seen the awesome monster rearing on splayed legs from the glittering avenue below, its gigantic head vibrating inside its steel helmet, its thunderous intestines of lubricated pistons and crank-shafts pounding and pumping in perpetual motion.’