Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.
Title: Last Train to Paradise
Subtitle: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
Author: Les Standiford
Narrator: Del Roy
Format: Unabridged
Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-11-03
Publisher: Books on Tape
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 246 votes
Genres: History, American
Publisher's Summary:
The paths of the great American robber barons were paved with riches, and though ordinary citizens paid for them, they also profited. Les Standiford, author of the John Deal thrillers, tells how the man who turned Florida's swamps into the playgrounds of the rich performed the almost superhuman feat of building a railroad from the mainland to Key West at the turn of the century. An extraordinary man and partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company, Flagler had the vision to build railroads to link this backward territory with the rest of America. Last Train to Paradise shows how he masterminded the nearly impossible engineering feat of spanning more than 100 miles of ocean and islands to reach the southernmost tip of the Eastern seaboard.
©2002 Les Standiford; (P)2002 Books On Tape, Inc., Published by arrangement with Random House Audio Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Critic Reviews:
"A powerful story told by a talented writer." (Library Journal)
"This book is a remarkable account of one man's dream that ended in disaster." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
A Pleasant Surprise
This book was a pleasant listening surprise. I try to choose books beyond my regular interest for the discipline and to expand my horizons. This book by novelist Les Standiford did the trick.
Actually, the book is the nonfiction story of HM Flagler who developed Florida as a vacation destination. Only industrial archeologist can find the remains of the railroad, but Standiford brings the era, the money, the work, and the result to life for those interested today.
This is the story of an investment, a dream, ambitions, and human failings. Well read, well written, this book is a good choice.
A really engrossing history tale
I bought this book prior to our most recent trip to Key West. Listened to it on the train south (appropriate, huh?).
I enjoy history that is told through a real person's viewpoint. The drama of the Labor Day hurricane that decimated southern Florida is the focus of the story. Background details of Henry Flagler, the man who built the rail line to paradise, is woven in. Without too many "boring" facts, but enough to give meat to the tale.
Included are writing of E. Hemmingway about what he saw in the storm's aftermath. Things too shocking to be published in the press of the day. The stories of many of Key West's notable personalities are included as well. If you're interested in Key West, this is a marvelous primer on a snippet of island's less-known past.
Last Train to Paradise
I'm a retired attorney from San Francisco who went to see an old college buddy in Florida planning to drive to Key West. Listened to the book on the plane. When we drove the "Keys" I put the book together with the drive. Very enjoyable. I you plan to visit the Keys, you would really like this book.
Johnny
Awesome history about the Florida Keys
If you could sum up Last Train to Paradise in three words, what would they be?
Informative engaging great
Who was your favorite character and why?
Henry Flagler, the developer of not only the Florida Keys but also the state of Florida.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
How Florida was developed
Suspensful, gripping.
