My Amazon review of The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home (Rated 5): A Sprawling Mansion of a Book – In a thoroughly researched history of Biltmore, Denise Kiernan has written a sprawling mansion of a book, as multifaceted as one of the stained glass windows adorning All Souls Cathedral in nearby Asheville, North Carolina. In lively prose, readers get full portraits of the Vanderbilt family, vivid descriptions of architecture and landscaping, the local industries that the estate fostered, and above all, a society that ricochets from the excesses of the Gilded Age, to the headiness of the Jazz Age, and into the despair of the Depression. Throughout, a privileged family’s visions of grandeur are compensated for by their unwavering commitment to charity. In sum, the book portrays a people, a home, and an era whose resonance still echoes today.
