The Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic

Jack is the second protagonist of the novel and Madeleine’s love interest. He is famous for being an Astor and the richest man in America. Jack is tall, lean, and attractive, with brown hair and a mustache. Madeleine notes the force of his gaze, “a calm lucid gray, clear as a winter dawn” (2). She notes also the power of his presence and his attention. He is a man accustomed to attention and at ease with his power; Madeleine thinks he has the calm of a man who knows he can have anything he wants. Jack is accustomed to public interest in his family and has developed his own manner of dealing with nosy reporters, which entails trade and compromise.

Jack earned the rank of colonel while fighting in the Spanish-American War, and he is an author as well as a businessman. He is 29 years older than Madeleine. He was previously married to a socialite named Ava, with whom he had two children, Vincent and Alice. Their divorce scandalized their high-class society, and as divorce is frowned upon by the Episcopal church, of which Jack is a member, he has difficulty finding a pastor to wed him and Madeleine. He does not otherwise seem religious, though he does attend church services aboard the Titanic on her last day at sea.

Jack is reserved, not demonstrative, but intelligent and perceptive. He is also a gentleman in the sense of conduct. He follows the rules in courting Madeleine, sending her flowers and building up to larger gifts as their courtship progresses. He makes sure they are chaperoned, as is proper for her class, and invites her parents or sister on outings. He steals only two kisses before they are married, but after their marriage, he is both a passionate and attentive lover, and Madeleine is very happy.

Jack is aware of his influence and takes advantage of his privileges; for instance, no one ever bars his dog from places dogs aren’t allowed. He’s well aware why Ismay wants to have Colonel Astor on his flagship’s maiden voyage. But from Madeleine’s perspective, Jack also does not boast or wield his power to hurt others. When the officer of Lifeboat 4 tells Jack men aren’t allowed, Jack concedes. He throws Madeleine his gloves, one last nurturing gesture, and then watches as her lifeboat rows away. He could have bribed, demanded, or bullied his way onto a boat—Bruce Ismay managed to board one—but Jack does not. Madeleine tells their love story to her son in part because she wants Jakey to understand Jack as a real person and not some towering legend of a created myth even if, as she concedes, he is no ordinary man.

Vincent is a secondary character in the novel, the son of Jack and his first wife, Ava. Vincent is 18 when Madeleine and Jack first meet. He has a “brooding, heavy-browed look” (38) and gray eyes, and he is attractive like his father. Madeleine thinks he has wealth, privilege, and physical beauty, but she does not find him charming or full of humor. Jack describes him as clever, impetuous, and quick to anger, like his mother. Vincent stayed with his father after the divorce, but the separation was hard on him, and Jack thinks he is adrift. While Vincent is not described as being close to his mother, he resents Jack’s interest in Madeleine and resents sharing the house with Madeleine after she and Jack are married.

Vincent is a vulnerable young man who hides his wounds behind sharp words. The book doesn’t describe if he is subject to the same public scrutiny that followed his grandmother, mother, father, and now Madeleine. Vincent is wild with grief when he learns of the Titanic disaster and clings to fruitless hope that his father may yet be found. He feels that Madeleine killed him; their honeymoon was the reason they were on the Titanic, and Vincent accuses Madeleine of leaving Jack behind. He is not a person full of kindness, as Katherine observes at the picnic when Vincent makes a comment about feeding the dog their food. His feelings about Jakey at the end are likewise not expressed, but the reader senses that Vincent and Madeleine will never be close or take comfort from one another.

In the novel, Margaret is a supporting character, an ally and mentor to Madeleine. She is an older woman, married, a mother, and familiar with the ways of high society. She lived in Denver but is now in New York. She is the first society matron who does not condescend to Madeleine but rather welcomes her warmly. They become friends, and Margaret confides to Madeleine that she too was shut out of Denver high society, who called themselves the “Sacred Thirty Six.” Margaret was a shop girl and married a poor man who then struck it rich, so those with established wealth liked to look down on her.

Margaret provides Madeleine an opportunity for escape from New York when she invites the Astors to join her and her daughter, Helen, on their trip to Egypt. Madeleine is mostly preoccupied with Jack, but she runs into Margaret again on the Titanic and later on the Carpathia, where she finds Margaret tending to the third-class passengers who are in need of assistance. Margaret is in some ways a hint of the woman Madeleine could become, given time, maturity, and inclination.

The real-life Margaret Brown was a more vivid and forceful character than she appears in this novel. She was a great advocate for education for women, women’s suffrage, and combating childhood poverty. During the sinking of the Titanic, according to later reports, Margaret, who was on Lifeboat 6, tried strenuously to persuade the quartermaster of their boat to return for survivors. The quartermaster gave the same arguments as the officer in Madeleine’s boat in the novel: He feared suction from the sinking ship and the risk of being swamped by the desperate. From this anecdote, and for the many progressive social causes she championed throughout the rest of her life, Margaret was nicknamed “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” by posterity.