Hotel du Lac cover art

Hotel du Lac

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Hotel du Lac

By: Anita Brookner
Narrated by: Anna Massey
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About this listen

Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed...

©1984 Anita Brookner (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Feel-Good Dream

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All stars
Most relevant
as usual the narration was excellent., though this not a book I would have picked up and read.

hotel down on your luck

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Was this really written as recently as 1984?
I remember reading it when I was young and inexperienced in life - I wonder what I made of it then..... Probably enjoyed the whimsical romance of it all - it seemed very popular with everyone.

However coming to it again after half a lifetime I now can't believe what stilted, dated tosh it is.
Unrealistic scenes, improbable cliched characters....astoundingly unconvincing dialogue:
"You don't love me..."
"No - I don't love you - but you have got under my guard. You have moved and touched me in a way I no longer wish to be touched...."
My Darcy - how say such a thing to such a vapid colourless heroine as poor Edith?!!
So two dimensional.....

I think this book was not written for someone like me....
I grow old, I grow old, etc, etc.

Jane Austen meets Mills & Boone

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Anna Massey is always a joy to listen to. The story is full of characters beautifully described.

A very cosy tale

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I had long wanted to read this book and it's been an sbsolute pleasure listening to it being read by the wonderful Anna Massey. It's beautifully written. No excess. Sheet magic. Literature at last.

Perfect

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An old love of mine, this marvellous book, I felt it was time to revisit it and see if it still sat high on my list of favourite reads. Happy to report it’s power remains undiminished. A thoroughly gripping story, peopled with (mostly) ghastly characters, in scenes and situations brought vividly to life by Ms Brookner’s elegantly perfect prose.
Having seen, and loved, the terrifically talented Anna Massey as our doughty heroine in, I believe, a BBC production many years ago, I was delighted to discover that it is she who is the narrator in this Audible production. What a treat! Her mastery of the ‘read’ word is astonishing, and I can’t wait to relisten to it. Highly recommended.

A class act

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