Little Hotel, The
by Stead, Christina
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0030132266
- ISBN 13
- 9780030132261
- Seller
-
Middlebury, Vermont, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Holt Rinehart Winston , 1975. 3rd pr.. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Hardcover, 191 pages. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In a small European hotel in the late 1940s a bizarre group of characters, who all seem to be on the run from some past financial, personal or political horror, come together. Record # 204153
Reviews
On Nov 5 2016, CloggieDownunder said:
3.5 stars
The Little Hotel is the tenth novel published by Australian author, Christina Stead. This edition is published under the Text Classics banner and sports a gorgeous colourful cover by the talented W H Chong, as well as an introduction by poet and author, Lisa Gorton. While it was not published until 1973, Stead began writing it, or some version of it, in the early 1950s, based on her diaries of her time in Europe with her partner, communist sympathiser, William Blake, in the fifties.
Mme Selda Bonnard runs Hotel Swiss-Touring with her husband, Roger and their multi-cultural staff. Their guests are equally diverse, and Selda's observations about them and of their interactions form the bulk of this novel. It's just a few years after the end of World War Two, and Swiss-Touring is a cheap lake-shore hotel that caters to tourists as well as longer-term residents.
Against a backdrop of paranoia about the possible Russian invasion and the difficulties of retrieving funds from their native lands, the hotel's guests, past and present, are described in potted histories and anecdotes; their petty crises and domestic dramas are filled with snobbery, racism, jealousy and insecurity. Many of the guests are eccentric; one turns out to be crazy; others may even be dangerous.
Stead evokes post-war Europe with consummate ease, firmly establishing the era with both her characters' ideas, opinions and dilemmas, and the political and financial situation. This neat little volume will appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction with a good dose of satire. Classic fiction from an award-winning Australian author.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Browsing Is Arousing (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 204153
- Title
- Little Hotel, The
- Author
- Stead, Christina
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Edition
- 3rd pr.
- ISBN 10
- 0030132266
- ISBN 13
- 9780030132261
- Publisher
- Holt Rinehart Winston
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1975
- Keywords
- Fiction Novels, Novels, , .
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction Novels;
Terms of Sale
Browsing Is Arousing
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About the Seller
Browsing Is Arousing
Biblio member since 2021
Middlebury, Vermont
About Browsing Is Arousing
From the founders of "Monroe Street Books", "Browsing is Arousing" is a strictly on-line antiquarian, rare, out-of-print & used books store. Our wide-range of inventory includes: Art, Children's Picture and Chapter, Exploration, Fiction, History, Illustrated, Literature, Mystery, Science Fiction, Photography, Performing Arts, Regional, Sciences and Sports.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...