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Chargement... Mrs. Palfrey, Hôtel Claremont (1971)par Elizabeth Taylor
  
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 annarchism | Aug 4, 2024 |   Indeed, after I finished it, I checked the back flap in the old hardback, where the blurb describes the novel as a "perfect and heartwarming story" with "an ending that is desperately poignant but emotionally rich and cleansing." In my case, the reading felt like fairly sharp bites of cold blowing in through a cracked window at intervals, but then something warm and soothing would happen. However, the actual, unspoken feelings of the young writer in the story ultimately drained the warmth out of it for me. In the places where I thought some real joy might come to life, it...didn't. And the "emotionally rich and cleansing" ending was, to me, a little abrupt and much more than a little bleak. As for the content, there's a crude but only partial comment about the male anatomy from an elderly man who's trying to get attention. And there's also a bit of swearing, but none of the F-word. In all, the best this novel did for me was stir up my compassion as well as my personal determination to keep finding and giving the joy I can in whatever season of life I'm in. I also really dig the 1971 book cover art, with its old-fashioned cozy feel. Because I prefer reads that I find emotionally satisfying in the end (whether glowing, life-affirming, or heart-rending in a good way—not more than a little bleak), I considered not writing much of a review of this novel. But I decided to record my thoughts anyway because I plan on watching the related 2005 film for comparison. I'm so curious to see if the filmmakers' take on the basic plot turns out more like the feel of the old book cover and the "heartwarming" and "cleansing" sentiments on the back flap. (  ) NadineC.Keels | May 31, 2024 | Un dia coneix en Ludo, un jove que està intentant escriure una novel·la. I el farà passar pel seu net. Però ¿què passarà el dia que es presenti el net de veritat? Reflexions sobre la vellesa. La solitud de la vellesa ¿Què significa arribar a vell? Tot són rejudicis i aparences ¿Què diran? "Aquí no ens hi deixen morir" pàg. 43 A la pàgina 76 es descriuen els antecedents del fenomen de la "botellada". Ja passava al Londres dels anys 70 entre els seguidors dels partits de rugby: "És una cursa molt curta amb molts punts d'avituallament". La dependència dels vells: "Això que et treguin a passejar, és que Déu n´hi do...com si fossis una nena petita". pàg. 136 "Era un afer d'homes. Dels diners se'n feien càrrec ells. La dona només tenia ocasió d'ocupar-se'n quan era massa tard" pàg. 149 La pèrdua de la memòria: "En la vellesa les coses es tornaven complicades. Era com ser un infant, però a la inversa. Per una criatura, cada dia que passa representa un petit aprenentatge; per a un vell, un petit oblit... Són edats cansades, tant la infantesa com la vellesa". pàg. 192 Banda sonora. Some Enchanted Evening (1949), cantada d'entre d'altres, per en Frank Sinatra. (  ) AVenturaRibal | Jan 20, 2024 |  ) sjflp | Jun 18, 2023 | I felt distant from the characters; I don't know if this was a decision by Ms. Taylor or a failing on her part or mine. The hotel's long-term residents work at keeping a sense of distance from each other; perhaps it's the British stiff-upper-lip attitude of this part of society. But even family relationships are awkward and strained. I think Mrs. Palfrey makes the widower of their group a better person; growth is always possible. I read the reviews on IMDB of the Joan Plowright movie; it was widely described as lovely. People who adapt Jane Austen's stories frequently make them sweeter. The book is not lovely; it is sometimes humorous, sometimes brutally honest but sympathetic, sometimes sad. My first reaction to the ending was outrage; I calmed down and now feel the ending is perfect. It's not only that we don't truly know anybody; we don't really want to know anybody. (My family used to vacation at a residential hotel in Lakewood, NJ, in the 1960s.I remember the older women would sit by the deep end of the swimming pool and complain that the children splashed too much when they jumped into the water. And that they insisted the hotel's television show The Lawrence Welk Show on Sunday nights.) ( ) raizel | Jun 12, 2023 |
First published in 1971, in a period setting perfectly depicted -- a cheap London residential hotel where a few widowed old people pass their later, solitary years. The pitiful circumstances of the ageing residents, and heartlessness of their remaining families and friends, are beautifully observed and portrayed, though, as universal themes. The hotel residents encounter helplessness, humiliation, increasing forgetfulness, loneliness, boredom -- the daily chore of passing the time, knitting as a social duty, with prospects only of increasing bodily feebleness, perhaps a nursing home, and death. Their few visitors `did their duty occasionally ... and went relievedly away'; the hotel manager resents these permanent guests, `cluttering up the place and boring everybody'. Mrs Palfrey has one child, a daughter, now married and living in Scotland, who waits there until her weekend houseparty is over before travelling to her mother's hospital bed when she breaks her hip; her grandson, learning of the accident, feels that it `suited him admirably', having had some fear that she might remarry and change her will. Thus we rejoice when someone does appear to be showing Mrs Palfrey human kindness and friendship -- but young Ludovic is in fact deliberately observing her and her fellow Claremont-residents for a book he is writing on old age. Eager for copy, he makes notes after every meeting with Mrs Palfrey, whom he sees as `doting on him, to his embarrassed boredom'. He is `banking on her being dead -- or out of his life -- before [his book] saw the light of day'. Nevertheless, Ludovic brings Mrs Palfrey her only happiness in her last months, and despite the pity and pain, the book is pleasurable to read. Taylor writes with delicacy and subtlety, and shrewd, witty observation of the characters she exposes. There is much humour in the depiction of rivalry and one-up-manship in the hotel. Certainly the book also offers much subject for group discussion. Is Ludovic wholly to be condemned? What could or should have been done to ameliorate the fates of the elderly residents? How different would their situation and the events have been today? Appartient à la série éditorialeEl cercle de Viena (95) Prix et récompensesListes notables
"On a rainy Sunday afternoon in January the recently widowed Mrs. Palfrey moves to the Claremont Hotel in South Kensington. "If it's not nice, I needn't stay," she promises herself, as she settles into this haven for the genteel and the decayed. "Three elderly widows and one old man who seemed to dislike female company and seldom got any other kind" serve for her fellow residents, and there is the staff, too, and they are one and all lonely. What is Mrs. Palfrey to do with herself now that she has all the time in the world? Go for a walk. Go to the museum. Go to the end of the block. Well, she does have her grandson who works at the British Museum, and he is sure to visit any day. Mrs Palfrey prides herself on having always known "the right thing to do," but in this new situation she discovers that resource is much reduced. Before she knows it, in fact, she tries something else. Elizabeth Taylor's final and most popular novel is as unsparing as it is, ultimately, heartbreaking"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (4.09)
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Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
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[b:Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|643062|Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|Elizabeth Taylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328729203l/643062._SY75_.jpg|629233] is therefore quite a sombre novel, although the astute observation of eccentricities and social awkwardness can be amusing as well as tragic. The most cheerful element of the narrative is the unlikely and endearing friendship between Mrs Palfrey and an impecunious young novelist named Ludo. The saddest element is perhaps the final sentence, which sums up Mrs Palfrey's relatives in general. She offers a thoughtful point of view on life in the hotel and its residents, particularly the awful loneliness created by genteel manners.
Reading fiction about British people who were at retirement age in the 1970s, before I was born, provides insight into a generation I'm too young to have met. The characters in [b:Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|643062|Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|Elizabeth Taylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328729203l/643062._SY75_.jpg|629233] and [b:Quartet in Autumn|227002|Quartet in Autumn|Barbara Pym|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922284l/227002._SY75_.jpg|1283470] must have been born between 1900 and the start of the First World War. Their poverty in retirement is quite a contrast to the current generation at that age. Baby Boomers are much more likely to retire with a comfortable pension and paid off mortgage on their house. The downmarket hotel option may return for millennials when we hit our 70s, assuming climate change hasn't killed us by then. Anyway, [b:Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|643062|Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont|Elizabeth Taylor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328729203l/643062._SY75_.jpg|629233] is a beautifully written and psychologically insightful portrait of a little community. (