Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (Virago Modern Classics)
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'A wonderful novelist' JILLY COOPER 'How skilfully and with what peculiar exhilaration she negotiated the minefield of the human heart' JONATHAN KEATES 'The unsung heroine of British twentieth-century fiction' REBECCA ABRAMS, NEW STATESMAN 'A funny and honest examination of the casual cruelty we can sometimes inflict upon each other' DAILY MAIL 'I envy those readers who are coming to her work for the first time. Theirs will be an unexpected pleasure, and they will - if they read her as she wanted to be read - learn much that will surprise them' PAUL BAILEY
Rebecca Abrams, New Statesman
'The unsung heroine of British twentieth-century fiction'
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First Sentence
MRS PALFREY first came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
MRS PALFREY first came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the story of the eponymous heroine lving out the dusk of her days in the Claremont Hotel on Cromwell Road in postcolonial London. Her fellow long-term residents are other old people who have fallen on hard times, but remain just about affluent enough to avoid a care home. The novel centres on the interactions between them, trying to keep up appearances and maintaining a stiff upper lip until the end. The loneliness and boundless monotony of their lives forms the backdrop to Mrs. Palfrey's astute and witty observations and we share her thrill in a secret kept from fellow guests: the man she addresses as her grandson is in fact a young writer she met in a chance encounter. Ludo, unlike her real grandson, is a delightful, attentive and interesting young man. He is preparing a novel -"We aren't allowed to die here"- and first draws on their encounters as a form of research, but their friendship grows on the basis of mutual respect and beautiful conversations.
I would not have picked this up if it had not been for a personal recommendation and I was delighted by it.
I would not have picked this up if it had not been for a personal recommendation and I was delighted by it.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sadness infuses this book from the opening paragraph where Laura Palfrey, a tall, big-boned but handsome woman, arrives at the Claremont Hotel. She has slender means, but can afford small treats for herself as well as a room with meals. There she joins a coterie of elderly ladies like herself, and one man, Mr Osmond. The Hotel Manager, never named, resents his residents as they cannot be removed at those infrequent times in the year, such as conference times or motor shows, when he could get much more for their rooms. This is the mid-sixties and London is beginning to swing, but not for such as Mrs Palfrey, who finds her fellow residents uninspiring if not downright uncongenial. They live for visits from cousins and grown-up children and grandchildren, but these are few, and for Mrs Palfrey non-existent.
Out for a stroll one day Mrs Palfrey slips and falls and is rescued by a young man, Ludo, who is kind and helpful. He later allows her to give him dinner at her hotel. With a mixture of diffidence and confusion Mrs Palfrey allows the other residents to assume he is her grandson. He enters into this subterfuge quite happily when she feels forced to explain what has happened.
This an incisively written novel which dissects the trials of old age and estrangement from family. Despite its gentle pace and lack of event, it is eminently readable, and though not the most compelling thing I've ever read, it is deeply poignant. Unexciting lives do not make for eager reading, but there is a great deal about this book which stays in the mind. I find Elizabeth Taylor's writing exceptionally sympathetic, composed, clear-eyed and agreeable.
Out for a stroll one day Mrs Palfrey slips and falls and is rescued by a young man, Ludo, who is kind and helpful. He later allows her to give him dinner at her hotel. With a mixture of diffidence and confusion Mrs Palfrey allows the other residents to assume he is her grandson. He enters into this subterfuge quite happily when she feels forced to explain what has happened.
This an incisively written novel which dissects the trials of old age and estrangement from family. Despite its gentle pace and lack of event, it is eminently readable, and though not the most compelling thing I've ever read, it is deeply poignant. Unexciting lives do not make for eager reading, but there is a great deal about this book which stays in the mind. I find Elizabeth Taylor's writing exceptionally sympathetic, composed, clear-eyed and agreeable.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. It's beautifully written and manages to reveal the interior thoughts of Mrs Palfrey as she ekes out her days as a long-term resident in a hotel which she - and the other long-termers - know she will leave only to go to a nursing home or a cemetery. Yet it is not at all a depressing read. Mrs Palfrey's relationship with a young man who pays her the attention she doesn't get from her young relatives is touching and believable. Elizabeth Taylor conveys more in a plain, well constructed sentence, than more modern writers do in convoluted sentences that aim at profundity but are simply unintelligible.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautifully crafted not so well published
This is a moving, sharp and, at times, funny study of old age. It focuses on the elderly occupants of the Claremont Hotel and is set in what seems to be the late sixties or early... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lisa Main
The 'other Elizabeth Taylor'
I'm pleased that Virago seem to be attempting a rehabilitation of Elizabeth Taylor, since her work has apparently slipped from view. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ms. M. Williamson
Lovely read
Saw the film and loved it; saw that it was originally a novel by a sadly forgotten Elizabeth Taylor. Fine book; funny and poignant. Recommend.
Published 3 months ago by wordtweaker
Exquisitely written
I think the introduction by Paul Bailey absolutely sums it up. This is an exquisitely written book of social manners and genteel decay with all the wit, humour, and observation of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by hiljean
Waiting for God in a hotel
Mrs Palfrey, a widow, arrives at the Claremont Hotel in London. She finds a group of established residents all of similar ages. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Damaskcat
Fine story, pity about the typos.
I'm halfway through this book and enjoying it. I won't say much about it because a lot has already been said. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Craig
subtle and nuanced
This short novel is an exquisite study into what it is to age, and how our relationship to and understanding with the ageing process plays out amongst the generations. Mrs. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
The kind of book that's all too rare these days
This reminded me a little of a small part of Half Broken Things by Morag Joss, before Jean goes to Walden Manor and meets Steph and Michael. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lauren H
Subtly brilliant
A book about ageing, waiting for death in a gently decaying hotel, must be dull and melancholic? No. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2010 by Good Book Fan
"Welcome to the Claremont. I hope you have a strong stomach.",
When Mrs. Palfrey, a genteel, elderly widow, arrives with her possessions at the formerly elegant Claremont Hotel in London, she expects "something quite different. Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2006 by Mary Whipple
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