Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont
A Virago Modern Classic
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3.9 • 81 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, her masterpiece' ROBERT McCRUM, GUARDIAN
'An author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth' SARAH WATERS
'Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabath Bowen - soul-sisters all' ANNE TYLER
On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper.
Then one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unlikely friendship with an impoverished young writer, Ludo, who sees her as inspiration for his novel.
'Elizabeth Taylor's exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel post-war English life facing the changes taking shape in the sixties . . . Much of the reader's joy lies in the exquisite subtlety in Taylor's depiction of all the relationships, the sharp brevity of her wit, and the apparently effortless way the plot unfolds' ROBERT McCRUM, GUARDIAN
Customer Reviews
Worth reading
Very good book, the subject is slightly dark but always manages to be amusing.
Dismal
Read about a third of this book. Absolutely dismal and hopeless story about elderly people living out their last years in a London hotel, and a young man living in a squalid basement flat. The main character lies that the young man, who spends most of his time “writing” in Harrods, is her grandson in order to save face with the other women. I read up to the part where someone else says they go to Harrods so I’m guessing the lie is going to be discovered. To me the theme of this book - as far as I read - was abject hopelessness and I lost the will to finish it. The style of writing is very good - but the story line was miserable.
Too many typos but an enjoyable read.
An interesting read. Please fix the mistakes. Thanks