Items related to Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel, where she will spend the rest of her days. Her fellow residents live off crumbs of affection and fascination with the hotel meals. They fight off their enemies: boredom and death. Then one day Mrs Palfrey encounters the handsome young writer, Ludo, and learns that even the old can fall in love.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
Elizabeth Taylor's exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel postwar English life facing the changes taking shape in the 60s . . . 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 . . . Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, her masterpiece (Robert McCrum 'the 100 best novels', Guardian)
Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all (Anne Tyler)
Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it (Sarah Waters)
One of the most underrated novelists of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Taylor writes with a wonderful precision and grace. Her world is totally absorbing (Antonia Fraser)
She's a magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike (David Baddiel Independent)
Book Description:
Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all (Anne Tyler)
Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it (Sarah Waters)
One of the most underrated novelists of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Taylor writes with a wonderful precision and grace. Her world is totally absorbing (Antonia Fraser)
She's a magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike (David Baddiel Independent)
A humorous and compassionate look at friendship between an old woman and a young man.
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- PublisherChatto & Windus
- Publication date1971
- ISBN 10 0701117826
- ISBN 13 9780701117825
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages224
- Rating
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MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT (First edition - clean ex-library copy)
Published by
Chatto & Windus, 42 William IV Street, London, W.C.2
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0701117826
ISBN 13: 9780701117825
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Adrian Daintrey (Jacket design) (illustrator). First Edition. An ex-library copy of the true first edition. Dustwrapper illustration by Adrian Daintrey. Elizabeth Taylor's eleventh novel - shortlisted for the 1971 Booker Prize. ***Very good in mauve cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on a black panel on the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine and lower corners slightly creased. There is a slight reading lean to the binding, and a light vertical reading crease to the spine. Page block edges clean with no foxing. Internally also very good with no inscriptions, but with the following library marks: Withdrawn for sale stamp on the front free endpaper, Lincolnshire Library Service stamp on the printer's page - no other marks (please see scans). Pages clean with no foxing. No creases or tears - just a light top corner crease to p.3/4. Spine tight. ***In a very good nicely illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, and retains the original publisher's printed price of £1.80 net. The dustwrapper is complete with just light edge wear and rubbing. No significant creasing, chips or tears. Spine of dustwrapper slightly browned, otherwise the dustwrapper is clean and bright. ***206 pages. 203mm x 135mm. ***'"Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" received favourable reviews on its publication. Kingsley Amis described it as a "continuously fascinating novel, always pushing the reader one way and another", and emphasized its humour despite the seemingly grim subject matter. The Washington Post reviewer noted the "fastidious distance" with which Taylor avoided sentimentality in her descriptions of the lonely hotel residents. The Times singled out the individuality of the characters, and remarked that Taylor's humour effectively balanced the pathos of the subject matter. In a 1973 essay about Elizabeth Taylor's work in the New Statesman Paul Bailey described "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" as both her "funniest" and "saddest" book, "deeply upsetting" but "a joy to read" because of the way in which the story is told, and compared her to Chekhov. In 2015 the writer and editor Robert McCrum placed "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" 87th in a chronological list of "100 best novels in English" published in The Guardian.' (Wiki). ***'Mrs Palfrey, who has spent much of her married life in the East, retires as a widow to the less exotic purlieus of the Cromwell Road. In the Claremont Hotel reside a number of old people, whose chief activity is to fill in, like some yawning crater, the time. There is Mrs Burton who drinks, Mrs Arbuthnot who suffers from arthritis, Mr Osmond who writes to the newspapers. The conversation and the menus are equally monotonous. Then Mrs Palfrey accidentally meets a young man, Ludo, who is writing a novel (in Harrods which is warmer than his basement flat). She begins to feel for him, and then to pass hi off to her fellow residents as her grandson. And life becomes more exciting for her than she could have anticipated.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***A nice clean ex-library copy of the first impression of the true first edition, in its original dustwrapper, and in very presentable condition. A very uncommon book. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8572
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Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Published by
Chatto & Windus, London
(1971)
ISBN 10: 0701117826
ISBN 13: 9780701117825
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Very Good. First Edition. First edition. Book measures 20.5x13.5.cm. 205,[1]pp. Bound in original publishers hardcover, with black label, gilt lettering. Cloth slightly faded and bumped on head and tail of spine, lean on spine, top outer edge fox marked. Generally a good clean binding. Dust jacket rubbed on edges, with minor loss, dust, dirt marked. Jacket in good condition. Internally, neat name in ink on free endpaper. Pages clean throughout. A good copy. Size: 8vo. Seller Inventory # 014190
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£ 275
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