THE LITTLE HOTEL.
by Stead, Christina
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Ex-library with markings and reading wear, but in a near fine unmarked dustjacket./near fine unmarked
- ISBN 10
- 0030132266
- ISBN 13
- 9780030132261
- Seller
-
Ione, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York:: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,, 1975.. Hardcover first edition -. Ex-library with markings and reading wear, but in a near fine unmarked dustjacket.. First US printing. A novel of wry and cutting wit, set in a 'gently seedy Swiss pensione during the off-season' , by this Australian writer, who was the 1974 recipient of the Patrick White Prize.
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
- Seller
- Bookfever.com, IOBA (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 26826
- Title
- THE LITTLE HOTEL.
- Author
- Stead, Christina
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover first edition -
- Book Condition
- Used - Ex-library with markings and reading wear, but in a near fine unmarked dustjacket.
- Jacket Condition
- near fine unmarked
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0030132266
- ISBN 13
- 9780030132261
- Publisher
- Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
- Place of Publication
- New York:
- Date Published
- 1975.
- Bookseller catalogs
- Australia and New Zealand;
Terms of Sale
Bookfever.com, IOBA
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About the Seller
Bookfever.com, IOBA
Biblio member since 2003
Ione, California
About Bookfever.com, IOBA
Celebrating our 30th year in business. We started selling books in the CompuServe Book Collecting forum in 1993, a few years before there was any commercial Internet. In 1998 we relocated our main business from Sacramento to the Sierra foothills of Amador County.
Glossary
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- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...