The Grand Babylon Hotel - Softcover

Bennett, Arnold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1421804042 ISBN 13: 9781421804040

Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society, 2005

Synopsis

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the corner by the conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June night, and dinner was about to be served at the Grand Babylon. Men of all sizes, ages, and nationalities, but every one alike arrayed in faultless evening dress, were dotted about the large, dim apartment. A faint odour of flowers came from the conservatory, and the tinkle of a fountain. The waiters, commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing orders with that air of profound importance of which only really first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere was an atmosphere of serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand Babylon. It seemed impossible that anything could occur to mar the peaceful, aristocratic monotony of existence in that perfectly-managed establishment. Yet on that night was to happen the mightiest upheaval that the Grand Babylon had ever known.

About this title

About the Author

English author Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867 – 1931) was a novelist who worked in journalism, propaganda and film. Bennett won a literary competition in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism. In 1894, he became assistant editor of the periodical Woman but was not impressed with the quality of the work so he wrote a serial that later became "The Grand Babylon Hotel". He published the novel "A Man from the North" and later became the magazine's editor. He wrote about books for the Evening Standard newspaper and continued to work on his own novels and non-fiction work. His self-help book "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" remains in print. In 1903, he moved to Paris to write novels and plays. The French writer Maupassant'a 'Une Vie' inspired "The Old Wives' Tale," which was a success. During WWI, he became Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information. He refused a knighthood in 1918.

Review

“Randi Saloman’s editing makes The Grand Babylon Hotel even grander, adding layers of historical, culinary, linguistic, and geographical detail to this fascinating and revelatory fiction. A lucid introduction and magnificent footnotes help to bring Bennett back to life―a resuscitation he surely deserves! This edition is wonderful for teaching―the contextual material is wisely selected and helps to put Bennett into his proper milieu and to bring him―thanks to Saloman’s scholarly vitality and conviction―into ours.”―Elaine Freedgood, New York University

“For too long Arnold Bennett’s posthumous reputation has been overshadowed by his public disagreements with Virginia Woolf: he decried her cleverness, ‘the lowest of artistic qualities’; while she considered him a ‘workman,’ a ‘materialist,’ the representative of an outmoded generation. But the range and vitality of his works give the lie to Woolf’s assessment, and in The Grand Babylon Hotel we encounter a young and ambitious Bennett, a writer exploring the spaces, identities, and anxieties of urban modernity. Through her careful notes, contextual appendices, and illuminating introduction, Randi Saloman welcomes us to the Babylon Hotel, where anonymity and aporia, the ‘community and connection’ of its rooms and corridors, seem to embody the paradoxes of modern life. Much overdue, this new edition will introduce Bennett’s strange and enthralling ‘fantasia’ to a whole new generation of readers.”―Amber Regis, University of Sheffield

“The modern hotel is a locus for all the fluidities, anxieties, and opportunities for self-invention that define modernity itself, as Arnold Bennett recognized in his delightful, genre-confounding novel The Grand Babylon Hotel, a mystery-farce accented by sharp observations on the nature of modern identity. Randi Salomon’s fine edition of the novel situates it equally well in the contexts of Bennett’s career, of Edwardian and modernist literary history, and of the dynamic first years of the turbulent twentieth century. Her illuminating introduction is equally well-attuned to its playful and thoughtful sides, and demonstrates why, even when he is having fun, Arnold Bennett is worth serious reading.” ― Robert Squillace, New York University

“Appendices include Bennett’s views on [Grand Babylon Hotel] from his ‘Journal’ and Letters; quotations relevant to GBH from other writings by Bennett; photographs and images of Bennett; contemporary reviews of GBH; quotations from different histories of the Savoy Hotel including photographs, highly relevant as the Grand Babylon is based on the Savoy as indeed is Bennett’s last completed novel ‘Imperial Palace’ (1930); and details of the ‘lost’ 1916 film of the novel ... With all the extras this edition provides outstanding ‘value added’ and is a significant contribution to the 150th celebration of Bennett’s birth in 2017.” ― Martin Laux, archivist of the Arnold Bennett Society

About this edition

• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1421804042
• ISBN 13: 9781421804040
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: 1stworld Library