The name translates literally into "hotel on the lake". Well there's a real Hotel du Lac - in fact there are a whole bunch of them in Europe. I looked up Hotel du Lac on-line in case it referred to an actual place. At one point she's even offered a classic happy-ever-after seen in so many romance novels a nice man offers to marry her, and take her to his "Regency Gothic" home in the country. My own theory is that Edith felt trapped in one of her own romance story lines. Some reviews on-line put the setting in the 1950's, but there's nothing specific in the book to support that. But the attitudes of the characters, especially toward women, seems extremely old fashioned, even by the standards of 1984 when the book was written. Airplanes and telephones are in use - so some time in the 20th century certainly. It's not at all clear when this story is supposed to take place. I did like the end of the book, where Edith has clearly resolved what she will do with her life going forward, in the teeth of having been "ruined". This is a rag-tag, unhappy group, and their time together takes on an air of endurance. These seem to be very tame romances, and those who know her assume she's writing about her own tame love life.Īt the hotel, Edith gets to know the other guests who seem to all be also enduring some sort of banishment from their regular lives. She writes romance novels under a pseudonym Vanessa Wilde.
She clearly arrives expecting to just wait out this sentence, and to spend her time writing her latest book. There was a scandal She left a man at the alter and she's been packed off to let things cool down before returning. ( )Įdith Hope is a middle-aged woman who has been sent off to the Hotel du Lac in some disgrace. It is more about the desires of an individual to be her own person. The narrative includes beautiful prose, irony, and subtle humor. Edith is gradually revealed to be a woman of greater complexity than meets the eye. The storyline is character-driven and slow in developing. Edith gets to know them well, avoiding work on her latest novel, and is slowly drawn into their lives. Pusey, her daughter Jennifer, and the enigmatic Mr. The narrative covers Edith’s interactions with the unusual hotel guests, including wealthy domineering widow, Mrs. What could this seemingly conventional and inconspicuous woman have done? The nature of this faux pas is not revealed until later in the storyline, keeping the reader interested in finding out why she would be staying at a remote hotel just before the hotel will be closed for the off season. Edith Hope, an English writer of romance novels, arrives at the titular hotel in Switzerland after a mysterious faux pas.
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