Plot Summary

Hotel du Lac

Anita Brookner
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Hotel du Lac

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984

Book Brief

Anita Brookner

Hotel du Lac

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984
Book Details
Pages

184

Format

Novel • Fiction

Setting

Swiss Lakeside Hotel • 1980s

Publication Year

1984

Audience

Adult

Recommended Reading Age

18+ years

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Super Short Summary

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner follows Edith Hope, a romance writer who has been banished from London due to social disgrace, as she endures an enforced vacation in a Swiss hotel. At the hotel, she forms an uneasy friendship with the glamorous Mrs. Pusey and her daughter Jennifer, and navigates a complex relationship with Mr. Neville, a wealthy businessman who proposes to her. Sensitive topics in the book include eating disorders and emotional isolation.

Melancholic

Contemplative

Bittersweet

Serene

Mysterious

Reviews & Readership

3.8

26,331 ratings

58%

Loved it

31%

Mixed feelings

12%

Not a fan

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Review Roundup

Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac is celebrated for its elegant prose and introspective exploration of loneliness and self-discovery. Readers appreciate its vivid descriptions and character depth, but some find its slow pace and lack of action less engaging. Overall, it remains a poignant and thoughtfully crafted novel that resonates with many, despite its deliberate pacing.

Who should read this

Who Should Read Hotel du Lac?

A reader who appreciates introspective literary fiction, character-driven narratives, and themes of solitude and self-discovery would enjoy Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse might find this novel similarly engaging.

3.8

26,331 ratings

58%

Loved it

31%

Mixed feelings

12%

Not a fan

Book Details
Pages

184

Format

Novel • Fiction

Setting

Swiss Lakeside Hotel • 1980s

Publication Year

1984

Audience

Adult

Recommended Reading Age

18+ years

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