mrs palfrey at the claremont by elizabeth taylor

'It’s funny, compassionate and searing on the subject of loneliness in later life.' -Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times 'Taylor is especially brilliant on the battles waged by an aging person: against revolving doors, slippery surfaces and time itself.' -Molly Young, The New York Times It’s a sign of her total authorial control that she manages to convey the pathos of old age without veering from the comedy of her characters or the intensity of the object world she has created.' -Emma Fajgenbaum, The Monthly 'As a writer, Taylor assiduously avoids sentimentality, even as the novel advances on its inexorable path toward death. He is the author of two books of essays and five books of poems, most recently One Lark, One Horse. He has translated several books for NYRB Classics, including Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, Jakob Wassermann’s My Marriage, and Gert Ledig’s Stalin Front, Kurt Tucholsky's Castle Gripsholm, and edited The Voyage That Never Ends, an anthology of writing by Malcolm Lowry. Michael Hofmann is a German-born, British-educated poet and translator. She would go on to publish eleven more novels, including Angel, A Game of Hide and Seek, and A View of the Harbour (all available from NYRB Classics) several volumes of short stories, many of which are collected in You’ll Enjoy It When You Get There (NYRB Classics) and a children’s book, Mossy Trotter. Nine years later, her first novel, At Mrs. She held a variety of positions, including librarian and governess, before marrying a businessman in 1936.

Before she knows it, in fact, she tries something else.Įlizabeth Taylor’s final and most popular novel is as unsparing as it is, ultimately, heartbreaking.Įlizabeth Taylor (1912–1975) was an English short-story writer and novelist. Palfrey prides herself on having always known “the right thing to do,” but in this new situation she discovers that resource is much reduced. Well, she does have her grandson who works at the British Museum, and he is sure to visit any day. Palfrey to do with herself now that she has all the time in the world? Go for a walk.

who seemed to dislike female company and seldom got any other kind” serve for her fellow residents, and there is the staff, too, and they are one and all lonely. “If it’s not nice, I needn’t stay,” she promises herself, as she settles into this haven for the genteel and the decayed. Palfrey moves to the Claremont Hotel in South Kensington. On a rainy Sunday afternoon in January, the recently widowed Mrs. A blackly humorous story of loneliness, deception, and life in old age by one of the most accomplished novelists of the twentieth century.

Mrs palfrey at the claremont by elizabeth taylor