An American billionaire, along with his whimsical but shrewd daughter, Nella, land in London, at the best hotel in the city and by extension in the civilized world, the Gran Hotel Babylon. By a random whim, they become the owners of the hotel and the adventure of their lives begins, thanks to a manager who retires early, a motley and somewhat dishonest service staff, an impoverished prince of the realm who mysteriously disappears and to which they have to go to look for, in addition to a corpse, that also mysteriously ...
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An American billionaire, along with his whimsical but shrewd daughter, Nella, land in London, at the best hotel in the city and by extension in the civilized world, the Gran Hotel Babylon. By a random whim, they become the owners of the hotel and the adventure of their lives begins, thanks to a manager who retires early, a motley and somewhat dishonest service staff, an impoverished prince of the realm who mysteriously disappears and to which they have to go to look for, in addition to a corpse, that also mysteriously disappears.
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Add this copy of The Grand Babylon Hotel to cart. $29.91, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Independently published.
Arnold Bennett's masterpiece 'The Grand Babylon Hotel' (1902) is comprised of short snappy chapters that almost always close on a cliff hanger. The characters are archetypes (a nice way of saying stereotypes, I suppose); forceful American millionaire, millionaire's beautiful and willful daughter, a couple of European princes and their retainers, a Swiss hotelier, evil genius 'Jules' (real name, Thomas Jackson, the erstwhile head waiter of the eponymous hotel, who we meet and learn to dislike on the opening page), and possibly the greatest single character, the fabulous Grand Babylon Hotel, the 'first' hotel in London and quite possibly the world, with it's own separate entrance for royalty constantly in use.
The action comes fast and furious. There is big money wheeling and dealing, romance, gambling debts, corpses appearing and disappearing, hidden passageways, midnight flits to Ostend, kidnapping, European politics and more. This is not a deep read, but a joyous romp. Highly recommended.