Hotel du Lac

Hotel du Lac

First edition cover
Author	Anita Brookner
Cover artist	Susan Moxley
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Jonathan Cape (UK) Pantheon (USA)
Publication date	6 September 1984
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	184 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN	0-679-75932-8
OCLC	33411117

Hotel du Lac is a 1984 Booker Prize-winning novel by English writer Anita Brookner. It centres on Edith Hope, a romance novelist who is staying in a hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva. There she meets other English visitors, including Mrs Pusey, Mrs Pusey's daughter Jennifer, and an attractive middle-aged man, Mr Neville.

Plot

Edith reaches Hotel du Lac in a state of bewildered confusion at the turn of events in her life. After a secret and often lonely affair with a married man and an aborted marriage, she is banished by her friends. They advise her to go on "probation" so as to "grow up", "be a woman", and atone for her mistakes.

Edith comes to the hotel swearing not to change. However, the hotel's silent charms and her observations of the guests there all tug at Edith with questions about her identity, forcing her to examine who she is and what she has been. At the hotel, she observes people from different walks of life — Mrs Pusey and her daughter Jennifer, their love for each other, and the splendid oblivious lives they live; Mme de Bonneuil, who lives at the hotel in solitary expulsion from her son; and Monica, who came to the hotel acceding to her husband's demands. Edith falls for the ambiguous smile of Mr Neville, who asks for her hand in marriage. She considers a life of recognition that being married to Neville would confer upon her, but ultimately rejects the possibility of a relationship with him when she realizes he is an incorrigible womanizer. This also finally leads her to realize what her life is expected to be. Once again, she breaks chains and decides to take things into her own hands.

Awards and nominations

The novel won the Booker Prize in 1984.

Adaptations

A film of the same name was adapted for television by Christopher Hampton and produced by the BBC and A&E Television Networks in 1986.