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S'està carregant… Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (Virago Modern Classics) (1971 original; edició 2006)de Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Bailey (Introducció)
Informació de l'obraMrs. Palfrey at the Claremont de Elizabeth Taylor (1971)
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First published in 1971, in a period setting perfectly depicted -- a cheap London residential hotel where a few widowed old people pass their later, solitary years. The pitiful circumstances of the ageing residents, and heartlessness of their remaining families and friends, are beautifully observed and portrayed, though, as universal themes. The hotel residents encounter helplessness, humiliation, increasing forgetfulness, loneliness, boredom -- the daily chore of passing the time, knitting as a social duty, with prospects only of increasing bodily feebleness, perhaps a nursing home, and death. Their few visitors `did their duty occasionally ... and went relievedly away'; the hotel manager resents these permanent guests, `cluttering up the place and boring everybody'. Mrs Palfrey has one child, a daughter, now married and living in Scotland, who waits there until her weekend houseparty is over before travelling to her mother's hospital bed when she breaks her hip; her grandson, learning of the accident, feels that it `suited him admirably', having had some fear that she might remarry and change her will. Thus we rejoice when someone does appear to be showing Mrs Palfrey human kindness and friendship -- but young Ludovic is in fact deliberately observing her and her fellow Claremont-residents for a book he is writing on old age. Eager for copy, he makes notes after every meeting with Mrs Palfrey, whom he sees as `doting on him, to his embarrassed boredom'. He is `banking on her being dead -- or out of his life -- before [his book] saw the light of day'. Nevertheless, Ludovic brings Mrs Palfrey her only happiness in her last months, and despite the pity and pain, the book is pleasurable to read. Taylor writes with delicacy and subtlety, and shrewd, witty observation of the characters she exposes. There is much humour in the depiction of rivalry and one-up-manship in the hotel. Certainly the book also offers much subject for group discussion. Is Ludovic wholly to be condemned? What could or should have been done to ameliorate the fates of the elderly residents? How different would their situation and the events have been today? Pertany a aquestes col·leccions editorialsEl cercle de Viena (95)
"On a rainy Sunday afternoon in January the recently widowed Mrs. Palfrey moves to the Claremont Hotel in South Kensington. "If it's not nice, I needn't stay," she promises herself, as she settles into this haven for the genteel and the decayed. "Three elderly widows and one old man 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. What is Mrs. Palfrey to do with herself now that she has all the time in the world? Go for a walk. Go to the museum. Go to the end of the block. Well, she does have her grandson who works at the British Museum, and he is sure to visit any day. Mrs Palfrey prides herself on having always known "the right thing to do," but in this new situation she discovers that resource is much reduced. Before she knows it, in fact, she tries something else. Elizabeth Taylor's final and most popular novel is as unsparing as it is, ultimately, heartbreaking"-- No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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Un dia coneix en Ludo, un jove que està intentant escriure una novel·la. I el farà passar pel seu net. Però ¿què passarà el dia que es presenti el net de veritat?
Reflexions sobre la vellesa. La solitud de la vellesa ¿Què significa arribar a vell? Tot són rejudicis i aparences ¿Què diran?
"Aquí no ens hi deixen morir" pàg. 43
A la pàgina 76 es descriuen els antecedents del fenomen de la "botellada". Ja passava al Londres dels anys 70 entre els seguidors dels partits de rugby:
"És una cursa molt curta amb molts punts d'avituallament".
La dependència dels vells:
"Això que et treguin a passejar, és que Déu n´hi do...com si fossis una nena petita". pàg. 136
"Era un afer d'homes. Dels diners se'n feien càrrec ells. La dona només tenia ocasió d'ocupar-se'n quan era massa tard" pàg. 149
La pèrdua de la memòria:
"En la vellesa les coses es tornaven complicades. Era com ser un infant, però a la inversa. Per una criatura, cada dia que passa representa un petit aprenentatge; per a un vell, un petit oblit... Són edats cansades, tant la infantesa com la vellesa". pàg. 192
Banda sonora. Some Enchanted Evening (1949), cantada d'entre d'altres, per en Frank Sinatra. ( )