Product Description

A beautifully controlled and powerful story of love and conscience, will and desire which begins when a mysterious young girl arrives to take up a post at the seedy Hotel du Lion d'Or in a small French town in the mid-1930s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3068 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
A beautifully controlled and powerful story of love and conscience, will and desire which begins when a mysterious young girl arrives to take up the post at the seedy Hotel du Lion D'Or in a small French town in the mid 1930s.

From the Publisher
From the acclaimed author of Birdsong, Charlotte Gray and On Green Dolphin Street.

Customer Reviews

Average novel set in early 20th century France
Another Sebastian Faulks book set in France, focussing on the whims of human interaction in a 9130s small town. Split between the two wars, this book lacks the dramatic backdrop that characterises Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, and seems to meander without purpose. Characters start to develop, but fail to flower into really interesting people. This is a comment on a particular time and place, but fails to satisfy as a novel.

Shaking foundations
This was the first book I had read by Faulks and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The central storyline of poor servant girl meets rich, older society-man has no novelty of course but I did find myself drawn to the characters and some of the torment of the situation they created for themselves. That said it was difficult to hold on to the presumed innocence of Anne and the naivety of Hartmann. Was this really such an unexpected result to both of them? I was half-waiting throughout the book for the cynical motive of exploitation to be revealed from one side or the other. However, the author does keep the reader from total submission to idealised romanticism by including the knowing looks and restrained putdowns of the supporting cast. To the onlookers at least, the events are all so mundane.

The story is set in France and this allows some enjoyable prose describing the back-drop to the main theme. I particularly appreciated the parallel undermining of the foundations of Hartmann's imposing house by the inept builders at the same time as his marriage was threatened by his affair. His weakness with the builder's matched his weakness with Anne. In the end the episodes created huge cracks and a partial collapse of both his home and his marriage, but both did survive. The story left me wondering whether it was Hartmann or Anne who was more damaged for the future.

Where would we be without rules?
It took me a while to get around to it, but this is the fourth SF novel I've read. In ranking terms, I'd place it behind Birdsong, but slightly in front of On Green Dolphin St, and a street or two ahead of Charlotte Gray.

My only real problem with the book is that I felt I was being asked to both like and sympathise with Anne unreservedly, and I'm far from sure that's warranted. Yes, she'd had more than her fair share of tragedy in her past, and certainly her 'present' life is no picnic, but the reader is not led to believe she has any thought, consideration or remorse for Christine, the wife of her lover, Charles Hartmann. Indeed, another angle on events might reasonably portray a devious and plotting Anne doing everything possible to selfishly wrench her quarry away from his loyal and loving wife; a woman not untouched by recent personal tragedies of her own. That apart, I felt the book 'worked', and cleverly evoked sharp images of small-town France between the wars, without swamping the reader with pages of detail. It's well-written, the characters are interesting, the storyline is engaging and it all makes for a very enjoyable read. Don't expect too much of this simple tale and you won't be disappointed.

So, where would we be without rules? Ask the pub landlord (at the Golden Lion?).