The Gilded Chalet

The Gilded Chalet PDF Author: Padraig Rooney
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1473645026
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Part detective work, part treasure chest, full of history and scandal, The Gilded Chalet takes you on a grand tour of two centuries of great writing by both Swiss and foreign authors and shows how Switzerland has always been at the center of literary Europe. Two centuries after the Romantics went there to invent Gothic horror, the lure of Switzerland hasn't left us. Writers from the Fitzgeralds to Fleming, Highsmith to Hemingway, Conan Doyle to le Carré, came to escape world wars, political persecution, tuberculosis. They came for sanctuary (from oppression or the tax man), for fresh air and nude sunbathing, for scenery resembling, as Rooney puts it, 'Mother Nature on steroids.' Patricia Highsmith spent her last years in a granite home in Ticino with a fridge containing little but peanut butter and vodka. Hermann Hesse had himself buried to the neck as a cure for alcoholism. Nabokov chased butterflies and played tennis on the hotel courts. When it comes to literature, it seems all roads lead to Switzerland. Padraig Rooney peers through the chalet windows and discovers how Switzerland has influenced some of the greatest authors and characters of literature.

The Gilded Chalet

The Gilded Chalet PDF Author: Padraig Rooney
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1473645026
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Get Book Here

Book Description
Part detective work, part treasure chest, full of history and scandal, The Gilded Chalet takes you on a grand tour of two centuries of great writing by both Swiss and foreign authors and shows how Switzerland has always been at the center of literary Europe. Two centuries after the Romantics went there to invent Gothic horror, the lure of Switzerland hasn't left us. Writers from the Fitzgeralds to Fleming, Highsmith to Hemingway, Conan Doyle to le Carré, came to escape world wars, political persecution, tuberculosis. They came for sanctuary (from oppression or the tax man), for fresh air and nude sunbathing, for scenery resembling, as Rooney puts it, 'Mother Nature on steroids.' Patricia Highsmith spent her last years in a granite home in Ticino with a fridge containing little but peanut butter and vodka. Hermann Hesse had himself buried to the neck as a cure for alcoholism. Nabokov chased butterflies and played tennis on the hotel courts. When it comes to literature, it seems all roads lead to Switzerland. Padraig Rooney peers through the chalet windows and discovers how Switzerland has influenced some of the greatest authors and characters of literature.

The Gilded Chalet

The Gilded Chalet PDF Author: Padraig Rooney
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1857889878
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A glorious, off-the-beaten path tour of Switzerland, featuring some of the world's most iconic writers and literary figures.

The Gilded Chalet

The Gilded Chalet PDF Author: Padraig Rooney
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Hotel Splendide

Hotel Splendide PDF Author: Ludwig Bemelmans
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 1782277919
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
“Truly a great book—unique, invaluable and unapproachable as the gold standard of the genre… Bemelmans got there first, more frequently, and better.” —Anthony Bourdain Acerbic, colorful, and spirited stories from a bygone era: behind the scenes in a grand NY hotel, from the author of the Madeline books Picture David Sedaris writing Kitchen Confidential about the Ritz in New York in the 1920s, which had the style and charm of The Grand Budapest Hotel… In this charming and uproariously funny hotel memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans uncovers the fabulous world of the Hotel Splendide—the thinly disguised stand-in for the Ritz—a luxury New York hotel where he worked as a waiter in the 1920s. With equal parts affection and barbed wit, he uncovers the everyday chaos that reigns behind the smooth facades of the gilded dining room and banquet halls. In hilarious detail, Bemelmans sketches the hierarchy of hotel life and its strange and fascinating inhabitants: from the ruthlessly authoritarian maître d'hôtel Monsieur Victor to the kindly waiter Mespoulets to Frizl the homesick busboy. Illustrated with his own charming line drawings, Bemelmans' tales of a bygone era of extravagance are as charming as they are riotously entertaining. “[Bemelmans] was the original bad boy of the NY hotel/restaurant subculture, a waiter, busboy, and restaurateur who “told all” in a series of funny and true (or very near true) autobiographical accounts of backstairs folly, excess, borderline criminality, and madness in the grande Hotel Splendide… If you like stories about old New York as I do, this classic will have you laughing out loud.” –Anthony Bourdain

Recollections of My Nonexistence

Recollections of My Nonexistence PDF Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher:
ISBN: 0593083334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
An electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher; of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself; of how punk rock gave form and voice to her own fury and explosive energy. Solnit recounts how she came to recognize the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, the trauma that changed her, and the authority figures who routinely disdained and disbelieved girls and women, including her. Looking back, she sees all these as consequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women, and how she contended with that while becoming a writer and a public voice for women's rights. She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer--books themselves, the gay men around her who offered other visions of what gender, family, and joy could be, and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. These influences taught her how to write in the way she has ever since, and gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.

Toward a Simpler Way of Life

Toward a Simpler Way of Life PDF Author: Robert Winter
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520209169
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Anti-commercial and anti-modern, the California Arts and Crafts Movement drew upon the decorative schemes of English Tudor, Swiss chalet, Japanese temple, and Spanish mission, evoking an earlier time before modern industry and technology intruded. This book celebrates the Movement with chapters on architects such as Bernard Maybeck, Charles and Henry Greene, John Galen Howard, and Julia Morgan. 365 duotone photos.

The Girl Who...

The Girl Who... PDF Author: Andreina Cordani
Publisher: Atom
ISBN: 0349003513
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE BRANFORD BOASE AWARD 2022 The girl who... survived The girl who... inspires The girl who... has something to hide People can't bring themselves to say what happened to her. They just describe her as 'the girl who... you know...'. But nobody really knows, no one sees the real Leah Leah is the perfect survivor. She was seven years old when she saw her mother and sister killed by a troubled gang member. Her case hit the headlines and her bravery made her a national sweetheart: strong, courageous and forgiving. But Leah is hiding a secret about their deaths. And now, ten years later, all she can think of is revenge. When Leah's dad meets a new partner, stepsister Ellie moves in. Sensing Leah isn't quite the sweet girl she pretends to be, Ellie discovers that Leah has a plan, one she has been putting together ever since that fateful day. Now that the killer - and the only one who knows the truth - is being released from prison, time is running out for Ellie to discover how far Leah will go to silence her anger . . .

Slow Train to Switzerland

Slow Train to Switzerland PDF Author: Diccon Bewes
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1857889762
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
A travel diary from 1863 inspires author Diccon Bewes to retrace Thomas Cook's historic train trip that revolutionized tourism forever.

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow PDF Author: Juliet Grey
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 034552389X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen. Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty. From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.

Inspiring Reform

Inspiring Reform PDF Author: Marilee Boyd Meyer
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 9780810963412
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Fine craftsmanship and handiwork, originality in design, aesthetic purity, and honest use of materials in both decorative and utilitarian objects were the ideals embraced by Boston's Society of Arts and Crafts. This book celebrates the organization's centenary with splendid examples of metalwork, jewelry textiles, furniture, ceramics, photography, and more. 273 illustrations, 52 in color. D.