Hotel Splendide

Ludwig Bemelmans

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English

Pushkin Press
29 November 2022

Biography; Memoirs

In this uproariously funny memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans uncovers the fabulous world of the Hotel Splendide, the luxury New York hotel where he worked as a waiter. With equal parts affection and barbed wit, he records 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 maitre d'hotel 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.

By: Ludwig Bemelmans
Imprint: Pushkin Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9781782277910
ISBN 10: 1782277919
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 29 November 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

CONTENTS 1. The Animal Waiter 7 2. Art at the Hotel Splendide 14 3. The Lost Mandolin 23 4. Easy Money 35 5. Kalakobe 43 6. A Night in Granada 51 7. The Hispano 56 8. The Homesick Bus Boy 62 9. The New Suit 70 10. The Ballet Visits the Magician 82 11. The Magician Does a New Trick 89 12. The Dreams of the Magician 96 13. My Valet Lustgarten 105 14. The Banquet 116 15. The Murderer of the Splendide 129

Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) was an Austrian-born American writer and illustrator of books for children and adults. He travelled from Austria to America in 1914, at the age of sixteen, and worked for three years in the dining halls of what he called, in his autobiographical works, the Hotel Splendide. In 1926, he quit working in hotels to become a full-time cartoonist and made frequent contributions to the New Yorker, Vogue and Town and Country. He is perhaps most well-known as the author of the beloved Madeline books.

Reviews for Hotel Splendide

'The adventures of the original bad boy of the New York restaurant/hotel underbelly continue. Whether writing about the backstairs misadventures of cooks and waiters or travel to faraway lands, Bemelmans is always funny, insightful and dead on target. No one has ever surpassed the master' - Anthony Bourdain 'Freshness and vitality... wit, humor, pathos, and the inimitable Bemelmans' touch... Here's a feast for Bemelmans' fans' - Kirkus Reviews (1946) '[The] kitchen memoir to end them all' - Slightly Foxed 'One reads Bemelmans not as one reads a serious novelist but for the sheer momentary pleasure given by his evocation of atmosphere and mood' - Punch