Anita Brookner

La novela más emblemática de Anita Brookner, una de las grandes escritoras inglesas del siglo xx. «A veces pensaba que el tiempo que pasaba urdiendo las tramas de sus novelas había sido una preparaci

Winner of the Booker Prize, the beautiful, romantic and gorgeously philosophical Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner is part of our Penguin Essential series which spotlights the very best of our modern classicsThe Hotel du Lac was a dignified building, a house of repute, a traditional establishment, used to welcoming the prudent, the well-to-do, the retired, the self-effacing, the respected patrons of an earlier eraInto the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating loneliness is renewed . . .A classic . . . a book which will be read with pleasure a hundred years from now SpectatorHumorous, witty, touching and formidably clever The TimesHotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart ObserverSo sure and so quietly commanding Hilary Mantel, Guardian

«A sus cuarenta años, la doctora Weiss comprendió que la literaturale había destrozado la vida.» Ruth Weiss es una profesora universitariainteligente y solitaria que se ha especializado en los person

«Nunca me cayó bien, ni yo a ella. Por eso es extraño que tuviéramos cierta amistad durante tantos años.» Vidas breves cuenta la historia de Fay, de sus discretas alegrías e ilusiones desde que, en l

La novela más emblemática de Anita Brookner, una de las grandes escritoras inglesas del siglo xx.«A veces pensaba que el tiempo que pasaba urdiendo las tramas de sus novelas había sido una preparació

The latecomers are Hartmann and Fibich, brought over to England as children to escape Nazi Germany, now living close to each other in London in their 60s, and still friends. Yet they could not be more different, each having adopted different strategies to reconcile themselves with their past and to cope with an uncertain world.

''He was haunted by a feeling of invisibility, as if he were a mere spectator of his own life, with no one to identify him in the barren circumstances of the here and now.'' Paul Sturgis is retired and lives alone in South Kensington. He walks alone and dines alone, taking pleasure in small exchanges with strangers. His only acquaintance is a widowed cousin whom he visits on Sundays. Unable to make sense of his solitary nature, and fearing death among strangers, he wonders whether at last he might be ready for companionship. But a chance meeting with an old girlfriend and an encounter in Venice with a recently divorced younger woman compel Sturgis to decide how (and with whom) he will spend the rest of his days

The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply wont be got rid of.Destined to be a haunter of libraries, Lewiss cautious progress through life reveals to him only his own shortcomings. Estranged from his wife and daughter, he searches for an alternative. This novel presents the life and aspirations of one man who remains out of step with his times.

I have reached the age when a woman begins to perceive that she is growing into the person whom she least plans to resemble: her mother.Nadine has always wanted her daughter Maud to be married and off her hands. When the two women are staying at Nadines sisters house near Meaux, they become part of a sophisticated, wordly group into which neither Maud nor Edward Harrison, a young visitor from England, seem to fit. Maud is swept off her feet by David Tyler, a stylish, irresponsible young man who robs her of her innocence and disappears. Edward, forced into adulthood by his inheritance of a bookshop, and thus a career, takes Maud into his care. But for both of them the shadow of Tyler is always there, illuminating their feelings of inadequacy, disappointment and loss.

Once a thing is known it can never be unknown. By day Frances Hinton works in a medical library, by night she haunts the room of a West London mansion flat. Everything changes, however, when she is adopted by charming Nick and his dazzling wife Alix. They draw her into their tight circle of friends. Suddenly, Frances life is full and ripe with new engagements. But too late, Frances realises that she may be only a play thing, to be picked up and discarded once used. And that just one act in defiance of Alixs wishes could see her lose everything . . .

I was foolish enough to think that I was strong enough, and cheerful enough by nature, to avoid unhappiness. I was not yet old enough to see that I was in error.Alan Sherwood is a cautious, solitary London solicitor who finds himself obsessed by his glamorous cousin Sarah. But Sarah is self-seeking and predatory and their short-lived affair leaves Alan desolate. He finds distraction in Angela, a homely, needy acquaintance of Sarah and they drift into marriage. Alan, however, is haunted by his memories of Sarah, and, attempting to recapture the wordless passion of their time together, he arranges a final meeting. It is an act of betrayal that changes his life for ever.

Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment.Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .

I never liked her, nor did she like me strange, then, how we managed to keep up a sort of friendship for so long.Fay Langdon has relinquished her singing career to marry Owen, a highly successful solicitor. At one of their dinner parties Fay meets the glamorous, self-obsessed Julia and is destined to join the handful of acolytes who provide Julia with ammunition for her merciless scorn and disapprobation. As the years pass and Fay and Julias lives grow empty of purpose, they are drawn together by their fear of age and isolation. Yet a mutual mistrust continues to exist between them until Fay is driven to one last heroic act.

Seated at a caf table, in the syrupy warmth of out-of-season Nice, he reviewed his life and found it to be alarmingly empty.George Bland had planned to spend his retirement in leisurely travel and modest entertainment with his friend Putnam. When Putnam dies George is left attempting to impose some purpose on the solitary end of his life. Then Katy Gibb appears as a temporary resident, perhaps even squatter, in a neighbouring apartment. Greedy, selfish, sometimes alluring, often manipulative, Katy exerts a strange influence on George, forcing him to recognize that his own careful, fastidious life has shown a distinct lack of passion and daring. As the realization takes hold, George must decide how much - or how little - he can do to transform the status quo.

It was at Millies party, on that Friday evening, that she met her second husband, my stepfather-to-be, and thus changed both our lives . . .Zo is delighted when her widowed mother marries Simon, a generous older man who owns a villa in Nice. However, the long enchanted visits to France she enjoys come to an abrupt end when Simon suffers a bad fall. Zo and her mother, finding themselves surrounded by well-meaning strangers, must learn how and how not to trust appearances . . . One of her very best - possibly her finest . . . reverberates long after its put down ... Brookner in all her wisdom, eloquence and power Spectator

Kitty Maule wants to be totally unreasonable, totally unfair, very demanding, and very beautiful.Instead, she is clever, hesitant and too patient for her own good. For years, she has been in love with her colleague Maurice Bishop, a charming English lecturer who seems not to notice her feelings. But when there comes a chance to accompany Maurice to France on a study of French cathedrals, Kitty sees an opporunity to be the woman she has always wanted to be as well as at last make the man she wants fall in love with her. But why is that the closer she gets to Maurice, the more elusive he seems to become?