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Apr 25, 2018talk2terih rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Towles offers us a simple moral story of a Russian aristocrat consigned to the purgatory of life under house arrest as a consequence of the Bolshevik revolution. The Count is confronted with two choices: bemoaning his fate while allowing his constricting environment to constrict his spirit or opening himself to every experience the microcosmic world of his luxury hotel "prison" has to offer. The choice he makes changes his life and those of the people around him. The story has the feel of a modern day fairy tale. The Count is reminiscent of The Little Princess, alone in his garrett room, dreaming of better days, but heartened by the colorful individuals who come and go in his life, changing it for the better. The Princess had her nabob. The Count has the hotel's guests, employees, and visitors. In spite of the fanciful premise of house arrest in a luxury hotel, the characters and their emotions feel very real. Towles depicts the aristocrat whose way of life has become obsolete beautifully. The Count is educated, witty, cultured, urbane, and unfailingly kind to everyone he meets. He is the very image of what well bred meant in his age. It is that very kindness that saves him when he contemplates taking his own life. And it is his kindness and friendship toward the hotel employees that provides him with a family to replace those he has lost. Yes, the tale has a touch of the saccharine here and there and asks us to believe some situations and events that strain credulity, but what would a fairytale be without some sugarplums and magic?