Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont

MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT

by Elizabeth Taylor

 

Nomination: Booker 1971

 

Date Read: September 3, 2020

 

This novel is absolutely charming, yet utterly sad. In England, apparently, as one becomes single again, some are obligated to take up residence in a hotel. The hotel becomes a part of the slow cascade downward from one’s own home to a hotel occupied by other elderly people until the final rung of a nursing home. This is merely a sad progression through the various stages of disappearing. The aging process is even less civilized in the U.S. where actually having the funds necessary for these steps is hardly assured.

 

Mrs. Palfrey’s fate is one day changed by falling in the right place at the right time and she lands in the lap of Ludo, the grandson she actually has but his indifference precludes a relationship. Ludo becomes an enchanting friend and they fulfill needs in one another – her to save face by having a stunt-double grandson and Ludo for providing the content for his novel. Mrs. Palfrey comes to rely on and enjoy this relationship more than she could have predicted.

 

Of course, throughout their encounter I couldn’t help but brace for the time when the other occupants of the hotel became aware of her deception but she was never truly humiliated on that front (whew!). Instead, she was able to live out the remainder of her life with an almost stranger who provided her more comfort than her real family did in the end. I can only hope my parting from this world is as quick and relatively dignified as it was for Mrs. Palfrey.

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