Hotel Splendide

by Ludwig Bemelmans

Overview

'The original bad boy of the New York restaurant/hotel scene… No one has ever surpassed the master' Anthony Bourdain

Acerbic, colourful and spirited reminiscences from a grand New York hotel in the nineteen twenties – perfect for fans of Evelyn Waugh, Kitchen Confidential or The Grand Budapest Hotel

Welcome to the grand Hotel Splendide, where hilarity and chaos reign. In the mirror-lined dining halls, the champagne is constantly flowing; in the kitchens downstairs, malcontent waiters incite revolution.

In this classic memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans encounters eccentricity on every level of the hotel hierarchy as he works his way up from busboy at the restaurant's most undesirable table, to assistant manager of the magnificent private banquets. There may be Russian ballerinas and Wall Street tycoons to entertain, but there is also Mespoulets, the world's worst waiter, to contend with and a murder plot against Monsieur Victor, the authoritarian maître d'hôtel, to solve.

Accompanied by Bemelmans' own witty illustrations, this account of a bygone era of extravagance is as charming as it is riotously entertaining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782277927
Publisher:	Steerforth Press
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	913,804
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

LUDWIG BEMELMANS (1898-1962) was an Austrian-born American writer, artist and illustrator. He emigrated from Austria to America in 1914, at the age of sixteen, and initially worked in the New York hotel industry before becoming a full-time cartoonist and writer. As an illustrator, he made frequent contributions to the New Yorker, Vogue and Town and Country, and created the famous murals in the Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel in New York. He published many books for both children and adults, including the beloved Madeline children's books.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

An uproarious account of his life as a waiter at the thinly disguised Ritz-Carlton in the 1920s . . . He is a canny observer with a wry sense of humor, an innocent bystander who simply looks on. He’s like P.G. Wodehouse, with a touch of the Marx Brothers. . . . a delight from beginning to end.”
—The Wall Street Journal

"Hotel Splendide, Bemelmans’s 1941, out-of-print memoir, which is being reissued by Pushkin Press this month, is a delightful passport to a long-lost era"
—Air Mail

“The original bad boy of the New York restaurant/hotel underbelly. Bemelmans is always funny, insightful and dead on target.”
—Anthony Bourdain

“Freshness and vitality…wit, humor, pathos, and the inimitable Bemelmans’ touch.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The kitchen memoir to end them all.”
—Slightly Foxed

“A seemingly light-hearted yet deceptively dark memoir of [Bemelmans'] time working in a luxury hotel in 1920s New York. A gently flowing, delightfully gossipy read, I could easily picture the entirety shot in black-and-white vignettes, Woody Allen style.”
—Irish Times

“A charming memoir.”
—Independent

“Immensely fun and an absolutely charming book... a beautiful classic” 
—WAMC North East Public Radio Book Picks.

From the Publisher

David de Vries has a fine time delivering this comic tribute to life in a 1920s New York luxury hotel. He narrates in a rich tone and lively style that fits this satire of the opulent life of the Hotel Splendide, a slightly fictionalized version of the Ritz, where Bemelmans worked as a waiter. He ably does the necessary French and German accents and captures the demimonde of the hotel, where the world's wealthiest and most indulged folks are catered to by a battalion of servers. The author, who went on to create the famed MADELINE children's books, by turns appreciates and abhors the grand spectacle of life in the hotel. The narrator controls the proceedings, during which the staff often work until dawn, then dine on leftover caviar and champagne. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile