Translated from the German by Basil Creighton
I would never have heard of, much less read this superb novel had it not been for Jacqui of Jacquiwine’s Journal – whose review sent me scurrying off to buy it. The fact that it has been recently reissued in this gorgeous NYRB edition with this wonderful cover was a bonus.
Grand Hotel is set in the post World-War One world of the Weimar era. Berlin of the 1920’s, and here we meet a host of remarkably well drawn characters, who are explored in astute and searching detail.
Through the revolving doors of the Grand Hotel come all kinds; the war damaged, the dying, beautiful ageing ballerina, businessman, thief. The hotel exists to provide the very best of everything for their guests, and yet there is a feeling that like some of its guests, the hotel’s best days are in the past. The porter on the front desk is a count, putting his ancestry behind him to serve the guests of the Grand Hotel.
Doctor Otternshlag, is the first of the hotel residents who we meet, a veteran from the war, half his face destroyed by a shell, he sits in the hotel lounge viewing the same scene as the day before, reading the paper, as does every day. He asks the porter if there are any letters for him, a telegram perhaps or a message, there isn’t – there never is, no matter how many times he asks.
Having just received a fatal medical diagnosis Otto Kringelein has come to the Grand Hotel in order to live – if only for a few days, really live for the first time in his life. An unhappily married bookkeeper from Fredersdorf, Kringelein is about to experience all the good things that have so far passed him by, before it’s too late. Intent on spending his savings, and life insurance, after years of very careful living, Otto has wads of cash in his wallet for the first time. When presenting himself at the hotel on his first day, he looks shabby and ill, and is shown eventually to an inferior room. Quiet, unassuming Otto Kringelein going against the habits of a lifetime, demands a better room, and gets it. A room costing fifty marks a day, with a bathroom he can use whenever he likes.
“Kringelein, obstinate now that he has run amok, insisted that he required a superior and a beautiful and expensive room, at the very least a room like Preysing’s. He seemed to think the name of Preysing was a name to conjure with. He had not yet taken off his overcoat. His trembling hands clutched the old crumbling Fredersdorf sandwiches while he blinked his eyes and demanded an expensive room. He was exhausted and ill and ready to cry. For some weeks past he had begun to cry very easily for physical reasons connected with his health. Suddenly, just as he was about to give in, he won the day. He was given Room No. 70, a first floor suite with a sitting room and bath, fifty marks a day. ‘Good,’ he said, ‘with a bathroom? Does that mean that I can have a bath whenever I like?’ Count Rohna without a tremor said that was so. Kringelein moved in for the second time. “
Kringelein’s boss, company director Herr Preysing comes to the hotel for a vital business meeting, desperate to secure a deal for his family firm which is not doing as well as he pretends. Hoping to secure a merger between his firm and another Berlin firm, the deal hinges on a potential contract with a third Manchester firm. Preysing, who has bullied Kringelein for years doesn’t even recognise his employee at first, so full of his own importance, Kringelein so far outside his radar. Doctor Otternshlag takes pity on Kringelein, briefly extending the hand of friendship, even accompanying him to the ballet, before Kringelein is taken up by a more glamourous seeming figure. Gaigern, handsome, athletic, baron and professional thief, whose accomplice – in the guise of his chauffeur is settled into the servants’ quarters. Gaigern is a man who turns heads, presenting himself as an elegant, wealthy and very correct.
“There was a smell of lavender and expensive cigarettes, immediately followed by a man whose appearance was so striking that many heads turned to look at him. He was unusually tall and extremely well dressed, and his step was as elastic as a cat’s or a tennis champion’s. He wore a dark blue trench coat over his dinner jacket. This was scarcely correct perhaps, but it gave an attractively negligent air to his appearance. He patted pageboy No. 24 on his sleek head, stretched out his arm, without looking, over to the porter’s table for a handful of letters which he put straight into his pocket, taking out at the same time a pair of buckskin gloves.”
Grusinskaya is a fragile beauty, a famous ballerina fighting a battle with age. Her performances at the nearby theatre each evening playing to greatly reduced audiences, with no call for an encore. Her best days are behind her – and she knows, she’s is tired, the rigours of her art physically exhaust her. Accompanying her is her maid Suzette, to whom Grusinskaya says ‘Leave me alone’ the line which spoken by Greta Garbo became ‘I want to be alone’ in the film adaptation, and her very valuable pearls. Gaigern and his ‘chauffeur’ have their greedy eyes trained on the idea of those pearls. However, with the plans made, it is inevitable that not everything goes quite to plan. Finding out that Kringelein has money, presents him with a tempting alternative to his original purpose.
Meanwhile Preysing finds his head being turned by a young secretary generally known as Flämmchen or Falm the second (Flam the first being her elder sister). A beautiful young girl whose desire is only to make it into the movies somehow, longing for, glamour and the chance to travel. While Preysing is dissembling in business, lusting after a girl young enough to be his daughter, Kringelein is starting to live. Spending money on clothes, dancing, gambling attending a boxing match, racing through the streets of Berlin in a car, flying in an aeroplane, he learns about exhilaration. Both he and Herr Preysing will find themselves, and their lives considerably altered by the time they leave the hotel.
The lives and various concerns of these characters are woven together brilliantly by Vicki Baum, exploring their hopes, fears, secrets and regrets. There are shades of light and dark in this novel, moments of black comedy, and others of great poignancy. The life, atmosphere of a German hotel in the late 1920’s is brought to life with breath-taking clarity. Grand Hotel is a wonderful; immersive novel, which I am delighted to have discovered.
Lovely review Ali. I really think I should surrender. I’ve only seen the wonderful film on late night pop-ups on old b+w. I discovered John Barrymore some years ago and feverishly scoured for his films.
I feel like I should have seen that old file but I’m not sure that I have. I would love to see how close to the book it is.
Awesome Review Ali! This book has been on my TBR forever! This one was one my grandmom’s favorite books. Unfortunately her copy is lost and now in India, I cannot seem to find another edition! Neverthless, one day surely!
Thank you. What a shame your grandma’s favourite book is lost. Really hope you’re able to find a copy somewhere.
That sounds like a great read, and you’ve done so well for WIT month, too!
Well I have read three #WITmonth books and I was going to read more, but now I think I may read one of the three Woolf books I had set aside for phase 4 and haven’t got round to.
A delightful review, Ali – I’m so glad you enjoyed this one. It’s very cleverly constructed, isn’t it? The combination of light and shade is very effective too. I’m hoping to catch the film at some point – it’s on my Love Film list, but availability is limited so it might take a while to come through.
Yes, the construction of the novel works superbly. So glad you alerted me to it.
Jacqui’s review attracted me to this one too. Good to see another favourable review.
I have since seen several other people reading it, lovely to see it getting so much renewed attention.
I loved this book too. I also reviewed on my site if you are interested. Such a charming book!
Ooh I don’t think I spotted your review- I will go and look at that. So glad you loved it too Melissa.
Great review Ali – isn’t the book wonderful?
It is, I can see now why so many people have been reading it recently.
Lovely review Ali. Your review, and Jacqui’s which I’d also read, suggest that this is a characterful book, as lovely and bright as its cover.
Thank you. It is a wonderfully characterful book. I heartily recommend it.
As an an old movie lover, I have seen the film many times (Garbo and her hats is a riot), but embarrassingly, I never read the novel. Nice review…I am adding the book to my list!
If you’re a fan of the film I am sure you will love the book too.
> there is a feeling that like some of its guests, the hotel’s best days are in the past.
The blogopshere got me into Alone in Berlin, and your review of Grand Hotel adds to my need to read this one. I like how you pull out the undertainties facing the characters, from the business deal not going to plan, to someon battling with age. It makes me wonder, re the above selection, how much the microcosm of the hotel relates to the events unfolding outside its walls? Or would that be giving away too much?!
The outside world doesn’t actually intrude too much, but yes I think the characters we meet inside the Grand Hotel are a microcosm of the society in which it existed.
Sounds like the bubble of the hotel makes it a good companion read for the squalor and desperation in Berlin Alexanderplatz.
I’ve read quite a few of Baum’s books now and each has been quite different and very good, but I think my favourite so far is Berlin Hotel with its wartime setting.
I would very much like to explore more by Baum.
This sounds wonderful oh my goodness! My reading list grows every time I visit your blog. 🙂 Thank you for introducing me to yet another new author.
Ha ha 😉 sorry for that – that happens to me all the time.
I JUST BOUGHT THIS BOOK!! At Waterstone’s in London. I could not resist the cover and I’m a sucker for any book that’s set in a hotel, on a train, or a ship. Must move it up the TBR list!
Ooh lovely really hope you love it too.
It seems to be getting a lot of attention these days: I wondered if it was the NYRB subscription offering for August. I’ve dreamed about joining it. Have you ever read one of theirs that you did not enjoy? I’ve read very few but have also noticed that they seem to bring works from some of my already-favourite authors into their imprint too (e.g. Mavis Gallant, Elizabeth Taylor) which makes me think it’d be a good match overall!
Well I have only ever read 3 or 4 NYRB classics they had slightly passed me by until fairly recently. They are lovely books – and they seem to offer some fabulous choice.
[…] It would be hard to sum up that book in a sentence, but it was one of my highlights of the month. The Grand Hotel my third read for #WITmonth was another superb novel – one I had seen lots of love for on other […]
And another book to thank you for drawing my attention to. As you know from our twitter discussion I have written a post on novels set in hotels, and included Grand Hotel. It will be on my blog in early September.
I admired your summary of the plot and the interweaving of the lives and fates of the various guests at the hotel.
It’s a superb novel so glad I read it. Coincidentally a couple of days after finishing it is found an ancient copy of Berlin Hotel by the same author in a second hand bookshop.
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