The Grand Babylon Hotel

Name: The Grand Babylon Hotel
Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Author: Arnold Bennett
ISBN: 9780708981801

by Arnold Bennett

4.0

(7 ratings)

200 pages1902Ulverscroft Large PrintISBN 9780708981801

GeneralFiction Literature MysterymysteriousA mix drivenWeak Character DevelopmentUnloveable CharactersDiverse CharactersClassicsAdventure

Adventurousfunnylightheartedfast

About this book

From the book:Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the corner by the conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June night, and dinner was about to be served at the Grand Babylon. Men of all sizes, ages, and nationalities, but every one alike arrayed in faultless evening dress, were dotted about the large, dim apartment. A faint odour of flowers came from the conservatory, and the tinkle of a fountain. The waiters, commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing orders with that air of profound importance of which only really first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere was an atmosphere of serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand Babylon. It seemed impossible that anything could occur to mar the peaceful, aristocratic monotony of existence in that perfectly-managed establishment. Yet on that night was to happen the mightiest upheaval that the Grand Babylon had ever known.

Publication Details

Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print
Published: 1902
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9780708981801
Language: en

About Arnold Bennett

Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English novelist, playwright, and journalist, whose novels and plays generally reflected middle-class life in north Staffordshire. He was born in Hanley, Staffordshire (which is now Stoke-on-Trent), the son of a solicitor. He was educated in Newcastle-under-Lyme. After school, he worked for his father, and in his spare time he was a journalist. At age twenty-one, he moved to London to work as a solicitor's clerk. In 1889 he won a writing competition in *Tit-Bits* magazine and decided to become a full-time journalist. In 1894, he became assistant editor of the periodical *Woman*, for which he also began writing serial fiction. His first novel, *A Man from the North*, was published in 1898, the same year he became the editor of *Woman*. In 1900 he left the magazine and moved to Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, to become a full-time writer. In 1903 he moved to join the artist community in Paris, where he wrote several novels and plays. In 1908 he published *The Old Wives' Tale*, which was a best-seller. He visited to America in 1911 on a much-publicized trip. His excellent detective fiction includes *The Loot of Cities* (1905), six stories about Cecil Thorold, a rogue-detective millionaire "in search of joy' and not above blackmail and theft to corral his criminals. [Leslie S. Klinger, *In the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes* (2011)] During World War I he was Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information. He refused a knighthood in 1918. In 1922 he separated from his French wife and fell in love with the actress Dorothy Cheston, with whom he stayed for the rest of his life. He died of typhoid at his home in London in 1931.