When Mrs. Palfrey, a genteel, elderly widow, arrives with her possessions at the formerly elegant Claremont Hotel in London, she expects “something quite different.” Planning to stay at least a month, possibly permanently, she prefers her independence in this aging London hotel to living in Scotland near her daughter, who prefers to ignore her. A variety of elderly eccentrics call the Claremont home, and though the residents put up a good front, their loneliness and boredom are obvious. When she falls while walking one day, Mrs. Palfrey is rescued by Ludovic Meyer, a struggling young writer. As the two develop a close relationship, Mrs. Palfrey reminisces about her married life, teaching Ludo about the many kinds of love and all its pleasures, and he, having failed in past relationships, begins to understand what love means, blossoming under her attention. This 1975 novel is a sweetly romantic comic masterpiece in which old age is shown as a stage in life, one in which rewards and happiness are more important than the inevitable conclusion. (One of my Favorites for 2008)
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins with the arrival of Mikael Blomqvist on remote Hedeby Island. Blomqvist has been hired to do research for the biography of prominent Swedish industrialist Henrik Vanger and his large family, and he is looking for a place to stay where he can avoid attention. Blomqvist, a financial journalist for Millenium magazine, is due to serve a three-month prison sentence soon for libeling a man he accused of criminal activity. The temporary job he accepts on this remote island involves the search for Harriet Vanger, Henrik’s niece who disappeared from the island when she was sixteen–thirty-seven years ago. Despite searches that continued for many years, no trace of her has ever been found. Hired to help Blomqvist in his research is an assistant, Lizbeth Salander, a disturbed young computer hacker who is under the guardianship of the state. The novel becomes an utterly compelling can’t-put-it-downer, as the reader “travels” with Blomqvist and Salander, sharing their frustrations and their physical danger as they investigate Harriet’s decades-old disappearance.
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With Ironweed, William Kennedy completes his three novels of Depression-era Albany, wrapping up this study of time, place, and people with an emotionally gripping Pulitzer Prize-winner (1984) that focuses on those who call themselves “bums,” all of them living apart from society because their dreams have died. Here Francis Phelan, long-absent father of Billy Phelan, returns to Albany for the first time in twenty-two years. A former pro ballplayer, Francis lost his career when he lost part of a finger in a fight. He abandoned his wife Annie and his family when he accidentally dropped and killed his 13-day-old son Gerald, an act for which he still atones. A book so good it will leave you reeling, Ironweed tears at the heart without showing a trace of sentimentality, depicting hard lives lived by down-and-out people, most of whom still possess the redeeming virtues of the more saintly who live “normal” lives. Hard-edged, sometimes violent, and even cruel, it also reveals human kindness, sweetness, and love. (On my list of All-Time Favorites.)
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Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever, and rich,” is the 21-year-old daughter of the elderly owner of Hartfield, the largest estate in Highbury. Though only a couple of hours away from London by carriage, Highbury regards itself as an isolated and virtually self-contained community, with the Woodhouse family the center of social life and at the top of its social ladder. Emma, doting on her hypochondriac father, whom she represents to the outside world, has grown up without a mother’s softening influence, and at twenty-one, she is bright, willful, and not a little spoiled. Austen shines in her depiction of Emma and her upperclass friends, gently satirizing their weaknesses but leaving room for them to learn from their mistakes-if only they can learn to recognize the ironies in their lives. Though Emma may be, in some ways, Austen’s least charming heroine, she is certainly vibrant and, with her annoying faults, a most realistic one.
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In this somewhat atypical Jane Austen novel, Austen abandons her precise characterization and carefully constructed plots, usually designed to illustrate specific ethical and social dilemmas, and presents a much broader, more complex picture of early nineteenth century life. Though the polite behavior of the middle and upper classes is always a focus of Austen, and this novel is no exception, she is more analytical of society as a whole here, casting a critical eye on moral issues which allow the upper class to perpetuate itself. Fanny Price, the main character, is the daughter of a genteel woman who married for love but soon found herself in poverty. When Fanny’s aunt and uncle, the wealthy owners of Mansfield Park, invite Fanny alone, of all the children, to live with them, Fanny enters a new world, where she is educated, clothed, and housed, but always regarded as an “outsider.”
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