Hotel Splendide

When a book blurb says something is “uproariously funny” they often don’t do anyone any favors. I liked the book, thought it was funny, but “uproarious”—no. It’s a much quieter funny. Often when something was published, say in the early 1940s like this book, people’s idea of funny was different. Als......more

My thanks to Pushkin Press and Edelweiss for a review copy of this book. First published in 1941, Hotel Splendide is a slightly fictionalized memoir of the time author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans spent working at the Ritz in New York, which in the book becomes the Hotel Splendide. Written in the......more

Ludwig Bemelmans was the author of the famous “Madeline” book series, but before he found fame, he worked as a waiter in the Ritz Hotel in 1920s New York City, which is barely camouflaged in the book as the “Hotel Splendide.” There he was an observer, and picked up on the affectations of the hotel e......more

Ludwig Bemelmans recalls his time as a waiter at a fabulous hotel in New York City, complete with lots of humor, tragedy, and a cast of colorful coworkers. I picked up this book because I love behind-the-scenes stories, and because I was interested in learning about the fabulous excess of 1920s New Y......more

The Austrian-born writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans is perhaps best known for the Madeline series, a much-loved collection of children’s picture books, mostly from the 1950s. But before he made his name as an artist and writer, Bemelmans spent several years in the New York hotel industry, work......more