The Grand Babylon Hotel is a novel by Arnold Bennett, published in January 1902, about the mysterious disappearance of a German prince. It originally appeared as a serial in the Golden Penny.[1] The titular Grand Babylon was modelled on the Savoy Hotel which Bennett had much later also used as a model for his 1930 novel Imperial Palace.
In Bennett's journal entry on 18 January 1901, he also notes that said his serial was being advertised was the "best thing of this sort" they'd seen since The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume.
Plot introduction
The protagonists are an American millionaire, Theodore Racksole, and his daughter Nella (Helen). While staying at the supremely exclusive Grand Babylon Hotel, Nella asks for a steak and Bass beer for dinner, but the order is refused. To get her what she wants Racksole buys the entire hotel, for £400,000 "and a guinea" (so the previous owner, Félix Babylon, can say that he haggled with the multi-millionaire businessman).
Strange things are happening in the hotel. First, Racksole notices the headwaiter, Jules, winking at his daughter's friend, Reginald Dimmock, while they consume their expensive steak. He dismisses the headwaiter. The next day Miss Spencer, the pretty, efficient hotel clerk who has been employed there for years, disappears. It appears that she just took her things and left, no one knows when or where. And Prince Eugen, a prince regnant of Posen, who was to come to the hotel and meet his youthful uncle Prince Aribert (he and the nephew are of the same age), never turns up. Then the body of Dimmock, who was an equerry to the princes, come ahead to prepare for their visit, is found. He was obviously poisoned. And soon after, Dimmock's body disappears.
The same evening the hotel is having a ball in the Gold Room, hosted by a Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi. There is a special secret window though which one can observe the room and the guests. Racksole looks out of it and sees among the guests the dismissed headwaiter, Jules. Racksole runs out to confront him and throw him out, but can't find him. He comes back to the secret window to find Jules, staring intensely into the ball room. Racksole orders him out of the hotel for the second time.
Prince Aribert, who met Nella in Paris while he was travelling incognito under the name of Count Steenbock, confides the whole story to her. He tells her that Prince Eugen never arrived, and no one knows where he is. He was last seen at Ostend. His Majesty the Emperor sent a telegram to Aribert, requesting the whereabouts of Eugen. Aribert, who does not know whether there might be a secret love affair, or an abduction, is facing a dilemma. At last he decides to go to Berlin and state the facts to the Emperor. Nella promises him help and support in London.
After the departure of Aribert, an old lady signs into the hotel under the name of 'Baroness Zerlinski'. Some chance remarks about hotel rooms convinced Nella, who was substituting for the hotel clerk, that it was, in fact Miss Spencer in disguise. When she finds out that Miss Spencer suddenly checks out and departs for Ostend, Nella too goes to Ostend, leaving a short message for her father as to her whereabouts.
In Ostend, Nella follows Miss Spencer into a house, and tries to find out what's going on, threatening the latter with a revolver. Miss Spencer says that she was under orders of Jules, the headwaiter, whose real name is Tom Jackson and who is, she claims, her husband. She says that Jackson/Jules quarrelled with Dimmock and that he had some "money business" with Prince Eugen. She admits that the Prince was a captive in that same house, and she looked after him. He was abducted to prevent him arriving to London, for it would have "upset the scheme". Then Miss Spencer fakes a faint, and Nella, who comes nearer to see if she can help her, is overpowered. Nella loses consciousness.
Publication history
First serialised in Golden Penny in 1901 (of which the relevant issues have not survived), it was then published as a novel by London publisher Chatto & Windus in 1902. An American edition was also published in 1902 by George H. Doran Company in New York, and a Canadian edition in 1902 by Toronto's Bell & Cockburn. A new edition of the novel was published by various publishers in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1920, 1924, 1930, 1932, 1936.
In 1938, Penguin Books added Grand Babylon Hotel to their main series of paperbacks (#176 to be precise).[2] in 1954 & 1972, Penguin did a reprinted version. The 1976 version was part of their Modern Classics line. Their edition of 4 February 1992 was on the Penguin Classics line.
Various editions were published in 1947, 1958 (an abridged version by Longmans, Green & Co.), 1959, 1961, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1984 (a large print edition), 1990, 1996.
On 1 September 2001, Project Gutenberg released an e-book version of the novel.
Since the 2000s, the novel has been in and out of print. Academic publisher Broadview Press published a new edition on 3 August 2016 edited by Randi Saloman, an Assistant Teaching Professor at Wake Forest University.
Reception
London-based literature review periodical The Academy had an unsigned review that called the novel a "very amusing story of the feuilleton type".[3] Review had also said that novel was "excellent in the mingling of farce and characterization."
Chris Harrald adapted the novel for BBC Radio 4 in 2009 in 2 parts with John Sessions as Theodore Racksole and Matti Houghton as Nella Racksole, Stephen Critchlow as Prince Eugen, Fenella Woolgar as Miss Spencer and Joe Kloska as Aribert.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The novel-length version was published in April 1891.
Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English author, best known as a novelist who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays, and a daily journal totalling more than a million words. He wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information in the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. Sales of his books were substantial and he was the most financially successful British author of his day.
In Search of Lost Time, first translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past, and sometimes referred to in French as La Recherche, is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early 20th-century work is his most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory. The most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine", which occurs early in the first volume.
Elisabeth of Wied was the first queen of Romania as the wife of King Carol I from 15 March 1881 to 27 September 1914. She had been the princess consort of Romania since her marriage to then-Prince Carol on 15 November 1869.
Them is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the third in the Wonderland Quartet she inaugurated with A Garden of Earthly Delights. It was published by Vanguard in 1969 and it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.
The Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
Ludwig Bemelmans was an Austrian-American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the Madeline picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939.
The Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence. The novel features her fictional amateur detective Miss Marple.
A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.
Sir Edward Marshall Hall, was an English barrister who had a formidable reputation as an orator. He successfully defended many people accused of notorious murders and became known as "The Great Defender".
French Leave is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 20 January 1956 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 28 September 1959 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York.
Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The title refers to the practice of "racial passing", which is a key element of the novel. Clare Kendry's attempt to pass as white for her husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is significant and is a catalyst for the tragic events.
Prince Aribert Joseph Alexander of Anhalt was regent of Anhalt from September to November 1918 on behalf of his underage nephew Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt. As regent, following the German revolution, he abdicated in the name of his nephew on 12 November 1918, thus ending the rule of the House of Ascania in Anhalt.
Troubles is a 1970 novel by J. G. Farrell. The plot concerns the dilapidation of a once-grand Irish hotel, in the midst of the political upheaval during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). It is the first instalment in Farrell's acclaimed "Empire Trilogy", preceding The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip. Although there are similar themes within the three novels, they do not form a sequence of storytelling.
Imperial Palace is the last and longest novel by author Arnold Bennett.
Margaret Emma Faith Irwin was an English historical novelist. She also wrote a factual biography of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Flavia and Her Artists is a short story by American writer Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905.
The Grand Babylon Hotel is a 1916 British silent thriller film directed by Frank Wilson and starring Fred Wright, Marguerite Blanche and Gerald Lawrence. It is an adaptation of the 1902 novel of the same title by Arnold Bennett.
Émilie-Louise Delabigne, known as countess Valtesse de La Bigne was a French courtesan and demi-mondaine. Although born to a working-class family in Paris, she rose through the social ranks and was a supporter of painters, while creating a space for women to participate in the art world through her collecting and Salon.
Nella is a feminine given name which may refer to:
References
↑ Bennett, Arnold (1933). The Journal of Arnold Bennett 1896–1928. New York: Viking. p.(1901, Friday 18 January entry).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
