Description
A first edition, first printing of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor, published by Chatto and Windus, London in 1971. A very good copy free from inscriptions, fading to the spine, some shelf-wear to the rear board, a little toning to the text block, an Ex Libris label to the front paste-down, some staining to the prelims.
Published in 1971, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont follows a widowed woman who moves into a genteel but fading London residential hotel. Neglected by her family, Mrs Palfrey befriends Ludo, an impoverished writer, and asks him to impersonate her absent grandson before the other residents. Their unlikely friendship brings warmth to lives marked by loneliness and approaching death. Elizabeth Taylor’s exquisitely observed, unsentimental novel balances comedy with pathos and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
