Research Catalog

A private hotel for gentle ladies

Title
A private hotel for gentle ladies / Ellen Cooney.
Author
Cooney, Ellen.
Publication
New York : Pantheon Books, [2005], ©2005.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance PS3553.O5788 P75 2005Off-site

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Details

Description
304 pages; 22 cm
Summary
"It is 1900 in a small, prosperous Massachusetts town. Charlotte Heath, a lively, independent redhead of humble beginnings, is married to the scion of the powerful Heath family. When, on her first outing after a long illness, she spies her husband, Hays, bending to kiss another woman in the village square, impulsive Charlotte heads her horses straight out of town. Unsure where to go but certain that she wants to leave both Hays and the stifling, if luxurious, life of the Heath household behind, Charlotte makes her way to Boston and checks in at "The Beechmont: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies," where she makes another startling discovery: the classy Beechmont is a rather unique institution, where handsome porters make discreet, late-night visits to its all-female clientele. Charlotte finds herself surrounded by a cast of characters that will delight the reader as she settles into life at this reverse brothel: Harry Alcorn, the hotel's dashing and prescient proprietor; Miss Berenice Singleton, the bohemian painter who holds a kind of salon in her rooms; the scowling cook, Mrs. Petty, who once worked for the Heaths and is determined that Charlotte not stay on at the Beechmont; the charming and handsome "porter" Arthur, who both gives pleasure and makes trouble; and the venerable lady doctor Lily Heath, her husband's aunt, whom Charlotte is amazed to find among the hotel's regulars." "In the midst of a dizzying sexual enlightenment, Charlotte must puzzle out why she really left Hays and why he seems to have left her first. Her task is to determine whether she can forgive him and to discover where, if anywhere, she truly belongs - an adventure that takes her farther afield than she could ever have imagined."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Psychological fiction.
  • Historical fiction.
ISBN
0375423400
LCCN
2005043135
OCLC
  • ocm62288934
  • SCSB-5217706
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries