Country Australia Publication date 1973 Pages 191pp ISBN 0207955301 | Media type Print Originally published 1973 Genre Literary fiction Publisher Angus & Robertson | |
Followed by Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife) Similar A Little Tea - a Little Chat, The Beauties and Furies, The Puzzleheaded Girl, Miss Herbert (The Sub, House of All Nations | ||
The Little Hotel (1973) is a novel by Australian writer Christina Stead.
Contents
Story outline
In a small European hotel in the late 1940s a bizarre group of characters, who all seem to be on the run from some past financial, personal or political horror, come together.
Critical reception
In a short survey of books for the 1974 Christmas market, Margaret Sydney noted in The Australian Women's Weekly that "This novel is one to treasure, because of its humor, its beautiful writing, its understanding of the way in which bothered people tick."
Kegan Gardiner has written an extended review essay on the novel and finds: "Despite some gaps in its narrative point of view, The Little Hotel is a shapely piece of fiction, with coherent parallel plotting, a careful array of interconnected characters, and rich patterns of imagery." And continues "Unusually for Stead, in The Little Hotel we hear less of her characters’ speeches than we might like. The characters and their pasts are gradually revealed, with much left open to our imaginations. This is a subtle novel, a term rarely applied to Stead."