A Start in Life

Anita Brookner's first novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 
 
'Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.' 
 
Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment. 
 
Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .

Enormously sophisticated, knowing, often very funny tragi-comedy

How can anything be so funny and so sad both at once? Every sentence is an object lesson in compression and wit.

Enormously sophisticated, knowing, often very funny tragi-comedy.

Anita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and worked at the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her twenty-fourth, Strangers, in 2009. Hotel du Lac won the 1984 Booker Prize. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner has published a number of volumes of art criticism.

'Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.' 
 
Ruth Weiss, an academic, is beautiful, intelligent and lonely. Studying the heroines of Balzac in order to discover where her own childhood and adult life has gone awry, she seeks not salvation but enlightenment. 
 
Yet in revisiting her London upbringing, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs, she wonders if perhaps there might not be a chance for a new start in life . . .

A Family Romance

'Literature for me was a magnificent destiny for which I was not yet fully prepared.' 
 
Paul and Henrietta Manning and their solitary, academic daughter Jane have nothing in common with Dolly, widow of Henrietta's brother. Corseted and painted, Dolly is a frivolous, superficial woman, who has little time for those without that inestimable quality - charm. 
 
Jane, in particular, falls into this category, especially after the death of her parents. But Jane has money - and a conscience - and these bind her to Dolly. Through disagreements, disappointments and disapprovals, Jane and Dolly are enmeshed in an uneasy alliance in which history and family create closer ties than friendship ever could.

The novel is nearly as perfect an instance of its genre as it is reasonable to ask.

This is vintage Brookner: all exquisite understatement, acute observation and razor-sharp dissection of motive.

This small history unfolds slowly, with delicious wit or bitter pathos, and finally with a marvellous, lingering human resonance.

Compelling . . . some classic Brookner quality stays in the mind; questions hover, polite but uncomfortable, long after the final page.

Paul and Henrietta Manning and their solitary, academic daughter Jane have nothing in common with Dolly, widow of Henrietta's brother. Corseted and painted, Dolly is a frivolous, superficial woman, who has little time for those without that inestimable quality - charm. 
 
Jane, in particular, falls into this category, especially after the death of her parents. But Jane has money - and a conscience - and these bind her to Dolly. Through disagreements, disappointments and disapprovals, Jane and Dolly are enmeshed in an uneasy alliance in which history and family create closer ties than friendship ever could.

Altered States

'I was foolish enough to think that I was strong enough, and cheerful enough by nature, to avoid unhappiness. I was not yet old enough to see that I was in error.' 
 
Alan Sherwood is a cautious, solitary London solicitor who finds himself obsessed by his glamorous cousin Sarah. But Sarah is self-seeking and predatory and their short-lived affair leaves Alan desolate. He finds distraction in Angela, a homely, needy acquaintance of Sarah and they drift into marriage. 
 
Alan, however, is haunted by his memories of Sarah, and, attempting to recapture the wordless passion of their time together, he arranges a final meeting. It is an act of betrayal that changes his life for ever.

This is one of the best novels Brookner has written. I was mesmerised from start to finish, and it is shot through with a maturity and depth of perception that leaves you breathless with admiration.

As a novelist Anita Brookner is both infinitely various and adorably unique.

Witty, painful, often moving in their bleak truthfulness, Anita Brookner's novels show mastery in a very specific genre. This quiet novel is yet another reminder that she is a novelist whose art and understanding are much wider than the world she chronicles so chillingly.

Alan Sherwood is a cautious, solitary London solicitor who finds himself obsessed by his glamorous cousin Sarah. But Sarah is self-seeking and predatory and their short-lived affair leaves Alan desolate. He finds distraction in Angela, a homely, needy acquaintance of Sarah and they drift into marriage. 
 
Alan, however, is haunted by his memories of Sarah, and, attempting to recapture the wordless passion of their time together, he arranges a final meeting. It is an act of betrayal that changes his life for ever.

Incidents in the Rue Laugier

'I have reached the age when a woman begins to perceive that she is growing into the person whom she least plans to resemble: her mother.' 
 
Nadine has always wanted her daughter Maud to be married and off her hands. When the two women are staying at Nadine's sister's house near Meaux, they become part of a sophisticated, wordly group into which neither Maud nor Edward Harrison, a young visitor from England, seem to fit. 
 
Maud is swept off her feet by David Tyler, a stylish, irresponsible young man who robs her of her innocence and disappears. Edward, forced into adulthood by his inheritance of a bookshop, and thus a career, takes Maud into his care. But for both of them the shadow of Tyler is always there, illuminating their feelings of inadequacy, disappointment and loss.

She is funny, vivid and devastating in her observations.

Anita Brookner has sublimely mastered the art of making her reader interested in her characters . . . a thoroughly enjoyable and most unusual novel.

Nadine has always wanted her daughter Maud to be married and off her hands. When the two women are staying at Nadine's sister's house near Meaux, they become part of a sophisticated, wordly group into which neither Maud nor Edward Harrison, a young visitor from England, seem to fit. 
 
Maud is swept off her feet by David Tyler, a stylish, irresponsible young man who robs her of her innocence and disappears. Edward, forced into adulthood by his inheritance of a bookshop, and thus a career, takes Maud into his care. But for both of them the shadow of Tyler is always there, illuminating their feelings of inadequacy, disappointment and loss.

A Private View

'Seated at a café table, in the syrupy warmth of out-of-season Nice, he reviewed his life and found it to be alarmingly empty.' 
 
George Bland had planned to spend his retirement in leisurely travel and modest entertainment with his friend Putnam. When Putnam dies George is left attempting to impose some purpose on the solitary end of his life. 
 
Then Katy Gibb appears as a temporary resident, perhaps even squatter, in a neighbouring apartment. Greedy, selfish, sometimes alluring, often manipulative, Katy exerts a strange influence on George, forcing him to recognize that his own careful, fastidious life has shown a distinct lack of passion and daring. As the realization takes hold, George must decide how much - or how little - he can do to transform the status quo.

A beautiful book that one is impelled to read at one sitting

Anita Brookner is our Henry James. She is as subtle as James at conveying emotional nuances by what is left unsaid, and by indirections finding directions out.

George Bland had planned to spend his retirement in leisurely travel and modest entertainment with his friend Putnam. When Putnam dies George is left attempting to impose some purpose on the solitary end of his life. 
 
Then Katy Gibb appears as a temporary resident, perhaps even squatter, in a neighbouring apartment. Greedy, selfish, sometimes alluring, often manipulative, Katy exerts a strange influence on George, forcing him to recognize that his own careful, fastidious life has shown a distinct lack of passion and daring. As the realization takes hold, George must decide how much - or how little - he can do to transform the status quo.

Fraud

'Oh, she'll turn up all right. Somewhere or other. Trouble is, we won't know where to look.' 
 
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Anna Durrant's acquaintances realize that Anna has gone missing. Normally so reliable, so helpful, she has neglected what duties remain to her after the death of her mother and taken flight. 
 
Lawrence Halliday, the family doctor, trapped in a trying marriage to the predatory Vickie, is the first to notice Anna's disappearance. Mrs Marsh, a critical friend of Anna's mother, had hoped that her arrogant son Nick might take an interest in Anna, but he is seeking greater sophistication and worldliness. And as for Anna herself, she has not so much disappeared as ceased to exist as the woman they all thought they knew.

What makes this book gripping . . . is its truthfulness. It is a sort of detective story after all, with Brookner as the sleuth . . . applying her own devastating insight.

What a humorous and humane as well as accomplished artist she is.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Anna Durrant's acquaintances realize that Anna has gone missing. Normally so reliable, so helpful, she has neglected what duties remain to her after the death of her mother and taken flight. 
 
Lawrence Halliday, the family doctor, trapped in a trying marriage to the predatory Vickie, is the first to notice Anna's disappearance. Mrs Marsh, a critical friend of Anna's mother, had hoped that her arrogant son Nick might take an interest in Anna, but he is seeking greater sophistication and worldliness. And as for Anna herself, she has not so much disappeared as ceased to exist as the woman they all thought they knew.

Anita Brookner

Miss Brookner's most absorbing novel . . . graceful and attractive

Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding

Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart

The last great novelist of the 20th century

A classic . . . a book which will be read with pleasure a hundred years from now

A smashing love story. It is very romantic. It is also humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever

She is one of the great writers of contemporary fiction

The Hotel du Lac was a dignified building, a house of repute, a traditional establishment, used to welcoming the prudent, the well-to-do, the retired, the self-effacing, the respected patrons of an earlier era' 
 
Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating loneliness is renewed . . .

Anita Brookner

Praise for Hotel du Lac

Miss Brookner's most absorbing novel . . . graceful and attractive

Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding

Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart

Miss Brookner's most absorbing novel . . . graceful and attractive

Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding

Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart

Miss Brookner's most absorbing novel . . . graceful and attractive

Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding

Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart

Books by Anita Brookner

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