A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies: A novel [Hardcover]

Ellen Cooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 2005

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.

Ellen Cooney has given us a remarkable portrait of a historical moment and an irresistible protagonist. Fresh, high-spirited, and wonderfully seductive in the telling, A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies carries the reader along on a woman’s unforgettable journey to self-enlightenment.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Playing out in Boston during the freezing winter of 1900, Cooney's sixth novel (after Gun Ball Hill) has a steamy premise—a proper young lady winds up at a hotel where female guests are visited at night by handsome young men—but an emotionally distant execution keeps titillation to a minimum. Charlotte Heath, married to the youngest son of an immensely wealthy family, has spent her wedded life living with the clan in their imposing ancestral home. After a debilitating illness of unknown origin keeps her bedridden for almost a year, Charlotte finally leaves her room, only to find her husband on the cusp of an embrace with another woman. Without a second thought, she quits her life entirely and seeks out her only friend, the Heaths' former cook, who works in Boston at "The Beechmont: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies." It takes a while for Charlotte to realize what's going on at the hotel, where a whole cast of quirky characters hold court—including a handsome young stud who ultimately breaks Charlotte's heart. The narrative moves dreamlike through a web of Charlotte's musings during her unlikely adventure. Cooney's story compels, but continual flashbacks and reminiscences make the narrative feel bumpy and disjointed. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

for A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies:
“Charlotte Heath is the most enticing heroine I’ve met in some time: tenderhearted yet obstinate, genteel yet deeply sensual. The adventure she takes us on is wonderfully eccentric, deliciously observed, and ends with the kind of gratifying surprise that reminds me why telling stories, and reading them, is such an essential pleasure in my life.”
–Julia Glass, author of Three Junes

for Small Town Girl:
“This remarkably talented author writes in a refined, understated prose . . . in an eloquent, often brilliant narrative.”
–The New York Times Book Review

for All the Way Home:
“Ingeniously plotted . . . The richness of lives that are limited without being narrow is [Cooney’s] forte.”
–Ms.

for The Old Ballerina:
“Showcases the author’s talent for telling compelling tales and
creating flawed but lovable characters.”
–Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375423400
• ISBN-13: 978-0375423406
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,092,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Was I reading the same book?, February 9, 2006

By 

Annie "bookwishes4" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies: A novel (Hardcover)

I hate to put a damper on all the glowing reviews here but I personally did not see much humor while reading this book and certainly would not call it a fun read.

Charlotte Heath, the main character, was sick in bed for the last 10 months with what was either a form of polio, or a brain disease. The first time she felt well enough to venture outside the house, she found her husband Hays in the arms of another woman. Not knowing what else to do, or where to go she headed off to friends of hers in nearby Boston and they ended up taking her to a hotel where the former Heath cook, Mrs Petty was now working.

Once Charlotte arrived at the hotel, she found out that Mrs Petty wont speak to her and was shocked to find Aunt Lilly who happens to be her doctor and her husbands uncles wife.

As Charlotte stays on at the hotel, against eveyones better judgement, she meets a porter named Arthur and begins a sexual relationship with him while also trying to figure out why her husband might have been cheating on her and what she should do about it.

A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies had a really interesting premise and from all the glowing reviews I figured this one would be a winner. What I ended up finding was a book that went around in circles only to have an ending that totally needed to be changed. The first chapter alone was all about the bells that should have been put on her sleigh so that her husband would have heard her coming before he leaned in to kiss the mystery woman.

I would not call this one of the worst books I ever read but all the other reviews make it seem like a must read. I obviously did not get the same reaction.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious And I Admit A Fun Sorta Read, November 27, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies: A novel (Hardcover)

Okay, someone passed this book on to me because she said I don't read enough "fun things". I figured I'd make her happy by investing a day in this romance novel with a literary bent, but the fact is, it wasn't bad at all! In among its social statements was a funny fantasy about a woman from 1900, whose dream marriage to a wealthy Bostonian is smothering her to death, so in the face of her boredom, malaise, and anger over her husband's unfaithfulness, she emerges from a long confinement to undertake a stay at a certain hotel with a reputation for...um...making ladies very, VERY happy. The fact is, the impressively well-formed young male employees at the instiution make room service calls that include more than just breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though this is not an erotic book, and it is fairly well-composed, it is an interesting twist on the idea that in the past only men got to have fun in hotels of a certain sort. I was amused that I actually read this book (wow, don't I sound snobby) and I had to laugh at the fact I wanted to read it through to the conclusion in one sitting. Yeah, I really wanted to know how it ended! It's a pretty funny and charming tale that doesn't slide into fluffiness and delivers what its cover blurb promises. The ending could have been tweaked and it didn't need the developments that put a damper on the niceness of what the hotel had going on, but adversity is the grist of plot, I'm told. Three and seven-eights stars but heck let's round it to four.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Good Start, But Not Much Else., June 12, 2006

By 

S. Denison (Parker, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies: A novel (Hardcover)

I had such high hopes for this book, based on its description. And in spite of the author's sometimes hard-to-follow writing style - she does love to start in one place and wander quite far from the original subject before finally winding her way back - for the first few chapters I managed to hold on to those hopes.

But in the end, I would have to classify this book as 80 percent disappointment.

Charlotte is set up to be a very sympathetic character: Married to a man she loves, but trapped in the family home surrounded by a seemingly endless supply of in-laws (also all residents of the family home), none of whom have ever made much of an effort to make her feel a part of the family. Charlotte has been unable to bear a child to term in all the years of the marriage, and her 10 months in a sickbed seem to have put the final distance between her and her husband, Hays.

Finally, after an inexplicable recovery (the author never bothers to give any hint of why Charlotte is suddenly well after all this time), Charlotte is off to surprise her husband at the wake for one of his recently deceased uncles. But what she encounters is Hays and a mystery woman, just about to share a kiss.

Calling in a favor from the local baker and his wife, Charlotte finds herself at the hotel of the title, facing a chilly reception from Mrs. Petty - the former cook in Charlotte's in-law's house - who had been the one to first tell Charlotte about the hotel. (Though not about the details of what goes on there.)

To this point, the book was enjoyable. But once Charlotte lands in the hotel, the book heads into a decline from which it never recovers.

The efforts of the hotel's owner, his staff and Charlotte's Aunt Lily - a surprise "regular" at the hotel - to get Charlotte out of the hotel were understandable, if a little tedious. Arthur's attachment to Charlotte is pretty sudden, and regardless of how she feels about Hays' cheating on her, it seems a little odd that she would embark on an affair with Arthur quite so easily.

And unless the author is planning a sequel, there were things in this book that just didn't seem to have a reason for being. Charlotte's introduction to the hotel owner's wife and her servant, for example. An interesting enough scene, but to what purpose?

The artist who created all the paintings in the hotel - introduced, then killed off.

Mrs. Petty and her children - suddenly packed off to another situation, for the good of the children. Sure, we learn who the father of one of the children is, but again - why?

Charlotte's parents, who have been conspicuously absent from Charlotte's thoughts for a good portion of the book - there's no purpose to their appearance at the end, nor really to Charlotte's search for them.

The ending, as mentioned by another reviewer, is the worst part of the book. Why does Charlotte do what she does when she leaves the hotel? Is it guilt, a desire for reconciliation?

Charlotte frustrates me...I don't know what she wants, and most of the time she doesn't seem to know, either. In the end, I didn't care much about this book, except to wonder about the several chapters that seemed to have been lopped off the end. Maybe they would have wrapped things up in a better fashion.

I won't read this book again, and I certainly can't recommend it to others.