A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles (PDF)

Description

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a Showtime/Paramount series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander RostovFrom the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Summary in at tweet. “Gentleman” is eloquent, witty, thought provoking, poetic, and meaningful. It is a welcome relief from and an antidote to a world drowning in tweets, click journalism, hypocrisy, and selfies. Novelists shouldn’t he held more accountable to historic accuracy than the President. Slithering Bishop, perfect antagonist. Stripped wine labels, a metaphor for the revolution. Count won’t countenance escape to America. Count’s rules of civility internally forged. Tinker Grey’s Rules of Civility externally imposed. Both are on the run.Character development and plot. The plot was as subtle as his word craft. Gentlemanly. All the characters were wonderfully developed, but the one who stands out is the Bishop, the Count’s foil. Since protagonists are measured in contrast to their antagonists, the Bishop serves an essential role. Slithering on the bias rather than moving by rank and file, the Bishop embodies the qualities of the “anti-gentleman”. His decision to reorganize the Metropol’s wine cellar is one of the more memorable scenes in the book. As a tip of the hat to egalitarianism (but more likely in the spirit of retribution), the Bishop orders that all wine labels be removed from the one hundred thousand bottles in the Metropol’s inventory. This is possibly the most symbolic of the Bishop’s acts in that in one afternoon it eradicated the individuality of each bottle, by distilling untold permutations of climate, grape and vintner into but two categories “white” or “red”. If one wanted to toy with symbolism, individuality was sacrificed to provide a simple choice, Royalist (white), versus Bolshevik (red).“Whichever wine was within, it was decidedly not identical to its neighbors. On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter’s thaw, the extent of that summer’s rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds. Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.”Historical accuracy? Who cares? Douglas Smith’s the Former People (2012) provides an accurate and acclaimed historical account of the nobility’s plight. The Count should have been terrified given that his fate was determined by class. The Red Terror’s form of “justice” was quite simple,”Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. “ (Martin Latsis in Douglas Smith, the Forgotten People). So it is odd that the Count escapes with his life while in full view of the Metropol’s patrons, some of whom are party officials. So, how does the Count survive? Towles employs a gimmick, i.e., the emergency committee is moved by a revolutionary poem attributed to the Count. I have read the poem a number of times and fail to see its power, especially when you contrast it with competing revolutionary verses. Had he written the following Song of the Peasant, he might have stood a chance of escaping the gallows.…We’ve suffered insults long enough, and submitted too long to the nobles! … Altogether now let’s plunder …And from the bitter aspens shall we hang every last lackey of the VampireTsar. (1917)Now, that is a rallying cry!Because of this, it was difficult for some readers to suspend belief. In my view (which is also Towles’ view) such insistence on historical accuracy misses the point. Gentleman is not an historical novel. It is a novel loosely set in a period, but its emphasis is firmly set on inner life of the Count and the relationships he fosters over the course of thirty years of internal exile. The criticism that “Gentleman” is somehow flawed because of a few historical short cuts is particularly irritating to Towles. In an interview he quipped, “why should a novelist he held to a higher standard of truth than the President of the United States.” You could take his point one step further and ask why modern literature should be held to a higher standard than Shakespeare’s Henry V in which certain facts (e.g., the King of France was insane) are suppressed and others emphasized. In so doing, Shakespeare crafted the tale he wished, one that is purely English and extolling the virtue of English courage.In Towles case, adding graphic detail about the “Red Terror” would have produced a completely different book. It would have detracted from his intent which was to engage his characters, toy with phraseology, and philosophize about the human condition. Characters are his focus, not external events.Where do these elegant lines come from? Towles revealed in an interview that the phrases and musings materialize on the page as if the characters were authoring them and he is simply a witness to his art. He says as much in voicing the Count’s response to a question posed by emergency committee at the beginning of the book. “Vyshinsky: Why did you write the poem? Rostov: It demanded to be written. I simply happened to be sitting at the particular desk on the particular morning when it chose to make its demands.”Allegory for our time? Towles claims this book is not a parable, but that leaves open the possibility that it might be an allegory. Like the hotel, the book has secret passages, or at least passages that invite interpretation. What strikes me most about Gentleman is how much his writing struck a chord. Most everyone who has read the book is in agreement that his style is mesmerizing. It is lyrical and poetic. But, I have a feeling that people are drawn to the book for deeper reasons, one being that it serves as an antidote to an unending drone of tweets, click journalism, hypocrisy and lies.Towles plays with sentences, even a sentence about sentences. In some cases he plays for the sake of it. For example,“Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence–one that was on intimate terms with a comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard.”He could have written “That was a long sentence.” Glad he didn’t.Another,“But, alas, sleep did not come so easily to our weary friend. Like in a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can come skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for his consideration, bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.”He could have written, “He fell asleep counting troubles instead of sheep.” Glad he didn’t.Then there are passages that have no straight forward translation, but leave you to ponder, and then ponder some more.”…a gentleman should turn to a mirror with a sense of distrust. For rather than being tools of self-discovery, mirrors tended to be tools of self-deceit.”“That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”Perhaps Towles most important achievement is reminding us that we are not immune to change, either as individuals or as a nation. In fact, change is a theme that recurs throughout the book. It is either glacial (on the personal level), circular (cannons melted for church bells and bells for cannons), or dramatic (in the case of the revolution). It was the Count’s view that change was both inevitable and disquieting, and for Russia’s nobility terrifying. His deep sense of purpose that took root during his exile in the Metropol was born of humility. Once stripped of his possessions and his link to the past severed, he was forced to confront his fate with a freshness of purpose. That was the preparation he needed in order to invite Sophia into his life and chart a new direction, one propelled by childlike innocence.On a grander scale, one might argue that dramatic change was long overdue in Russia. The feudal system had produced a backward economy populated by the illiterate and poor. “Red Terror” was the result, and its henchman ruthlessly purged institutions that were even tangentially connected to Tsarist Russia. That meant the nobility, works of art, religion, historic buildings, writers, painters, and poets all were destroyed or exiled in the pursuit of a more egalitarian state.I believe that this wanton destruction of institutions in the name of egalitarianism is what has gotten readers attention, and is partly responsible for driving the book’s popularity. For aren’t we seeing something similar today. Scientific institutions, social norms, the legal system, logical discourse, and religious tolerance are under attack. Aren’t we now feeling some remorse for ignoring the plight of the poor in America (as in 1917, the Russian nobility regretted too late the plight of the serfs). Admittedly, the scale of the attack is nowhere near as vicious as the Bolshevik’s leveled against the Russian nobility, but it is similar in form. Perhaps we are witnessing more of an Orange Horror than a Red Terror. Regardless, Towles reminds us that well intended change will be disquieting. If Towles did nothing else, he at least gave us the Count as a guide for how to navigate the uncertainties produced by the onslaught of change!Could the Count countenance an escape to the U.S.? Where did he go? America is portrayed ambiguously in the book. It’s music suggests its free wheeling life affirming nature, but on a dark note, Osip (former colonel and party member, studying English and American culture under the Count’s tutelage) suggests that change is as destructive in America as in the Soviet Union. In short, the dialogue between the Osip and the Count reveals America’s contradictions. In a few short paragraphs Towles lays out the ambiguity of American society, a few of which are borrowed from Tocqueville’s impression of America.The freshness of jazz“And yet, the art form had grown on him. Like the American correspondents, jazz seemed a naturally gregarious force – one that was a little unruly and prone to say the first thing that popped into its head, but generally of good humor and friendly intent. In addition, it seemed decidedly unconcerned with where it had been or where it was going – exhibiting somehow simultaneously the confidence of the master and the inexperience of the apprentice. Was there any wonder that such an art had failed to originate in Europe?”Destruction of the past (creatively in the U.S., administratively in the Soviet Union)”but do you think the achievements of the Americans-envied the world over-came without a cost? Just ask their African brothers. And do you think the engineers who designed their illustrious skyscrapers or built their highways hesitated for one moment to level to lovely little neighborhoods that stood in their way?…we and the Americans will lead the rest of this century because we are the only nations who have learned to brush the past aside instead of bowing before it. But where they so do in service of their beloved individualism, we are attempting to do so in service of the common good.”American’s need for comfort“There is not a single country in the civilized world where less attention is paid to philosophy than the United States” And, The minds of Americans, he says, are universally preoccupied with meeting the body’s every need and attending to life’s little comforts.”The darker side of American capitalism“they seemed to depict an America in which corruption and cruelty lounged on the couch; in which justice was a beggar and kindness a fool; in which loyalties were fashioned from paper, and self-interest was fashioned from steel. In other words, they provided an unflinching portrayal of Capitalism as it actually was.”I suspect that the Count would welcome some aspect of American culture and might even be willing to tolerate an American economic dynamism fueled by a cycle of creation and destruction. What he could not countenance is the darker side of American capitalism and its people’s preoccupation with comfort. The Count’s view is just the opposite. He says, “But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.” Nor would he feel at home with a people so preoccupied with themselves. He says,”…a gentleman should turn to a mirror with a sense of distrust. For rather than being tools of self-discovery, mirrors tended to be tools of self-deceit.” I will leave it up to the reader to guess which end of the spectrum the Count occupies and which end tends to be more American. Lastly, I would add that the pace of life in America would not suit the Count well, for time in America is meted in seconds rather than the clang of the twice tolling clock. If for no other reason than that, America would appear to be a poor choice. Instead, I opt for his escape to Paris where he occupies a small back room in Sophia’s flat. I can envision him living his last days simply un-intrusively, sipping fresh coffee at a nearby cafe, conversing with the regulars, … after the twice tolling clock’s first chime.The Gentleman and Rules of Civility. Towle’s Rules of Civility gets its name from a list of rules George Washington developed to guide persons of culture to comport themselves in high society (the American nobility). No doubt, the Count exhibited many of the behaviors the rules were intended to foster. However, the rules were not causative. In the Count’s case he was guided by an internal compass (his own rules) forged over the course of a life. It was the intertwined helix of love and loss that shaped him and gave him direction. By way of contrast, Tinker Grey, a main character in Rules of Civility, makes a conscious effort to shed the “Rules” in his search for ephemeral freedom. The only thing they share in common is, they are both on the run.

⭐A Gentleman In Moscow chronicles the plight of the titular Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a former aristocrat sentenced to a life of house arrest at the Hotel Metropol. The Count’s saga begins in 1922, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution, and unfolds over the course of 32 years. Stripped of his spatial liberties, Rostov is forced to confront limited circumstances or risk wasting away in the confines of the Metropol. His odyssey is whimsical, colored by a motley cast of characters weaved into the broader narrative.Upon his sentencing, a 32-year-old Rostov returns to the Metropol to find himself relegated from a grand suite to an attic room. It’s within the humbler living quarters that he contemplates a maxim imparted to him by his godfather: “if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.” As the reader comes to learn, the Count doesn’t yet grasp the essence of that statement. In just a few years, he‘ll find himself indeed mastered by his circumstances. Rostov will find himself on the precipice, atop the parapet of the hotel’s roof, one intentional step away from a precipitous fall to his death.In time, the Count will ultimately flourish in the Metropol. But the credit isn’t his to take – he’ll owe his transformation to the fortuitous intervention of several figures. One of them is named Nina Kulikova, a nine-year-old child when the Count meets her. Nina is a quirky character who, time and again, challenges his preconceptions with childlike skepticism. The pair form a bond that later serves as the basis for a curious twist of fate. A year into his house arrest, Rostov also meets the acquaintance of a “willowy” woman, Anna Urbanova, an actress with whom he launches a decades-long affair. A few years later, Rostov finds employment as head waiter of the hotel’s premier restaurant, setting off an unlikely friendship with the brutish head chef and the attentive maître d’. The Count, formally educated and erudite, participates in a different kind of education delivered through interactions with his benefactors.I was initially reluctant to read this novel, which on the surface is a period piece with a mildly interesting premise. Even almost a fifth through the book, I wasn’t particularly taken by it – the early chapters are sluggish. But by the time the Count concludes a round of adventures with Nina and engages with Anna, the plot begins to progress beautifully. Amidst its unraveling, Amor Towles laces the narrative with insight. As the Count dines with Anna the day he meets her, he extolls the virtues of withholding judgment:“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”The book’s storyline becomes enthralling as the pace quickens. Each of the revolving cast finds an appropriate place to make his or her mark. I found myself celebrating their improbable victories and sympathizing as they were inevitably humbled by setbacks. Anna, who’s initially haughty and pompous, later develops a tender disposition after recovering from a fall from grace. In the midst of her difficulties, she has a chance encounter at the Metropol with the Count, who reflects on the “Confederacy of the Humbled.”“Like the Freemasons, the Confederacy of the Humbled is a close-knit brotherhood whose members travel with no outward markings, but who know each other at a glance. For having fallen suddenly from grace, those in the Confederacy share a certain perspective. Knowing beauty, influence, fame, and privilege to be borrowed rather than bestowed, they are not easily impressed. They are not quick to envy or take offense. They certainly do not scour the papers in search of their own names. They remain committed to living among their peers, but they greet adulation with caution, ambition with sympathy, and condescension with an inward smile.”All of us, in the course of living out our lives, will suffer from profound misfortunes. Having no command over such trajectories, we’re left to employ the tool of perspective to guide our inward response to tragedy. Accordingly, we’re presented with two choices. We can either dismiss the notion that perspective can alleviate suffering, or we can choose to hone it with intention. Rostov, though sometimes twee in sentiment, offers keen observations.And so the story goes. The novel isn’t really a period piece with a mildly interesting premise after all. It’s an exploration of the human condition that borrows Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov’s plight as a way to survey the undulations of a life.I’m aware of and respect the criticisms of the book: there may be historical inaccuracies, unrealistic representations of conditions under the Bolshevik regime, etc. I’d implore a would-be reader to cast aside expectations of a rigorous historical treatment – there’re plenty of non-fiction texts that serve that purpose. A Gentleman In Moscow is merely a fictional account, and as such it might not be congruent with historical facts. Nor does it have to be. Rather than nit-pick the setting’s portrayal, I view it simply as a backdrop against which an endearing tale is told.I suppose the book resonates with me as I find myself at an inflection point in my own life. Having been thrusted into a precarious situation with a yet unknown outcome, I find myself joining the ranks of the Confederacy of the Humbled. The Count’s story exemplifies that even under reduced circumstances, one has the option to once and again turn the kaleidoscope – to view things differently. My health has been besieged and put under risk. Yet in these trying times I derive comfort from his wisdom:“He had said that our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of supreme lucidity—a moment in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of a bold new life that we had been meant to lead all along.”

⭐I am a Russian and I am a historian. I had to read this book for a session of the Reading club and I was outraged at the authour’s ignorance of the basic facts of Russian and European History. Let’s see some examples of it. According to the book, the main protagonist of the book learned that the tsar family was in danger, and inmediately went to Russia from France. But in 1917-1918 Europe was in the fire of the Great war and nobody could pass from France through Germany to Russia. There was no other way to Russia, because travelling in the sea was extremely dangerous. All Russian citizens caught in France by the war could not return to Russia. And by the November of 1918, the end of the war, the tsar and his family were already dead.Another example. In the early 1920s when the protagonist of the book ate different pastries in a trendy pastry shop in Moscow and spoke with a daughter of a Comissar, there was a civil war in Russia and a great famine, because the war interrupted the normal agricultural works. People in Moscow had difficulties in buying the bread, let alone pastries.Every page of this book is full of these kind of mistakes. I cannot take this book or this story seriously. It has nothing to do with the real Russia or Russian history or Russian culture. It only reflects the ignorance of this writer who never tried to learn something about the subject he writes about.

⭐Unlike many people, I hadn’t read Rules of Civility when I came to this novel and so I had no idea what to expect. It charmed its way into my heart from the very first page and, by the end, I was utterly enchanted.This is the story of the elegant Count Alexander Rostov who, in 1922 at the age of 33, is brought before a Bolshevik tribunal in Moscow. Condemned on the grounds of being an unrepentant aristocrat, he is saved from the firing squad by virtue of a youthful poem whose sentiments chime with the revolutionary desire for change. Instead of death, he is condemned to lifelong house arrest in his current place of residence: the Metropol Hotel. Removed from his suite and banished to a tiny room in the attics, the Count finds that his material circumstances have been much reduced, but he’s a philosopher at heart and faces his change in fortunes with one resolve: to master his life before his life masters him. And thus we see this wise, gracious gentleman learning to cut his cloth to its new measure. He turns his eyes away from the lilacs in the Alexander Gardens, forgets the glamour of his accustomed seat at the Bolshoi and learns to do without the delicate pastries of Filippov’s. Instead he finds a new subject for his examination: mankind.The story is leavened by moments of absurdity and shot through with quiet heartbreak, like a perfectly pitched symphony. Towles is thoughtful but never sentimental; heartwarming but never sickly; and bittersweet but never bitter. The difficulty is that one can’t explain why something is beautiful. If you asked me to explain why a painting or an aria or a poem was beautiful, I couldn’t do it. All I can say is that it is. And it’s the same here. Like any fine artwork, the story is perfectly balanced, and both reflects and transcends its time. We may not step outside the Metropol but, like the Count, we can watch the vagaries of Fortune as they blow in through the revolving doors, and study the metamorphosis of Bolshevism. Despite its weighty underlying themes, the story itself is designed with such care that it seems to sparkle, suspended, with an air of sprezzatura.I feel privileged to have spent this time in the company of Count Rostov – or, as I feel I almost have the right to call him, Sasha. This novel is joining the select ranks of my comfort books, and I’ll certainly be reading it again. In the meantime, all I can do is recommend it heartily to you as perfect material for a winter’s night curled in a blanket against the bitter cold outside. At a time when sincerity, tolerance and compassion are in short supply in the world around us, I’m delighted to discover that here these virtues become the very touchstones which enable a remarkable protagonist to weather the perils of a changing existence. A wonderful, heartwarming book.To read the full review, please visit my blog.

⭐Well yes, it is fairly well-written, but it is not a literary book. It’s premise is attractive, but it just does not hold the attention. I only managed to get about a quarter of the way through. Nothing had happened. Man is trapped in a hotel and plays hide and seek with a young girl. Really I could not care less. It reminded me of the Hare with Amber Eyes – basically over-rated tosh. Don’t waste your hard-earned money on this. I gave up and started Silas Marner, which shows me how good writing can be. Why read this when novels by George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence etc are still available?

⭐As a friend who recommended the book said, A Gentleman in Moscow is wonderful on so many levels! It has been a while since I enjoyed a book as much as I did this one. As a Russian I am usually wary of books about Russia written by foreigners. They are often full of clichés and misconceptions that I find annoying and that make me lose all respect for the author. A Gentleman in Moscow achieved the impossible. Somehow fiction is woven into the historically accurate facts so well that you can believe that it could have really happened. I knew exactly what the author was writing about and I appreciated all the subtle cultural references peppered throughout the book to make me want to re-read some of the Russian classics that I haven’t read since my school years. I was really surprised to find out that Amor Towles does not speak Russian nor has lived in Russia for any length of time. The amount of research that went into writing this book is astonishing! He captured this turbulent time in Russian history perfectly and I loved how the story moves from one period to the next accelerating and slowing down, contracting and expanding like breathing. Just how we experience Time depending on what is happening in our lives. The essence of the story lies in the words of Count Rostov’s godfather: If you can’t master your circumstances, they will master you. This premise is at the heart of Russian culture so is very fitting to a story about a Russian aristocrat. The book is wonderfully written in beautiful English. I didn’t want the story to end.

⭐To quote the book: “By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”This largely sums up my association with this book. I’ve read this book curled up in my bed with a mug of hot-chocolate, between business meetings in order to cleanse my mind of the mundane and predictable, in the garden while sitting comfortably on a swing, and this morning at 3 am where I finished the final 150 pages, just as Apollo began his majestic journey across the horizon. And in the end my opinion is that this book is perhaps one of the most emotionally, linguistically and intellectually stimulating pieces of literature that I have had the good fortune to come across.The story of Count Alexander Rostov and his extended stay at The Hotel Metropol reveals to us that life is never something that can slip you by, provided you are willing to adapt. The Count makes it his business to master his circumstances the only way he knows how. With poise, dignity and impeccable taste. Over the course of his more than 30yrs. stay at the hotel, we see this Gentleman as a Noble, as a Commoner, as a Father, a Spy and finally a Man. He exemplifies an amalgam of the great wanderers of the past, like Odysseus and Crusoe who found themselves trapped in unforeseen circumstances, and emerge from the experience bearing a new clarity with regards to the concept of a ‘home’.I have not been so moved and entertained by vocabulary since P.G. Wodehouse, and indeed there is a great deal of the Wodehousian humor, mirth and mayhem in the corridors of the Metropol. There are times when one feels lost, especially when faced with historical contexts and characters that are introduced in page 50 and then intricately woven into the scene at page 276, however, like the great wanderers we arrive at a new destination just as we feel that we are doomed to wander aimlessly.

Keywords

Free Download A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel in PDF format
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel PDF Free Download
Download A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel 2016 PDF Free
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel 2016 PDF Free Download
Download A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel PDF
Free Download Ebook A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel