The White Hotel

''The White Hotel'' is a novel written by the British ( Cornish) poet, translator and novelist D. M. Thomas. It was first published in January 1981 by Gollancz in the United Kingdom and in March 1981 by The Viking Press in the United States.

The narrative is told principally in the form of an erotic journal and letters between the female narrator and a fictionalized Sigmund Freud as well as Freud's case history analysis of the narrator.

''The White Hotel'' won the 1981 ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Fiction, the 1981 Cheltenham Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the same year's Booker Prize.

Development

Thomas wrote some of it in Hereford, where he was living, and at New College, Oxford, where he was on a sabbatical, and used two typewriters, one in each city.

Summary

Set in 1919, the book's first three movements consist of the erotic fantasies and case history of an imagined female patient of Sigmund Freud, Frau Anna G, a semi-successful opera singer referred to him for analysis and treatment of chronic psychosomatic. Freud does not consider the possibility that either her erotic journal or her pains might arise from an incident in not her past, but her future.

Following inconclusive treatment, Frau Anna G – revealed to be Elisabeth (Lisa) Erdman of Vienna – pursues a moderately successful musical career and marries a Russian Jewish opera singer, with whom she moves to Kiev in the 1920s. When he disappears in a Communist purge, she falls upon hard times and the third movement is set in 1941, when German troops capture Kiev. Lisa and her young son are ordered, along with the city's Jews, to Babi Yar.

An other-worldly ("in Palestine or Purgatory", according to the author) epilogue ends the narrative.

Awards and nominations

*1981 ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Fiction
*1981 Cheltenham Prize
*1981 Booker Prize (shortlist)

Legacy

A number of efforts have been made to make the novel into a film, which some have described as unfilmable or unadaptable. These have included attempts by Bernardo Bertolucci with Barbra Streisand, by David Lynch with Isabella Rossellini, by Simon Monjack with Brittany Murphy, and by Emir Kusturica with Nicole Kidman.

In 1992, London artist Maty Grunberg created a portfolio titled "Don Giovanni" (woodcuts, limited edition); text - "Don Giovanni", the opening poem of the book.

In August 2018, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of Dennis Potter's screenplay, produced by Jon Amiel, producer of Potter's earlier ''The Singing Detective'', with author Thomas's reminiscences about the book's publication and various film proposals. The BBC production starred Anne-Marie Duff as Lisa and Bill Paterson as Dr Probst.

''The Irish Times'' published a piece on the book in April 2020.

See also

* Babi Yar
* Babi Yar memorials

References

;Notes

;Bibliography

* Clute, John and John Grant. ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. .
* Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''. New York: St Martin's Griffin, 1995. .

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Hotel, The
1981 British novels
1981 fantasy novels
Novels about the Holocaust
The Holocaust in Ukraine
Victor Gollancz Ltd books
Novels by D. M. Thomas
Cultural depictions of Sigmund Freud