.jpg) First edition (UK) | |
| Author | D. M. Thomas |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | January 1981 |
| Publication place | Great Britain |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 240 pp |
| ISBN | 0-575-02889-0 |
The White Hotel is a novel written by the British (Cornish)[1] poet, translator and novelistD. M. Thomas. It was first published in January 1981 byGollancz in the United Kingdom and in March 1981 byThe 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 fictionalizedSigmund Freud as well as Freud's case history analysis of the narrator.
The White Hotel won the 1981Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the 1981Cheltenham Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the same year'sBooker Prize.
Thomas wrote some of it inHereford, where he was living, and atNew College, Oxford, where he was on asabbatical, and used two typewriters, one in each city.[2]
Set in 1919, the book's first three movements consist of theerotic fantasies and case history of a patient of Sigmund Freud, "Anna G", an opera singer referred to him foranalysis[3] and treatment of chronicpsychosomatic pains in her left breast and ovary. Freud attempts to identify some incident in her past that would explain these pains, and elicits from her a long erotic narrative – called "Don Giovanni", because she had written it on this musical score – in verse and then prose. Freud draws inferences from the incidents described and discusses these with his patient, with Anna notably deducing that her father may have been unfaithful to her mother with her mother's twin sister (Anna G's aunt). Anna is an unreliable narrator, changing key details in the account of her life she offers Freud. Only late in the treatment does she reveal that she considers herself to havesecond sight. Freud does not, however, consider the possibility that either her erotic journal or her pains might arise from an incident not in her past, but in 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, toBabi Yar.
An other-worldly ("in Palestine or Purgatory", according to the author) epilogue ends the narrative.
A number of efforts have been made to make the novel into a film, which some have described as unfilmable[7] or unadaptable. These have included attempts byBernardo Bertolucci withBarbra Streisand, byDavid Lynch withIsabella Rossellini, bySimon Monjack withBrittany Murphy, and byEmir Kusturica withNicole Kidman.[8]
In 1992, London artistMaty 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 ofDennis Potter's screenplay, produced byJon Amiel, producer of Potter's earlierThe Singing Detective, with author Thomas's reminiscences about the book's publication and various film proposals.[9][10] The BBC production starredAnne-Marie Duff as Lisa andBill Paterson as Dr Probst.[11]
The Irish Times published a piece on the book in April 2020.[12]
I'm Cornish, and very proud of it. It's where I live now.