The Hotel on Place Vendôme: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris by Tilar J. Mazzeo (review)

Reviews 223 in romantic painting or relationships between the arts in nineteenth-century France will want to consult. University of Delaware Karen F. Quandt Mazzeo,Tilar J. The Hotel on Place Vendôme: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. New York: HarperCollins, 2014. ISBN 978-0-06-179108-6. Pp. xxii + 292. $27. This work recounts episodes from the lives of the Paris elite who lived or socialized at the Hôtel Ritz during the first half of the twentieth century. Although the hotel’s allure has long since faded, it was the epitome of luxury, status, and modernity from its opening in 1898 to the end of the Second World War. Through its doors passed the rich and powerful: film stars, writers, fashion designers, socialites, royalty in exile, entrepreneurs, and journalists. The institution was founded by César Ritz, the son of a Swiss peasant, who rose to the top of the hotel profession. This work’s eighteen vignettes stand independently, each featuring a prominent figure associated with the hotel. In 1898, Marcel Proust, seeking his place in society, attended the hotel’s grand opening and made the decision to abandon the old aristocratic ambitions of the nineteenth century in favor of the creative possibilities of modernity. The hotel’s pinnacle of influence occurred during the Occupation (1940–44). Since the owners were Swiss and spoke German, a large portion of the Ritz was requisitioned for the use of occupying German officers. Although much of Paris high society fled the capital, some spent the Occupation in comparative comfort at the hotel, where even the air raid shelters“were equipped with fur rugs and silk Hermès sleeping bags”(79). Highranking German officers took the best suites and joined the French at lavish social events. Behind the scenes, an espionage network passed coded information to British intelligence services. Some of the planning for the failed German nationalist plot to assassinate Hitler took place at the hotel bar. For the women in residence, liaisons with German officers offered a comfortable wartime existence but sometimes led to retaliation after the Liberation.Arletty ended up in prison for her affair with a German lieutenant. Coco Chanel also spent the war years at the hotel with her German lover and engaged in collaboration activities but, after repeated interrogations, was allowed to remain free. Ernest Hemingway competed with his wife, journalist Martha Gellhorn, to reach Paris before the Liberation. At the Ritz, he was met by his new love interest and future wife, Mary Walsh. In the waning months of the Occupation, Jews continued to be rounded up. The writer Max Jacob, an intimate friend of many at the Ritz, was arrested and subsequently died at the transit camp of Drancy in the spring of 1944. Finally, when the war ended, history turned a page and a new generation emerged. In time, the hotel passed into the hands of Egyptian-born Mohamed Al Fayed and in 1997 was the site of the last evening of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. While the work is intended for a popular audience and offers virtually no new information for specialists, the lively and slightly melodramatic tone keeps the attention of the reader interested in the intrigues that took place at this legendary hotel. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Onfray, Michel. Cosmos: une ontologie matérialiste. Paris: Flammarion, 2015. ISBN 978-2-0812-9036-5. Pp. 569. 23 a. L’auteur commence par une anecdote personnelle mais qui n’a rien d’autobiographique . Le livre débute par cette phrase: “Mon père est mort dans mes bras, vingt minutes après le début de la nuit de l’Avent”. Un lecteur non averti qui se contenterait de cette phrase (et du reste de la préface) pourrait s’attendre à tort à un énième récit autobiographique, un genre qui pullule ces derniers temps. Néanmoins, les cinq cent cinquante pages qui suivent le transporteront, à coup sûr, vers une dimension beaucoup plus grande, qui est celle du monde, ou plutôt celle du cosmos. Si Onfray nous parle de son père, c’est surtout pour nous parler...