I listened to roughly three quarters of the audiobook production before having to switch to the hardcover version due to library due dates, but any audiobook performed by the exceptional Barbara Rosenblat ranks high on my list. Her distinctive, expressive voice adds so much to my enjoyment of any book. Brava, Barbara!
The Mistress of the Ritz is a lightly fictionalized account of the lives of Blanche and Claude Auzello. Blanche Ross, as she presented herself, was a young American actress who arrived at the exclusive Ritz Hotel in Paris, in the early 1920s, accompanying her friend Pearl White, the far more famous silent screen actress who starred in the successful serial "The Perils of Pauline". On her very first evening there Blanche met Claude Auzello, the assistant manager, and a decorated hero of the First World War. They fell passionately in love and quickly married, though their personal characteristics and cultural differences led them to quarrel incessantly from the start.
Despite that, Blanche and Claude stayed together, with Claude providing impeccable service to the hotel's illustrious guests, including Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and many others. Blanche's dynamic, friendly personality, and her beauty contributed to the hotel's ambiance and Claude's success.
When World War II broke out and the Nazis occupied Paris, they moved into the Ritz along with seizing and terrorizing the rest of the city. Claude pleaded with Blanche to return to America but she refused to leave him. They were under the constant scrutiny of the German invaders but Claude, by now the manager, ran the hotel at the same standards as ever, despite the circumstances, satisfying the occupiers' every whim.
Blanche and Claude engage in certain other activities but their combative relationship causes them to distrust one another. Blanche forms a close friendship with Lily, a mysterious woman surrounded by rumors, and Claude, whose past affair caused much of the tension between him and Blanche, appears to be indulging in additional extra-marital liaisons. Eventually it will all come clear.
The Ritz itself feels like a character in the book – the author describes its history, appearance, and role in the life of the city of Paris so thoroughly – that when you are done listening, or reading, you too feel as though you have experienced it.
The other aspects of description of Blanche's and Claude's appearances, their personalities, and their experiences truly bring them to life, and the dialogue between them and their inner thoughts are entirely believable.
Long after the war ends, Lily provides an epilogue to Blanche and Claude's story, a very unexpected coda. I recommend not researching the real life Blanche and Claude until completing your read, but do be sure to read the author's note which follows.
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