A Gentleman in Moscow


A Gentleman in Moscow is a 2016 novel by Amor Towles. It is his second novel, following the release of the New York Times bestselling novel Rules of Civility.

Background

Chief protagonist Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 24 October 1889. He grew up on the Rostov Estate "Idlehour" in Nizhny Novgorod. His godfather was his father's comrade in arms in the cavalry, the Grand Duke Demidov. When the Count's parents died of cholera within hours of each other in 1900, the Grand Duke Demidov became the eleven-year-old Count's guardian and counseled him to be strong for his sister, since "...adversity presents itself in many forms, and if a man does not master his circumstances, then he is bound to be mastered by them." The young count was devoted to his sister, Helena, and the Rostov siblings made social visits to nearby estates, even in mid-winter, traveling by horse-drawn troika or sleigh.
As a young man, the count was sent out of the country by his grandmother for wounding his sister's suitor, a cad who broke Helena's heart. Returning home from Paris after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, the Count was arrested.

Inspiration and Plot

Inspiration for the novel germinated from Towles's experience of staying at luxury hotels. While at a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, Towles discovered some people actually lived there.
Towles combined the idea of luxury hotels with his knowledge of Russia's history, and how house arrest has been commonplace there for hundreds of years. The novel concerns Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a man ordered by a Bolshevik tribunal to spend the rest of his life in a luxury hotel in the heart of Moscow.

The trial

The Count was charged as a social parasite before a Bolshevik tribunal, with the expectation that he would be found guilty and shot. Instead of confessing, the Count remained unrepentant. Every utterance in court testified to the fact that the accused was a man of superior breeding, manners, education, wit and charm.
Because of a revolutionary poem attributed to him, the Count was spared the death sentence and ordered to house arrest for life at his residence, the luxury Hotel Metropol in central Moscow.

The hotel

The Count was escorted by a military guard to the Hotel Metropol Moscow, where he was ordered to vacate his luxury suite and take up residence in the cramped servant's quarters on the sixth floor. The Count cultivated a social circle made of friends from his youth as well as selected residents, staff, and customers of the Hotel and its restaurants. These include a one-eyed cat, a young girl, a seamstress, a French chef, a maître d'hotel and former circus juggler, a poet, a proud actress, an underemployed architect, an orchestra conductor, a prince, a former Red Army colonel, and an aide-de-camp of an American general, who became his friends and confidants.
Because of his diminished circumstances and restricted freedom, the count had time for self-reflection and discussion. A brilliant conversationalist, he could discuss evolution, philosophy, Impressionism, Russian writers and poetry, food, post-revolutionary changes in Russian society and Russia's contributions to the world.
An early acquaintance at the hotel was nine-year-old Nina Kulikova, the daughter of a widowed Ukrainian bureaucrat who is fascinated by princesses.

Sofia

In 1938 an unexpected arrival changed the count's circumstances. Nina Kulikova, now a married woman, visits the count. She confides in him that her husband Leo was arrested and sentenced to five years of labor in the Gulag. Nina decided to follow her husband to Sevvostlag in the remote Kolyma region of the Soviet Union bounded by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean. She begs the Count to accept temporary custody of her young daughter while she made arrangements for the child to join her in Siberia to be near her father. This is the last time the Count sees Nina, so the count, at age forty-nine, becomes a surrogate father to young Sofia.
Sofia is a quiet, highly intelligent child. Her potential manifests itself during games of hide-and-seek that she wins in record time.
Later, Sofia takes piano lessons. She surprises the Count by playing a Chopin nocturne after only a few lessons. It is clear to both the teacher and the count that Sofia is a musical prodigy.

Analysis

Towles's methodology in A Gentleman in Moscow was described as a "gorgeous sleight of hand" by The New York Times, which continues "Towles is a craftsman. What saves the book is the gorgeous sleight of hand that draws it to a satisfying end, and the way he chooses themes that run deeper than mere sociopolitical commentary: parental duty, friendship, romance, the call of home. Human beings, after all, 'deserve not only our consideration but our reconsideration' — even those from the leisured class. Who will save Rostov from the intrusions of the state if not the seamstresses, chefs, bartenders, and doormen? In the end, Towles's greatest narrative effect is not the moments of wonder and synchronicity but the free transformation of these peripheral workers, over decades, into confidants, equals, and, finally, friends. With them around, a life sentence in these gilded halls might make Rostov the luckiest man in Russia."
This book is a testament to the idea enunciated in the book that "...adversity presents itself in many forms, and if a man does not master his circumstances, then he is bound to be mastered by them."

Reception

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Positive" rating based on 11 reviews: 3 "Rave" reviews, 5 "Positive" reviews, and 3 "Mixed" reviews. Kirkus Reviews found the book "In all ways a great novel, a nonstop pleasure brimming with charm, personal wisdom, and philosophic insight. This book more than fulfills the promise of Towles' stylish debut, Rules of Civility." While NPR opined, "A Gentleman in Moscow is a novel that aims to charm... and the result is a winning, stylish novel that keeps things easy. Flair is always the goal — Towles never lets anyone merely say goodbye when they could bid adieu, never puts a period where an exclamation point or dramatic ellipsis could stand."
A Gentleman in Moscow was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize in Fiction & Literature. The book was also an International Dublin Literary Award Nominee.
The audiobook narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith won AudioFile magazine's Earphone's Award for 2016.