However, when the Count returns to his room, he finds out that almost everything he owns has been confiscated and that he has now been moved from his luxurious Suite 317 on the third floor to the attic, i.e., a single room on the sixth floor of the Hotel. Namely, he is sentenced to a life of house arrest in the Metropol Hotel.Ĭonsidering the stellar reputation of the Metropol Hotel (the largest and most luxurious hotel before the Revolution) and adding to it the fact that the hotel is the very place where the Count has lived for the previous four years, one is right to suppose that he may have gotten away unscathed from this one. The Count’s sentence is, fortunately, somewhat mild compared to the usual punishments dealt at that time of chaos. If you’re having troubles to swallow that as a crime, think of the reasons Plato gives while cruelly banishing the poets from his ideal City-State or, better yet, think of Osip Mandelstam, a magnificent Russian poet, who suffered a similar destiny because of this poem for Stalin. Writing a revolutionary poem a decade ago.

However, as one may expect, as the subsequent Civil War is nearing to its end, on June 21, 1922, the Count is identified, caught, and speedily tried.

1922: The Sentence of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov Unlike most of his relatives, the titular character of Amor Towles’ novel “A Gentleman in Moscow,” Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, chooses the latter, moving into the Metropol Hotel soon after the beginning of the Revolution. “A Gentleman in Moscow” was published five years later to the same critical and popular acclaim.įind out more at Plot 1917–1922: The Bolshevik CoupĪfter Lenin’s Bolshevik coup of 1917 and the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s gentry is suddenly faced with a cruel, but rather obvious choice: flee the country and leave everything behind or stay in Russia and pray not to be killed. In 2011, he wrote “Rules of Civility” which became an instant bestseller. Amor Towles BiographyĪmor Towles is an American novelist, residing in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City.īorn and raised in Boston, he received a BA from Yale and an MA in English from Stanford. You’ll enjoy it even more if you want a skillfully written novel which, just like its main character, exudes with the long-forgotten artistic manners and sophistication of the European aristocracy. If you are interested in the history of the Soviet Union in the years between the Bolshevik coup and the death of Stalin, then you’ll undoubtedly enjoy “A Gentleman in Moscow.” If so – join Amor Towles as he describes the extraordinarily meaningful life of “ A Gentleman in Moscow.” Who Should Read “A Gentleman in Moscow”? And Why? How about an aristocratic fairytale from Soviet-era Moscow set in the Metropol Hotel and spanning more than three decades?

A gentleman in moscow by amor towles