This is an early Bowen novel, published first in 1927 when she was not yet thirty. The hotel of the title is set on the Italian Riviera and Bowen was utilising a stock theme of the time in bringing together a disparate crowd of people - women mostly - in that particular setting. However, this is no Vicki Baum style chronicle; in fact, relatively little happens, beyond certain psychological tensions and clashes. The strength of the story lies - mainly in its quasi poetic mood, the characteristic Bowen "atmosphere", and in the self revelation of the characters. At 170 odd pages long, it is almost a novella, though never in the least novelettish.