A Gentleman in Moscow Literary Elements

Historical fiction

Hotel Metropol, Moscow, Russia, 1922–1954

Omniscient third-person narrator

Playful, witty, uplifting

Count Rostov is the protagonist. The Bishop is the antagonist.

Count Rostov struggles to find meaning in life when he is placed under house arrest at the Hotel Metropol.

The Count escapes from the Hotel Metropol.

When Count Rostov opens Nina’s Christmas gift, the narrator undercuts the happy scene. Readers are told that, in four years, Rostov will be preparing to throw himself off the roof of the hotel.

“I was invited to the Kremlin for a tête-à-tête.”

This is the Count’s understated description of being interrogated at the Kremlin.

The events in the novel occur as a result of the Russian Revolution.

In 1917, revolutionaries known as the Bolsheviks, along with Russian peasants revolted against the corruption of the Tsarist regime in Russia. In 1918 Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed. At the same time, all classes of nobility were abolished, and their estates were seized as state property. Some aristocrats were killed while many others fled the country. Those who remained were classed as “former people” and were either killed or survived by living anonymously.

At the beginning of the novel, we see how the Russian Revolution has effectively erased Count Rostov’s life. He is placed under house arrest and stripped of all his former privileges.

A pair of antique duelling pistols are part of the Hotel Metropol’s history. The guns were kept behind a secret panel by the manager in the days when a duel would settle arguments between aristocratic guests.

Throughout the novel, the dueling pistols symbolize the Count’s aristocratic background and his usefulness. Significantly, the Bishop dismisses the pistols as harmless antiques (just as he dismisses Count Rostov). The Count proves that the pistols still serve their purpose, however, when he fires a shot into Stalin’s portrait. By doing so, he proves that the loss of his wealth and title has not diminished his worth.

When Count Rostov is stripped of his aristocratic title and privileges, it is intended to be a punishment. Living as an ordinary man, however, Rostov finds his life is more purposeful and fulfilling.

When Count Rostov and Osip watch ‘Casablanca’ together, several parallels are drawn between the novel and the classic movie.

First, there are similarities between both settings. In the film, the French Moroccan city is a popular destination for Europeans seeking to escape the Second World War. Rick’s Café, like the Hotel Metropol, attracts customers who wish to experience a little luxury and forget about the events taking place outside its walls.

Later in the novel, Viktor sees similarities between Count Rostov and the character of Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) in the movie. Victor thinks, in particular, of a scene where Rick sets right an upturned cocktail glass after a petty criminal is arrested in the café. He realizes that, in this gesture, Rick displays a desire to put in order the small things that he has the power to change —a quality shared by Count Rostov. By paying attention to such small details, he restores “some sense of order in the world”.

The residents of the Hotel Metropol are, in many ways, sheltered from the turbulent events taking place in Russia. Nevertheless, even this grand hotel does not remain untouched by historical change. In fact, the subtle changes that take place in the hotel come to represent what is happening in the outside world.

At the beginning of the novel, Communist bureaucrats are still working from the hotel (a reminder that the building was used as a temporary seat for Lenin’s new government). Meanwhile, all sense of fun has been erased from the ballroom, which has become a meeting place for Bolshevik Assemblies. This austerity extends to the restaurant kitchen, where the chef must perform miracles with cabbage and cornmeal for the few guests who eat there.

By 1924, changes in government policy are reflected in the hotel’s atmosphere. Keen to promote trade relations with other countries, the Communist Party ensure that glamour is re-injected into the hotel to make a good impression on foreign visitors. The hotel’s restaurants, the Boyarsky and the Piazza, once again become bustling hubs of life.

“On the Grand Duke’s desk stood a champagne flute and a brandy snifter. With the lean uprightness of the former looking down upon the squat rotundity of the latter, one could not help but think of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on the plains of the Sierra Morena. Or of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck in the shadows of Sherwood Forest.” (Book One, ‘An Anglican Ashore’)

Here the Count compares his champagne and brandy glasses to various fictional figures. The flight of fancy demonstrates his cultural knowledge and rich imagination.