Résumé
Résumé de Le Froissement de la soie
Go deeper: the whole of Le Froissement de la soie
About 6 h 30 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
You will love this book if you enjoy a love story with a clever heroine, a glimpse of London society after the Great War, and sharp comic portraits.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
A young playwright in London sees a girl step off a bus and follows her. She wears the plain clothes of a shopkeeper's daughter, yet men turn their heads as she passes. At Bayswater station she stops dead before a newspaper poster about the Home Secretary, and a deep flush spreads over her cheeks. What does a girl from a back street want with a man she has never met?
The Rustle of Silk is a novel by Cosmo Hamilton, set in London in the spring of 1921. Its heroine is Lola Breezy, a watchmaker's daughter who has decided to comfort Arthur Fallaray, an honest statesman who lives like a monk in his own house. You get a love story and a satire at once, full of nerve and jokes.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A playwright follows a girl from Marble ArchFree
- 2Lola grows up a stranger in her own home
- 3Lola talks her way into Fallaray's house
- 4A borrowed dress takes her to the Savoy
- 5Three men love Lola but she wants one
- 6Feo and Fallaray share a house but no life
- 7Lola plans a week at Chilton Park
Point clé 1 sur 7
A playwright follows a girl from Marble Arch
The book opens on a spring evening. A playwright sees a girl step down from a motorbus at Marble Arch. He cannot stop watching her. Her face is not startlingly beautiful. She is simply unaware of herself, like a child. Yet such a sense of womanhood surrounds her that men and women alike pay her tribute as she passes.
He wonders not who she is but what she will become. Will she marry within her class and drift into drabness, or break free from her probable back yard into a grand conservatory?
At Bayswater station she stops before a poster. It reads that Fallaray is against reprisals and that there is a new crisis in the Irish question. Inside the station she reaches for a magazine with his photograph on the cover. The playwright knows the face. It is thin and hawklike, with a sad mouth. There is something of a saint about it.
Fallaray is the married bachelor, the ascetic who lives in one wing of his house while his wife entertains the fashionable set in the other. A girl from a small shop worships at his shrine. A train sweeps a crowd between the two watchers, and she is gone.
Then the playwright's idea arrives. Take a patriot who works for no reward, deaf to the rustle of silk, and set beside him a woman who is Eve to her fingertips. The novel is that experiment. The whole story begins with a playwright watching a girl step off a bus.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Le Froissement de la soie
About 6 h 30 min to read.Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Questions about Le Froissement de la soie
What is The Rustle of Silk about?
It follows Lola Breezy, a watchmaker's daughter in Bayswater, who takes a job as a lady's maid in the home of statesman Arthur Fallaray. She plans to win his heart and bring comfort to his lonely life.
Who is Madame de Brézé in The Rustle of Silk?
Madame de Brézé is a French courtesan whose memoirs Lola reads. She served a minister of Louis XIV, and Lola, who shares her family name, plays her in private and uses it as her alias in society.
What does the rustle of silk mean in the book?
It stands for the softness, tenderness, and feminine charm that Fallaray has never known. Lola wants to bring that gift into his serious, lonely life as a source of comfort and strength.
When is The Rustle of Silk set?
The story takes place in London soon after the Great War, around 1921. It touches on the Irish troubles, a coal strike, unemployment, and the bored society of the postwar years.
Is The Rustle of Silk easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the story moves quickly through short scenes, lively dialogue, and comic portraits. Its clear plot, a Cinderella-style adventure, and a warm narrator make it easy to follow.
Cite this edition
Hamilton, Cosmo. The Rustle of Silk. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rustle-of-silk.
Hamilton, C. (2026). The rustle of silk. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rustle-of-silk (Original work published 1922)
Hamilton, Cosmo. The Rustle of Silk. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rustle-of-silk.
@book{hamilton2026rustle,
author = {Hamilton, Cosmo},
title = {The Rustle of Silk},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-rustle-of-silk},
note = {First published 1922}
}
