He built the most beautiful rooms in the world. Then he forgot them all.

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César Ritz invented modern luxury. The private bathroom. The peach-lit dining room. The radical idea that a hotel should make you feel known. His name became an adjective. Kings fought for his attention. And then his mind began to close its doors — room by room, guest by guest — until the greatest hotelier who ever lived couldn't remember which city he was in.

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In 1912, Ritz and his wife arrive at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Over fifteen midnight conversations in the legendary Peacock Alley corridor, he tells his life story to Oscar Tschirky — the Waldorf's own master of hospitality — before the memories are gone for good.

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From the siege of Paris to the scandal at the Savoy. From a seamstress who saw through him to the wife who held him together. From a partnership with the greatest chef in history to a breakdown on the floor of his own hotel. This is the story of a man who taught the world that attention is love — and paid for the lesson with everything he had.

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Monsieur Ritz. A Peacock Alley Novel.