House of All Nations [Paperback]

Christina Stead (Author)

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Book Description

Publication Date: August 1986

For money, wrote Balzac, "people fight and devour one another like spiders in a pot." In House of All Nations, the pot is an exclusive private European bank, and the spiders are a rich mixture of high-stakes gamblers, tax evaders, and shady speculators, all united by their love of money. They burn for it, hunger for it, and indeed would sell their souls for it had they souls to sell. Leading them on the chase is the cynical and mercurial director of the bank, Jules Bertillon, for whom every political or natural disaster is a potential shower of gold. Bertillon is a master of the devious maneuver, and his clients trust and even love him for it. In the end, he is the duper duped, but it is the clients who pay: for Jules, unprincipled to the last, has not been so foolish as to believe in himself. Set in the Paris of the interwar period, House of All Nations is a vast panoramic novel that explores the intrigues, swindles, and manipulations of international finance, exposing themes that are as relevant today as when first published in 1939. 'Combined with her Hogarthian humor, brilliant vocabulary, high-keyed imagination, the result is one of the most savage satires on 'the principle of money' since Balzac.' Time 'Full of rich comedy, crowded with Balzacian characters...a work of extraordinary talent.' The New Yorker

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } For money, wrote Balzac, "people fight and devour one another like spiders in a pot." In House of All Nations, the pot is an exclusive private European bank, and the spiders are a rich mixture of high-stakes gamblers, tax evaders, and shady speculators, all united by their love of money. They burn for it, hunger for it, and indeed would sell their souls for it had they souls to sell. Leading them on the chase is the cynical and mercurial director of the bank, Jules Bertillon, for whom every political or natural disaster is a potential shower of gold. Bertillon is a master of the devious maneuver, and his clients trust and even love him for it. In the end, he is the duper duped, but it is the clients who pay: for Jules, unprincipled to the last, has not been so foolish as to believe in himself. Set in the Paris of the interwar period, House of All Nations is a vast panoramic novel that explores the intrigues, swindles, and manipulations of international finance, exposing themes that are as relevant today as when first published in 1939. 'Combined with her Hogarthian humor, brilliant vocabulary, high-keyed imagination, the result is one of the most savage satires on 'the principle of money' since Balzac.' Time 'Full of rich comedy, crowded with Balzacian characters...a work of extraordinary talent.' The New Yorker

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christina Stead (1902-1983) was an Australian-born novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. She wrote fifteen novels and several volumes of short stories in her lifetime, during which she spent many years living abroad in Europe and the USA, returning to Australia to live only late in life. Considered by many to have been one of Australia's greatest novelists, Stead's best-known and most acclaimed novel, The Man Who Loved Children, is largely based on her own childhood, and was first published in 1940. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

Paperback
Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (August 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380012596
ISBN-13: 978-0380012596
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,300,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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