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Lanny Budd #4
Wide Is the Gate
From http://www.uptonsinclairinstitute.com...
Wide is the Gate, written in 1943, is the fourth of the epic eleven part classic Lanny Budd Series written by Upton Sinclair. Wide is the Gate followed the 1943 Pulitzer Prize Winning Dragon’s Teeth. This book covers the period of 1934-1937 and introduces Lanny as a secret double agent fighting the Nazi’s as a supporter of the resistance movement in Germany.
Wide is the Gate, written in 1943, is the fourth of the epic eleven part classic Lanny Budd Series written by Upton Sinclair. Wide is the Gate followed the 1943 Pulitzer Prize Winning Dragon’s Teeth. This book covers the period of 1934-1937 and introduces Lanny as a secret double agent fighting the Nazi’s as a supporter of the resistance movement in Germany.
639 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
223 people are currently reading
738 people want to read
About the author
Upton Sinclair
669 books1,169 followersUpton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.
Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
October 16, 2023
For this novel of the series I have gone down to three stars. Why?
the final episode reads as an exaggerated adventure: It's overdone and not terribly believable.
Pinchot's narration, I continue to give four stars.
I'm continuing immediately with the next in the series.
I would like to add that I like how the author presents psychic phenomena.
An excellent review of the trends and historical events leading ip to and into WW2.
Humor is ironical.
I have come to like Lanny very much since I can easily relate to his feeling at home in more than one nation He is open-minded and sees multiple sides to every issue.
Two things I particularly like:
*Money-grubbers are viewed with the wink of an eye. They are laughed at rather than scowled at.
*Opposing views are aired fairly. This is important because we see how and why disputes arose.
Bronson Pinchot's narration is very good. He cleverly with the words emphasized. You know what is meant although not actually said. An example is when swear words are not said but implied. I must sometimes turn up the volume to hear whispered messages. Unfortunately, not all the books of the series have been recorded yet.
That Lanny was an eye witness to so many world events stretches believability somewhat. This explains my four rather than five star ratings.
*****************
*The Jungle 3 stars
the Lanny Budd Series:
1. World's End 4 stars
2.Between Two Worlds 4 stars
3.Dragon's Teeth 4 stars
4.Wide Is the Gate 3 stars
5,Presidential Agent TBR
6Dragon Harvest TBR
7.A World to Win TBR
8.Presidential Mission TBR
9.One Clear Call TBR
10.O Shepherd, Speak! TBR
11.The Return of Lanny Budd TBR
the final episode reads as an exaggerated adventure: It's overdone and not terribly believable.
Pinchot's narration, I continue to give four stars.
I'm continuing immediately with the next in the series.
I would like to add that I like how the author presents psychic phenomena.
An excellent review of the trends and historical events leading ip to and into WW2.
Humor is ironical.
I have come to like Lanny very much since I can easily relate to his feeling at home in more than one nation He is open-minded and sees multiple sides to every issue.
Two things I particularly like:
*Money-grubbers are viewed with the wink of an eye. They are laughed at rather than scowled at.
*Opposing views are aired fairly. This is important because we see how and why disputes arose.
Bronson Pinchot's narration is very good. He cleverly with the words emphasized. You know what is meant although not actually said. An example is when swear words are not said but implied. I must sometimes turn up the volume to hear whispered messages. Unfortunately, not all the books of the series have been recorded yet.
That Lanny was an eye witness to so many world events stretches believability somewhat. This explains my four rather than five star ratings.
*****************
*The Jungle 3 stars
the Lanny Budd Series:
1. World's End 4 stars
2.Between Two Worlds 4 stars
3.Dragon's Teeth 4 stars
4.Wide Is the Gate 3 stars
5,Presidential Agent TBR
6Dragon Harvest TBR
7.A World to Win TBR
8.Presidential Mission TBR
9.One Clear Call TBR
10.O Shepherd, Speak! TBR
11.The Return of Lanny Budd TBR
January 12, 2018
This book tells the story of Lanny’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, often referred to as the first battle of WWII, where Hitler and Mussolini sympathizers, as well as agents, abound. Appeasers and pacifists exist among loyal British subjects, and all is usually not what it seems. The only reason I rated this “4” instead of “5” is that I found myself occasionally getting impatient to move on out of the Spanish backwaters, but then I reflected on how this was the reality of the struggle. Today we know what’s going to happen in Sept. 1939, but then diplomats around the world were trying to avoid war. Some at all costs. And there was disagreement on where exactly to draw the line in the sand. And when. Sinclair’s style is just as seductive as ever—I can read him for hours on end, which is a good thing since these Lanny Budd books are really big. I even lowered my Challenge because I plan to read them this year (1 Lanny Budd = 2 of most others).
Since I started this series with the Pulitzer Prize winner, “Dragon’s Teeth”, not knowing I’d get hopelessly hooked, I thought about going back now to pick up the first two. But the momentum of the story, as well as the tide of history, is just not cooperating with that plan. To further push things onward, I read “Wide Is the Gate” because of the sample at the end of “Dragon’s Teeth”. More complication. So, I’m just going to read them in sequence going forward, picking up the first two as a prequel about Lanny’s youth when I’ve finished all the rest.
So what now? “Presidential Agent”? Or a BOTM break from Lanny’s fascinating life? Hmmm...
Since I started this series with the Pulitzer Prize winner, “Dragon’s Teeth”, not knowing I’d get hopelessly hooked, I thought about going back now to pick up the first two. But the momentum of the story, as well as the tide of history, is just not cooperating with that plan. To further push things onward, I read “Wide Is the Gate” because of the sample at the end of “Dragon’s Teeth”. More complication. So, I’m just going to read them in sequence going forward, picking up the first two as a prequel about Lanny’s youth when I’ve finished all the rest.
So what now? “Presidential Agent”? Or a BOTM break from Lanny’s fascinating life? Hmmm...
August 31, 2019
Aunque no es una historia tan perfecta y redonda como su antecesora, "Los dientes del dragón", en la cuarta parte de la saga de Lanny Budd encontramos los elementos comunes que hemos leído con anterioridad: aventuras enmarcadas en la historia del siglo XX. "Ancha es la puerta" comienza con la huida de Alemania de Lanny y en los inicios de la Guerra Civil Española. Ahora el famoso playboy es un hombre más asentado, con familia y un matrimonio fallido que fracasa debido a las ideas contrapuestas.
Lanny continuará apoyando la causa socialista, financiando la rama francesa y alemana a través de la compraventa de cuadros. Viajará a España y conoceremos de primera mano su visión del conflicto.
Son tiempos aciagos, y como dice la cita bíblica a la que le da el título el libro: "Ancha es la puerta y espacioso el camino que conduce a la perdición".
Más información: https://lahierbaroja.com/2019/08/26/a...
Lanny continuará apoyando la causa socialista, financiando la rama francesa y alemana a través de la compraventa de cuadros. Viajará a España y conoceremos de primera mano su visión del conflicto.
Son tiempos aciagos, y como dice la cita bíblica a la que le da el título el libro: "Ancha es la puerta y espacioso el camino que conduce a la perdición".
Más información: https://lahierbaroja.com/2019/08/26/a...
July 23, 2025
This book in a series primarily covers the early years of Hitler in Germany and concludes with a long adventure of Lanny involving the Spanish Civil War.
March 4, 2018
Although written around 80 years ago, its amazing how the politics and world affairs of that time so closely resemble what’s happening in our world now. Sinclair very clearly and in simple language is able to contrast the politics of the right and left/conservatives and liberals. In the politicians and leaders of those days we see our leaders of today. The Lanny Budd series is a great series of historical fiction, as relevant now as it was when written.
November 25, 2017
The fourth Lanny Budd book satisfies
The characterizations are not profound, but the world of pre-WWII Europe is vividly conveyed. The ties between the corporate world and the fascists are particularly informative and cast some light on current politics.
The characterizations are not profound, but the world of pre-WWII Europe is vividly conveyed. The ties between the corporate world and the fascists are particularly informative and cast some light on current politics.
April 30, 2018
US, French, British private backing of Fascists Hitler and Mussolini. US sourcing Hitler with arms. Mussolini taking Abyssinia. Liberal Governments helpless due to conservatives in cabinet with thier financial interests under attack from a growing socialist culture. Fascists overthrowing the socialist governments in Spain with German guns. The French and Brits stand and watch and plead civil war. There is only one thing worse than fascism, and that is communism. This was the motto of Europe in the 1930's. Outrageous.
Who stands to gain when an honest man makes a bargain with thieves?
Who stands to gain when an honest man makes a bargain with thieves?
May 29, 2019
The title of this, the fourth volume in the World's End series, is from the quote in the the page of dedication,
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
...............................................................................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
...............................................................................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
...................................................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
...................................................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive. Trudi validated Monck, and tried to tell Lanny about what was going on.
"“They seize men and women, old and young—they respect nobody. They carry them off to the woods outside the city and beat them to death and bury them where they lie or leave them for others to find and bury. They drag them into dungeons which they have in the cellars of police stations and party headquarters, where they torture people to make them confess and name their friends and comrades. Things happen, so hideous that you cannot bring yourself to talk about them; nothing worse was ever done by the Spanish Inquisition, or by Chinese torturers, or ...
"“Germany has become a land of spies and betrayers; you never know whom you can trust. They teach the children in the schools to spy upon their parents and denounce them; they torture perfectly innocent people because of something some relative has done. No servant can be trusted, no employee, hardly a friend. It is impossible for half a dozen persons to meet, even in a private home; one dares not express an opinion or even ask for news. You never know at what moment of the day or night will come a banging on the door, and it’s a band of Stormtroopers, or the Gestapo with one of their vans to carry you away. You live in the shadow of this awful thing and can never get it out of your mind. Because I am a woman, and because they have so many sadists and degenerates among them, I carry a vial of poison, ready to swallow it before they can lay hands upon me.”"
Lanny offered of take Trudi out of Germany, but she couldn't abandon Ludi if he were alive. In any case, work they did in Germany was important.
"We have told them the truth about the Reichstag fire, and about the number of those murdered last June and July. The Nazis admit less than one hundred, but we have listed more than twelve hundred and our lists have been circulated. The Nazis know that, and of course they are hunting us day and night; so far I do not think they have any clue. Even if they get some group it will be small; we have built ourselves like the worm, which can be cut into sections and each will go on growing by itself."
This chapter is titled "“Wir sind all des Todes Eigen”—we are all death’s own." Lanny assured Trudi his support for the cause by promising occasional sums of money, and assuring her that bringing it won't be a problem.
"“Lanny, you are an angel! If I believed in such, I would be certain that you had been sent from heaven.”"
They arranged how they would meet. Lanny explained his real role to her and she promised not to doubt him.
""My father is going in for the manufacture of airplanes, and he will be expecting me to be useful to him; in return I may feel justified in making him useful to me. I don’t want to say any more about this, except to be sure that whatever happens, you will not mention your connection with me or your knowledge of my role.”
"“I’ll die before I do it, Lanny.”
"“I have an idea which may be worth while and about which I would like your advice. You know that the fat General seized the palace of my Jewish friends, and you know the fine paintings which were a part of his loot. It happens that Zoltan Kertezsi and I selected nearly all those paintings, and it would be easy to find a market for them in America; they might bring several million dollars, and there would be a commission of ten per cent. That is one way by which I could get large sums of money for you, and it would amuse me to persuade an old-style Teutonic robber-baron to contribute to his own undoing.”
"“Knorke!” exclaimed the woman.
"“There is this drawback, that Goring would be getting nine marks for every one that I got. Thus I might be strengthening the Nazi cause far more than I was hurting it. What if he used the money to buy my father’s airplanes?”
"Trudi thought before answering. “He will buy the planes with the money of the German people, never with his own. For himself he is building a grand estate on a peninsula up in the North Sea. He is a greedy hog, and I do not believe he would give a pfennig to the government, but rather take away all that he dares.”
"“Then it wouldn’t be a mistake to offer to sell his pictures?” “If he wishes to sell them he could do it without your help—isn’t that true?”
"“Yes, no doubt.”
"“Well, then, let him spend what he pleases upon his own glory, and we will use our share to tell the German people what lives their false leaders are living.”"
...................................................
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
...............................................................................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
...............................................................................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
...................................................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
...................................................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive. Trudi validated Monck, and tried to tell Lanny about what was going on.
"“They seize men and women, old and young—they respect nobody. They carry them off to the woods outside the city and beat them to death and bury them where they lie or leave them for others to find and bury. They drag them into dungeons which they have in the cellars of police stations and party headquarters, where they torture people to make them confess and name their friends and comrades. Things happen, so hideous that you cannot bring yourself to talk about them; nothing worse was ever done by the Spanish Inquisition, or by Chinese torturers, or ...
"“Germany has become a land of spies and betrayers; you never know whom you can trust. They teach the children in the schools to spy upon their parents and denounce them; they torture perfectly innocent people because of something some relative has done. No servant can be trusted, no employee, hardly a friend. It is impossible for half a dozen persons to meet, even in a private home; one dares not express an opinion or even ask for news. You never know at what moment of the day or night will come a banging on the door, and it’s a band of Stormtroopers, or the Gestapo with one of their vans to carry you away. You live in the shadow of this awful thing and can never get it out of your mind. Because I am a woman, and because they have so many sadists and degenerates among them, I carry a vial of poison, ready to swallow it before they can lay hands upon me.”"
Lanny offered of take Trudi out of Germany, but she couldn't abandon Ludi if he were alive. In any case, work they did in Germany was important.
"We have told them the truth about the Reichstag fire, and about the number of those murdered last June and July. The Nazis admit less than one hundred, but we have listed more than twelve hundred and our lists have been circulated. The Nazis know that, and of course they are hunting us day and night; so far I do not think they have any clue. Even if they get some group it will be small; we have built ourselves like the worm, which can be cut into sections and each will go on growing by itself."
This chapter is titled "“Wir sind all des Todes Eigen”—we are all death’s own." Lanny assured Trudi his support for the cause by promising occasional sums of money, and assuring her that bringing it won't be a problem.
"“Lanny, you are an angel! If I believed in such, I would be certain that you had been sent from heaven.”"
They arranged how they would meet. Lanny explained his real role to her and she promised not to doubt him.
""My father is going in for the manufacture of airplanes, and he will be expecting me to be useful to him; in return I may feel justified in making him useful to me. I don’t want to say any more about this, except to be sure that whatever happens, you will not mention your connection with me or your knowledge of my role.”
"“I’ll die before I do it, Lanny.”
"“I have an idea which may be worth while and about which I would like your advice. You know that the fat General seized the palace of my Jewish friends, and you know the fine paintings which were a part of his loot. It happens that Zoltan Kertezsi and I selected nearly all those paintings, and it would be easy to find a market for them in America; they might bring several million dollars, and there would be a commission of ten per cent. That is one way by which I could get large sums of money for you, and it would amuse me to persuade an old-style Teutonic robber-baron to contribute to his own undoing.”
"“Knorke!” exclaimed the woman.
"“There is this drawback, that Goring would be getting nine marks for every one that I got. Thus I might be strengthening the Nazi cause far more than I was hurting it. What if he used the money to buy my father’s airplanes?”
"Trudi thought before answering. “He will buy the planes with the money of the German people, never with his own. For himself he is building a grand estate on a peninsula up in the North Sea. He is a greedy hog, and I do not believe he would give a pfennig to the government, but rather take away all that he dares.”
"“Then it wouldn’t be a mistake to offer to sell his pictures?” “If he wishes to sell them he could do it without your help—isn’t that true?”
"“Yes, no doubt.”
"“Well, then, let him spend what he pleases upon his own glory, and we will use our share to tell the German people what lives their false leaders are living.”"
...................................................
August 25, 2019
The title of this, the fourth volume in the World's End series, is from the quote in the the page of dedication,
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of Hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
.................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
.................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
.................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
.................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive.
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of Hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
.................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
.................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
.................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
.................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive.
August 25, 2019
The title of this, the fourth volume in the World's End series, is from the quote in the the page of dedication,
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of Hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
.................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
.................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
.................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
.................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive.
"“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.”"
The book begins in 1934, slightly after the end of Dragon's Teeth, where Lanny was in tears after he had brought Freddi to his hotel and intended to take him to Paris in an ambulance with Rahel, Freddi's wife, to the doctor who had treated Marcel. Here the author skips over the pain of it all to the funeral conducted at Bienvenu, and as per the wishes of Leah Robin, the mother, in the orthodox way. Lanny arrived and was a pall bearer, and spoke after the formal words by the rabbi found by Mama Robin.
"In all those years Lanny had never known him to speak an unkind word or perform a dishonorable action. “He was as near to being perfectly good as one could ask of a human being; and I do not say that just because he is dead—I said it many times and to many people while he was living. He was an artist and a scholar. He knew the best literature of the land which he had made his own. He earned a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin, and he did this not for the honor nor yet for a livelihood, but because he wanted to know what the wisest men had learned about the causes and the cure of poverty.”"
Freddi represents the decent, educated, gentle humans of artistic bent and working for human fraternity, in this story, and represents all those that were similar in any of the qualities, that were killed by the regime in Germany beginning in early thirties.
Almost immediately the author introduces Spain, at this time a new republic, via Raoul Palma who has been running the worker's school in Cannes and is helped by Lanny.
"Lanny didn’t know Spain very well—only from stops on a yachting-cruise and a plane trip. But he knew the Spaniards here on the Riviera; they came to play golf and polo, to dance and gamble and flirt in the casinos, or to shoot pigeons, their idea of manly sport. They read no books, they knew nothing, but considered themselves far above the rest of mankind. Alfonso of the jimber-jaw and the unpleasant diseases liked to be amused, and when on holiday he had unbent with the rich Americans of this Coast of Pleasure. Lanny had played tennis with him, and wasn’t supposed to beat him, but had disregarded this convention. Now the ex-monarch was in Rome, intriguing with Mussolini to be restored to his throne."
Lanny and Raoul spoke about French government - the premier Demergue was in cahoots with Croix De Feu, but Louis Barthou the foreign minister was quite aware of reality of Hitler.
"Lanny reminded his friend of the “grand tour” which Barthou had recently made in the Balkans, to rally Yugoslavia and other states to an alliance against the new German counter-revolution. His success had been made plain by the effort the Nazis had made to bomb his train in Austria. “That’s the way you tell your friends nowadays,” added the American, and went on to point out that the determined little lawyer had been willing to drop his antagonism to the Soviet Union in the face of a greater peril; he had helped to bring Russia into the League of Nations last month and was working hard to prepare public opinion for a military alliance between that country and France."
Lanny told Raoul about Freddi and his last year.
"Dreadful, unspeakably wicked men the Nazi chieftains were, and Lanny was haunted by the idea that it was his duty to give up all pleasures and all other duties and try to awaken the people of Western Europe to a realization of the peril in which they stood."
At the train station before departing for Paris, he bought a newspaper and glanced at the headlines.
"Glancing at its banner headlines he gave a cry. “LE ROI ALEXANDRE ET BARTHOU ASSASSINES!”
"Quickly Lanny’s eyes ran over the story, and he read the salient details to his friend. The King of Yugoslavia had come for a visit of state to France, to celebrate the signing of their treaty of alliance; he had landed at Marseille, and the Foreign Minister had met him at the dock. They had been driven in an open car into the city, through cheering throngs. In front of the stock exchange a man had run out from the crowd, shouting a greeting to the king, and before the police could stop him he had leaped upon the running-board and opened fire with an automatic gun, killing the king and fatally wounding Barthou, who tried to shield his guest.
"The crowd had beaten the assassin to death, in spite of the efforts of the police to save him. He had been identified as one of a Croatian terrorist organization; but Lanny said: “You’ll find the Nazis were behind him!” So it proved, in due course. The reactionary conspirators had been publishing a paper in Berlin, with funds obtained from the head of the foreign policy department of the Hitler party. The assassin had been traveling on a forged passport, obtained in Munich, and the weapon he had used bore the trademark of Mauser, the German munitions firm."
"It was the third Nazi murder of foreign statesmen within a year. First, Premier Duca of Rumania had been shot to death. Then a band of gangsters had broken into the office of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria, the Catholic statesman who had been responsible for the slaughter of the Socialist workers in Vienna and the bombardment of those blocks of model apartments which Lanny had so greatly admired. And now both signers of the Yugoslav-French agreement had been wiped out."
Anyone else notice the germs of WWII here are an echo - or a kaleidoscopic reflection - of the beginning of WWI, involving Yugoslavia, royalty on drive in public assassinated by a lone assassin who is Croatian instead of Serb,..... And Germany in wings?
.................
Robbie planning an airplane factory in Newcastle, above the Budd plant now taken over by Wall Street, a very attractive and admirable picture. He was meeting Zaharoff and denis de Bruyne as intended investors, and Lanny suggested Irma ought to be asked too to invest in Budd--Erling, the new concern.
"The killing of Barthou had thrown French affairs into turmoil. The Foreign Minister had been one of the few real patriots left in the country ... It was a time of real peril for France—the mad Hitler was rearming his country rapidly, and his agents were busy intriguing and stirring up revolts in every nation, big and little. Meanwhile France was torn by domestic strife, and where among politicians would she find a friend and protector?"
"Alas, Marianne, la douce, la belle, no longer seemed to Lanny the shining, romantic creature he had imagined in his happy boyhood; then he had loved her, and all her children, rich and poor, on that lovely Azure Coast where stood his home. But now Marianne was taking on an aspect somewhat drab; her honor was sold in the market-place, and the clamor of the traffickers spoiled the day and the night."
" ... the talk was of Pierre Laval as Barthou’s successor, ... the innkeeper’s son had started far to the left, and as soon as he got power had set out to line his pockets. ... so eager to preserve his property that he was an easy mark for the Nazi blackmailers."
" ... de Bruyne added: “I have to excuse myself now; I have an appointment with that fripon mongol.”"
Robbie spoke to Zaharoff. "“Airplane factories have been scratch affairs so far, and their techniques are based on small-scale operations. What I have in mind is to apply the principles of mass production to this new job; I want to put airplanes on a belt.”
.................
Lanny got a letter from someone called Bernhardt Monck enclosing a sketch of Freddi done by Trudi Schultz with a black line around, asking him to contact, sent from London and forwarded from Bienvenu. He wrote back enclosing a pound and saying he'd be there in a couple of days, and on the way stopped at Les Forets, home of Emily Chattersworth. They exchanged notes, so she became interested in Robbie's project and asked if he'd come see her.
Lanny went home first, to the villa rented near Wickthorpe castle, and had the delight of seeing his daughter, now four and a half. Irma and he were very much in love, but aware of their differences, and tried to keep from mentioning them. She insisted she should be asked to invest in Robbie's project. They were invited at Wickthorpe for dinner and met the English diplomatic set.
They drove to London the next day, and after seeing paintings Irma needed to do other things, so Lanny went and met Bernhardt Monck. He satisfied himself that the person was true albeit the name was assumed, and that Trudi Schultz had really sent him. Monck said what Lanny expected, need of money for cause, which now was urgent in Germany.
Lanny gave money and promised to give more, with the proviso that at a time and date set by her Trudi should meet him, and even if it were unwise for her to acknowledge Lanny, she should clearly say "trust Monck", for which he was willing to come to Germany as the art expert, and expected the regime to welcome the person who brought foreign exchange. After their return to his villa, he visited Rick next and talked over his plan. He met young Alfy who was ready for college, and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as aviator. He drove with Alfy to the school where Marceline Detaze was boarding, to bring her home. Unlike serious and silent Alfy, Marceline was a budding dancer, wilful and spirited, not content with the match but expecting courtship.
Lanny went home and settled to enjoy time with his wife and daughter, but was waiting to hear from Trudi. The letter arrived, with two sketches - one of lanny and other of Hansi - that were unmistakably by her and not made under duress. Lanny couldn't tell Irma, so he made business arrangements with Zoltan Kertezsi wiring him from Paris inquiring about some paintings in Germany. He managed to convince Irma to go with him and she was wary, but willing, saying
"“Let’s go”; but then, frowning, she added: “Listen to me, Lanny. I mean it—if you do anything to make me miserable the way you did, I’ll never forgive you as long as I live!”"
"They waited only to see Robbie, who was due in London. He arrived, outwardly calm, inwardly exultant over his successes. Zaharoff had agreed to take a million dollars’ worth of Budd-Erling shares and had given Robbie permission to mention this to several of his former English associates. Denis de Bruyne had taken three million francs’ worth and was getting up a syndicate of his friends. Also Emily Chattersworth was coming in; and now Robbie, at request, sat down with Irma and laid the proposal before her. ... Joseph Barnes was ordered to select half a million dollars’ worth of those which had brought in the smallest returns during the present year; he was to sell them at the market and replace them with Budd-Erling preferred plus common as a bonus. ... Of course, Robbie’s capable ex-mistress saw to it that the news of Irma’s action was spread among her fashionable friends, and Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, and Sophie, former Baroness de la Tourette, and all the other ladies with large incomes and still larger appetites were eager to hear about this opportunity of enrichment."
Irma and Robbie had a talk, he reassured her and suggested she might turn Lanny into making use of his contacts that would be of use to Robbie, so the father's dream of having his firstborn work with him might come true.
"“I can’t argue with Lanny,” said the young wife, sadly. “He’s read so much more than I have, and he thinks I’m just a dumb cluck.”
"“You have a lot more influence than you know, and between us we may get him interested in airplanes.” Robbie said that, and then after a moment added: “Give him time. There are no perfect husbands, you know.”
"Irma nodded. There were unspoken thoughts between them. She had been taught the value of her money and understood why Robbie valued her so highly as a wife. But they were both of them well-bred persons, who would act on what they called “common sense” but wouldn’t put it into words."
.................
"In Germany the highways are smooth and straight and lined with well-kept trees, many of them fruit-bearing. ... Lanny said these were military roads, intended for the invasion of the bordering countries; he added that they were built with American money, borrowed by the German Republic and by its member states and cities."
Still so, except invasion now is not by military marching.
"What she saw in this country was clean, well-kept streets and houses, and the people in them the same."
Still so, except for those of the migrants that are not threatening, who consequently are looked down on, regardless of their worth, and spied on, with attempted indoctrination to bring them into line to worship Germany and realise they are unworthy of ever being part thereof; if, however, they have no such wish or have been around and remark about anything anywhere being better, they are solicitously asked if they are homesick, for the assumption is, you must be crazy to think everything German is not best in the world, and crazier to not wish to become German, however forbidden. Lack of a total admiration drives them into a denial, unless of course it's accompanied by a culture that's far more ferocious and uncompromising, and they then knuckle under, telling themselves and other Germans that they must tolerate and even comply, as in the neighbourhoods where high schools have large numbers of migrants, so female students and even teachers are asked to not provoke them.
Irma's reaction to the events seen and suffered by Lanny is what most people have in most cases of injustice or violence suffered by anyone not close, and often even then. It's always easier to blame a victim, and side with power that can trample you down if you do not compromise and invert truth to suit interests of brute force.
.................
Lanny and Irma visited Stubendorf after arriving in Berlin, and having visited the Graf and Kurt, stopped at the home of the Baroness, aunt of the Graf, whose art collection Lannyinspected. Irma asked as they drove away if she'd sell any, and he said it depended on "state of her mortgages.”
"He explained that most of these estates had been loaded down with debts in wartime; many of them had come under the shadow of the Osthilfe scandal, which had had so much to do with the Nazis’ getting into power.
"Lanny told how the government of the Republic had paid vast sums to the great Prussian landlords to help them in reconstruction, and most of the money had been wasted. Hindenburg’s son had been involved, and that had helped to break down the old President and force him into a deal with the “Bohemian corporal,” as he had been accustomed to call the founder and Fuhrer of National Socialism."
Lanny went and met Trudi in Berlin as Irma was invited to lunch by Furstin Donnerstein, and took her for a drive.
May 30, 2020
The Lanny Budd series is an epic historical fiction series that spans from pre-WW1 to post-WW2. Wide Is the Gate (book 4) follows the early years of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the start of the Spanish Civil War and the rise to power of Francisco Franco. As a historical fiction novel, the book does an admirable job of explaining how and why World War 2 started.
Some reviewers have written that you can read the series out-of-order, but I strongly disagree. Upton Sinclair builds the characters and the storylines from book 1 to the next. If you start out-of-order, it’s going to be hard to fully grasp or appreciate what is happening.
I thought books 1 and 2 were average, but books 3 and book 4 Wide Is the Gate had me totally enthralled in the story. I became accustomed to Upton Sinclair’s writing style and I’m in awe of his ability to juggle so many different storylines; yet present a cohesive narrative to his readers. His storylines are very unique and unpredictable which makes it so captivating. I sometimes think the storylines will go one-direction; and Upton Sinclair surprises me by going in a completely different and unexpected direction. His main character, Lanny Budd, is a man of great character and of intrigue who also has many flaws and is a source of disappointment to his family which makes him seem very real to me.
Although I’ve only finished 4 of the 11 books, I consider the Lanny Budd series to be on my “desert island” book list. I could easily re-read these books again and again; but these books are not suited for everyone. The people who would most enjoy the Lanny Budd series are avid readers of historical fiction and who have some familiarity with the politics of Europe and America during the 1930’s to the 1940’s and what lead up to the outbreak of WW2.
When I started reading the Lanny Budd series, I was amazed to find that the series was released when the aftermath of WW2 was still smoldering and the “Red Scare / Red Menace” witch hunt was in full swing in the USA. Upton Sinclair and his books must have been very controversial back then.
My review of Wide Is the Gate is the Kindle version. When some older books are converted into a digital version, numerous typographical errors become a distracting problem. So far, I haven’t found very many typo errors which makes the Kindle version of Wide Is the Gate a good book to keep forever and read again.
Some reviewers have written that you can read the series out-of-order, but I strongly disagree. Upton Sinclair builds the characters and the storylines from book 1 to the next. If you start out-of-order, it’s going to be hard to fully grasp or appreciate what is happening.
I thought books 1 and 2 were average, but books 3 and book 4 Wide Is the Gate had me totally enthralled in the story. I became accustomed to Upton Sinclair’s writing style and I’m in awe of his ability to juggle so many different storylines; yet present a cohesive narrative to his readers. His storylines are very unique and unpredictable which makes it so captivating. I sometimes think the storylines will go one-direction; and Upton Sinclair surprises me by going in a completely different and unexpected direction. His main character, Lanny Budd, is a man of great character and of intrigue who also has many flaws and is a source of disappointment to his family which makes him seem very real to me.
Although I’ve only finished 4 of the 11 books, I consider the Lanny Budd series to be on my “desert island” book list. I could easily re-read these books again and again; but these books are not suited for everyone. The people who would most enjoy the Lanny Budd series are avid readers of historical fiction and who have some familiarity with the politics of Europe and America during the 1930’s to the 1940’s and what lead up to the outbreak of WW2.
When I started reading the Lanny Budd series, I was amazed to find that the series was released when the aftermath of WW2 was still smoldering and the “Red Scare / Red Menace” witch hunt was in full swing in the USA. Upton Sinclair and his books must have been very controversial back then.
My review of Wide Is the Gate is the Kindle version. When some older books are converted into a digital version, numerous typographical errors become a distracting problem. So far, I haven’t found very many typo errors which makes the Kindle version of Wide Is the Gate a good book to keep forever and read again.
July 23, 2011
Wide is the Gate, written in 1943, is the fourth of the epic eleven part classic Lanny Budd Series written by Upton Sinclair. Wide is the Gate followed the 1943 Pulitzer Prize Winning Dragon’s Teeth. This book covers the period of 1934-1937 and introduces Lanny as a secret double agent fighting the Nazi’s as a supporter of the resistance movement in Germany.
Lanny is living primarily in England with his wife of almost five years, Irma Barnes, the 23 million dollar heiress. Irma does not share Lanny’s “red” view of the world. Lanny’s is conflicted continuously in his heart and soul for the workers and social justice. Lanny attempts to commit to Irma to “behave” himself and lead a normal aristocratic life. But foremost he is committed to ending Nazism, Fascism and the over throw of the democratically elected Spanish government. Irma believes she is entitled to live in the style of the aristocrats of Europe, she having inherited 23 million dollars from her late father, J. Paramount Barnes. She cares not at all for anything Lanny believes in.
Lanny is awakened at the end of Dragon’s Teeth to the oncoming dangers of the Nazi’s. He sees the armament build-up and the militarism building in the Fatherland. Lanny tries to warn England and France that the propaganda of Hitler and Goring is not to be trusted. But both English and French leaders fail to recognize the menacing threat of the new Germany. Leading politician believe the threat of the Bolsheviks and the Red Menace poses a greater threat to European stability, aka, the ruling classes, than do the Nazi’s in Germany, and the Fascist in Italy and Spain.
Lanny involves himself in a double agent role by helping a new friend, one who will be us through the remaining books, Monck. Monck is a German socialist who is part of the underground and works with the resistance movement to alert the German people to the terrors of the Nazi’s.
Lanny helps a friend and colleague of the late Fredi Robin, Trudi, through which he meets Monck. Many adventures and dangers present themselves as Lanny travels back into Germany as an Art expert, eventually dealing directly and on a friendship basis with Hermann Goring. He uses the proceeds of the confiscated artwork masterpieces stolen by Goring from Johannes Robin to help finance and support the underground movement from inside the heart of Naziland. Lanny and Irma also have an eventful evening with Hitler, while hiding a hunted resistance worker in their car while visiting Hitler’s Berghof estate.
Robbie Budd, Lanny’s father, has conceived the next great industrial advancement on a grand scale, the airplane. Having lost Budd Gunmakers to the Wall Street tycoons, Robbie sets out to develop the mass production of airplanes. He offers first to England, and then to France, the opportunity to build their air forces as protection in case of another armed conflict, but facing the intransigence of both countries politicians, he next offers his new high speed and potentially deadly product to Goring and they thus become close business associates. This alliance between Robbie and Goring offers Lanny cover for his duplicitous activities against the Nazi’s.
As alluded to at the end of Dragon’s Teeth, Lanny and Irma finally end their relationship. Lanny falls in love with Trudi Schultz, the underground resistance worker and they marry near the end of the book.
And finally, Spain is destroyed as Franco and his henchmen over throw the duly elected democratic government of Spain. Lanny risks his life to save Alfy, son of Lanny’s best friends, the English Rick and Nina, from the Franco’s dungeons. Lanny uses every resource he has acquired in his 35 years to help Alfy from the dungeons and it is one of the most daring escapes thus far in this exciting series.
Please visit our website at: www.uptonsinclairinstitute.com. You may also contact the publisher, Frederick Ellis at frederick659@yahoo.com. or me at jsc12109@hotmail.com for more information. On our site you may read reviews of all 11 books and much much more about Upton and his works. You may also buy the entire series at a 30% discount with free shipping. Quality is guaranteed.
Stephen Courts
July 22, 2011
Columbus, Ohio
Lanny is living primarily in England with his wife of almost five years, Irma Barnes, the 23 million dollar heiress. Irma does not share Lanny’s “red” view of the world. Lanny’s is conflicted continuously in his heart and soul for the workers and social justice. Lanny attempts to commit to Irma to “behave” himself and lead a normal aristocratic life. But foremost he is committed to ending Nazism, Fascism and the over throw of the democratically elected Spanish government. Irma believes she is entitled to live in the style of the aristocrats of Europe, she having inherited 23 million dollars from her late father, J. Paramount Barnes. She cares not at all for anything Lanny believes in.
Lanny is awakened at the end of Dragon’s Teeth to the oncoming dangers of the Nazi’s. He sees the armament build-up and the militarism building in the Fatherland. Lanny tries to warn England and France that the propaganda of Hitler and Goring is not to be trusted. But both English and French leaders fail to recognize the menacing threat of the new Germany. Leading politician believe the threat of the Bolsheviks and the Red Menace poses a greater threat to European stability, aka, the ruling classes, than do the Nazi’s in Germany, and the Fascist in Italy and Spain.
Lanny involves himself in a double agent role by helping a new friend, one who will be us through the remaining books, Monck. Monck is a German socialist who is part of the underground and works with the resistance movement to alert the German people to the terrors of the Nazi’s.
Lanny helps a friend and colleague of the late Fredi Robin, Trudi, through which he meets Monck. Many adventures and dangers present themselves as Lanny travels back into Germany as an Art expert, eventually dealing directly and on a friendship basis with Hermann Goring. He uses the proceeds of the confiscated artwork masterpieces stolen by Goring from Johannes Robin to help finance and support the underground movement from inside the heart of Naziland. Lanny and Irma also have an eventful evening with Hitler, while hiding a hunted resistance worker in their car while visiting Hitler’s Berghof estate.
Robbie Budd, Lanny’s father, has conceived the next great industrial advancement on a grand scale, the airplane. Having lost Budd Gunmakers to the Wall Street tycoons, Robbie sets out to develop the mass production of airplanes. He offers first to England, and then to France, the opportunity to build their air forces as protection in case of another armed conflict, but facing the intransigence of both countries politicians, he next offers his new high speed and potentially deadly product to Goring and they thus become close business associates. This alliance between Robbie and Goring offers Lanny cover for his duplicitous activities against the Nazi’s.
As alluded to at the end of Dragon’s Teeth, Lanny and Irma finally end their relationship. Lanny falls in love with Trudi Schultz, the underground resistance worker and they marry near the end of the book.
And finally, Spain is destroyed as Franco and his henchmen over throw the duly elected democratic government of Spain. Lanny risks his life to save Alfy, son of Lanny’s best friends, the English Rick and Nina, from the Franco’s dungeons. Lanny uses every resource he has acquired in his 35 years to help Alfy from the dungeons and it is one of the most daring escapes thus far in this exciting series.
Please visit our website at: www.uptonsinclairinstitute.com. You may also contact the publisher, Frederick Ellis at frederick659@yahoo.com. or me at jsc12109@hotmail.com for more information. On our site you may read reviews of all 11 books and much much more about Upton and his works. You may also buy the entire series at a 30% discount with free shipping. Quality is guaranteed.
Stephen Courts
July 22, 2011
Columbus, Ohio
December 8, 2018
Well worth looking beyond some of the flat characters—and it takes some effort to do this esp with the female ones. Great historical detail, superb pacing, and lucid descriptions, bring this period and key historical players to life and provide a social and political context that is too often overlooked. Sinclair has a superior gift in his use of facts and political and social detail and consequences to capture and sustain interest. It’s a long read but very worthwhile if you’re a 20th century history buff.
July 25, 2018
Another Great Book In A Spectacular Series
The Lanny Budd series continues to not only give me a great history lesson, but does it in such an intense way that you can't put the book down. I can't wait until I start the next book in the series, and plan to read them all.
The Lanny Budd series continues to not only give me a great history lesson, but does it in such an intense way that you can't put the book down. I can't wait until I start the next book in the series, and plan to read them all.
February 12, 2020
As the Spanish Civil War begins, Lanny Budd's exploits become more daring and intricate. Upton Sinclair's characters develop more depth and maturity with each book in the series.
This is truly how history should be taught, with all the glories and horrors exposed.
This is truly how history should be taught, with all the glories and horrors exposed.
March 4, 2023
WIDE IS THE GATE IS THE FOURTH BOOK IN THE ELEVEN BOOK LANNY BUDD SERIES BY UPTON SINCLAIR. TO THIS POINT, THE SERIES HAS COVERED APPROXIMATELY 25 YEARS, FROM JUST PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR TO THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR PRECEDING WORLD WAR TWO. LANNY BUDD IS AN ART EXPERT, BUYING AND SELLING PAINTINGS PRIMARILY IN EUROPE BUT ALSO IN THE UNITED STATES. HIS OCCUPATION ALLOWS HIM ENTRY INTO THE COUNTRIES ANTAGONIZING THE CONTINENT AND INTO THE HOMES OF SOME OF THE PRIMARY PROTAGONISTS OF NAZI GERMANY.
IN THIS BOOK, BUDD DEALS WITH A MARRIAGE ENDED AND ONE BEGINNING. HIS MERCENARY ACTIVITIES IN THE NAME OF ART ARE JUST HALF OF HIS DOUBLE LIFE AS AN INFORMANT, ALTHOUGH HE DOES NOT WORK FOR ANY GOVERNMENT. HE ALSO CONTINUES TO BE A LOYAL FRIEND, TO HIS PERIL. INDEED, IT IS THIS LATTER PREOCCUPATION THAT CAUSED THE GREATEST RIFT IN HIS FIRST MARRIAGE, A BEHAVIOR HE IS UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO TERMINATE.
SINCLAIR’S SKILLED WRITING BRINGS THE HISTORY OF THIS PERIOD TO LIFE. WHILE I EXPECTED MORE TO BE WRITTEN ABOUT THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, SINCLAIR GIVES HIS READERS VITAL BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUES CAUSING THE CONFLICT. IT IS NOT JUST A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE NAZI ARMY PREPARING FOR WAR, ALTHOUGH IT IS SURELY THAT. GENERAL FRANCO, WHO LED THE UPRISING AGAINST THE REPUBLIC, WOULD RULE SPAIN AS DICTATOR FOR ALMOST FORTY YEARS.
WITH ALL THE TENSIONS AND INTRIGUE OF THE STORY IN THE MIDST OF WAR AND TYRANNY, THERE WERE THREE INSTANCES WHICH GAVE ME GREAT JOY. IT IS NOT UNUSUAL FOR WRITERS TO QUOTE THE BIBLE. HERMAN MELVILLE DID IT FREQUENTLY IN MOBY DICK AND THERE ARE SOME HERE. WHAT SINCLAIR ADDED TO THE TEXT, ON AT LEAST THREE OCCASIONS, WERE LINES FROM CHRISTIAN HYMNS. HE IDENTIFIES THEM AS SUCH BUT DOES NOT TELL US THE HYMNS THE LINES COME FROM. HOWEVER, AS A RETIRED PASTOR OF MORE THAN 35 YEARS, AND AS ONE WHO CONSIDERS HIS HYMN BOOK’S CONTENTS AS SACRED AS THE HOLY BIBLE, THE LINES WERE FAMILIAR TO ME. IF ONE READS THIS BOOK VIA KINDLE, THOSE LINES WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED AND I HAVE ADDED A NOTE IN EACH IDENTIFYING THE HYMN AND THE AUTHOR. THIS ADDED GREATLY TO MY READING PLEASURE.
FOUR STARS WAXING
IN THIS BOOK, BUDD DEALS WITH A MARRIAGE ENDED AND ONE BEGINNING. HIS MERCENARY ACTIVITIES IN THE NAME OF ART ARE JUST HALF OF HIS DOUBLE LIFE AS AN INFORMANT, ALTHOUGH HE DOES NOT WORK FOR ANY GOVERNMENT. HE ALSO CONTINUES TO BE A LOYAL FRIEND, TO HIS PERIL. INDEED, IT IS THIS LATTER PREOCCUPATION THAT CAUSED THE GREATEST RIFT IN HIS FIRST MARRIAGE, A BEHAVIOR HE IS UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO TERMINATE.
SINCLAIR’S SKILLED WRITING BRINGS THE HISTORY OF THIS PERIOD TO LIFE. WHILE I EXPECTED MORE TO BE WRITTEN ABOUT THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, SINCLAIR GIVES HIS READERS VITAL BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUES CAUSING THE CONFLICT. IT IS NOT JUST A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE NAZI ARMY PREPARING FOR WAR, ALTHOUGH IT IS SURELY THAT. GENERAL FRANCO, WHO LED THE UPRISING AGAINST THE REPUBLIC, WOULD RULE SPAIN AS DICTATOR FOR ALMOST FORTY YEARS.
WITH ALL THE TENSIONS AND INTRIGUE OF THE STORY IN THE MIDST OF WAR AND TYRANNY, THERE WERE THREE INSTANCES WHICH GAVE ME GREAT JOY. IT IS NOT UNUSUAL FOR WRITERS TO QUOTE THE BIBLE. HERMAN MELVILLE DID IT FREQUENTLY IN MOBY DICK AND THERE ARE SOME HERE. WHAT SINCLAIR ADDED TO THE TEXT, ON AT LEAST THREE OCCASIONS, WERE LINES FROM CHRISTIAN HYMNS. HE IDENTIFIES THEM AS SUCH BUT DOES NOT TELL US THE HYMNS THE LINES COME FROM. HOWEVER, AS A RETIRED PASTOR OF MORE THAN 35 YEARS, AND AS ONE WHO CONSIDERS HIS HYMN BOOK’S CONTENTS AS SACRED AS THE HOLY BIBLE, THE LINES WERE FAMILIAR TO ME. IF ONE READS THIS BOOK VIA KINDLE, THOSE LINES WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED AND I HAVE ADDED A NOTE IN EACH IDENTIFYING THE HYMN AND THE AUTHOR. THIS ADDED GREATLY TO MY READING PLEASURE.
FOUR STARS WAXING
July 28, 2021
this is a good book in the continuing Lanny Budd saga by Upton Sinclair. The story line here much follows the Spanish Civil War and the continuing socialism endorsement of Budd is getting to be wearing but I am sure it reflects much of the real thinking at the time - still the depression and as expressed by Sinclair so maybe it is not too much - but I notice it. (Also of course with 20/20 cold war Russia/ East Germany +others revealed hindsight). And the continuing interest in psychics is interesting but I think only an avenue for something that Sinclair believed in or wanted to believe in but it is used also as a tool to show the wants and fears of various characters - so maybe I will revise my thoughts on that. So I do believe this is a 1944 book about the 1930’s Spanish revolution- mostly - and the continuing historical fiction of Budd meeting and encountering all these events and characters of history is worth my time to me. Also these books continue to be easy reads - short chapters - concise and easy to read as one waits for appointments etc without losing the thread of the story.
December 31, 2024
Love the series - not unlike War and Peace, it’s an investment whose payoff far exceeds the required attention. Have sped through the first four novels in just a couple of months.
The novels are themselves history lessons - detailing events both famous and lesser known. In a Forrest Gump manner, Lanny Budd finds himself a participant/eyewitness to the 20th century’s most crucial events (but with a narrator who possesses all the necessary awareness and ability to describe the moments)!
And the audiobooks are a must!! Bronson Pinchot continues to prove that he’s one of the very best audiobook readers Audible has to offer. In no small part thanks to his narration, I’m sure to complete this massive series.
(Admittedly, this 4th novel, which follows the events of the Spanish Civil War, does lack some of the power of the 3rd work, Dragon’s Teeth, which deserved its Pulitzer and tells of Hitler’s coronation as Germany’s furher. Even with that said, Wide is the Gate, on its own merits, deserves 5 stars.!)
The novels are themselves history lessons - detailing events both famous and lesser known. In a Forrest Gump manner, Lanny Budd finds himself a participant/eyewitness to the 20th century’s most crucial events (but with a narrator who possesses all the necessary awareness and ability to describe the moments)!
And the audiobooks are a must!! Bronson Pinchot continues to prove that he’s one of the very best audiobook readers Audible has to offer. In no small part thanks to his narration, I’m sure to complete this massive series.
(Admittedly, this 4th novel, which follows the events of the Spanish Civil War, does lack some of the power of the 3rd work, Dragon’s Teeth, which deserved its Pulitzer and tells of Hitler’s coronation as Germany’s furher. Even with that said, Wide is the Gate, on its own merits, deserves 5 stars.!)
June 2, 2020
Jüst a wonderful addition to the any Budd Series. Details Lanny's experiences acting as a spy for the Socialist forces during the Fascist Franclo takeover during the second World War. In addition to his profiles of the forces and threaders on both sides, he provides an intensely personal tale of his own life as a captive of the Fascists and as a man newly in love and of his relationships with his family.
This is a wonderful series with wonderful authorship bu Sinclair. With the understanding that Sinclair is a firm Socialist, and that his writings are heavily shaded in that direction, does not diminish the excellence of his whitings and his depiction of the fascist attitudes andactions in Spain, Germany, and Italy. Lanny himself is a heroic character who sacrificdes his marriage and a number of friends who are either converted to fascism, or are charmed instead, by high society and choose to remain above the suffering of mankind in their own countries.
This is a wonderful series with wonderful authorship bu Sinclair. With the understanding that Sinclair is a firm Socialist, and that his writings are heavily shaded in that direction, does not diminish the excellence of his whitings and his depiction of the fascist attitudes andactions in Spain, Germany, and Italy. Lanny himself is a heroic character who sacrificdes his marriage and a number of friends who are either converted to fascism, or are charmed instead, by high society and choose to remain above the suffering of mankind in their own countries.
July 31, 2020
LONG (750 pages) yet very interesting. Main character is a socialist in Europe in the mid-1930s, as the world heads toward War. He is also among the economic elites, his family having money and his wife having more. He (Lanny Budd, the character in multiple Sinclair novels) is an adventurous Art dealer.
As the story covers France, Germany (where he meets Hitler and others), England, and briefly the US, it gives insight into many perspectives and the politics of the time.
The Spanish Civil War provides the locus for the climax, an adventurous climax that leaves the reader satisfied.
Much information on the times, upper class life in the 30s, history, and art. A bit of a slog at times, but interesting enough to retrieve For Whom the Bell Tolls from my library to read Hemingway’s story about the Spanish Civil War.
As the story covers France, Germany (where he meets Hitler and others), England, and briefly the US, it gives insight into many perspectives and the politics of the time.
The Spanish Civil War provides the locus for the climax, an adventurous climax that leaves the reader satisfied.
Much information on the times, upper class life in the 30s, history, and art. A bit of a slog at times, but interesting enough to retrieve For Whom the Bell Tolls from my library to read Hemingway’s story about the Spanish Civil War.
October 25, 2025
Lanny Budd, deel 4 van 11. Inmiddels over de 2.000 pagina's onderweg in deze reeks. Van 1913 is het verhaal nu in 1936 uitgekomen. De hoofdlijn speelt zich af in Spanje waar een oorlog is uitgebroken die we nu kennen als de Spaanse Burgeroorlog. Treffend wordt beschreven hoe machten buiten dit land zich in deze strijd mengden of juist niet. Nu beschouwen we het als het oefenterrein van Duitsland en Italië aan de vooravond van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Hier werden hun moderne wapens getest. Ondertussen keken de andere machten weg en vonden fascisme minder gevaarlijk dan communisme. Later kregen ze dat dubbel en dwars uitbetaald.
Maken we anno 2025 weer dezelfde fout nu fascisme weer welig tiert en progressief- liberaal als kwaad wordt neergezet?
Maken we anno 2025 weer dezelfde fout nu fascisme weer welig tiert en progressief- liberaal als kwaad wordt neergezet?
July 18, 2025
beautifuly written, with a tight plot and well motivated action. interesting characters living in interesting times.
Set during the Spanish Civil War before 1939. The great powers are developing the weapons and delivery systems used in WEII 2 hour interview with Herr Hitler at his mountain top retreat. Lanny is traveling between America, London, Paris, Berlin, maintaining his ultra high and low level contacts, gathering secrete impressions while buying and selling art, there is a major development in the romantic area. Lanny and his father have their differences. It’s delightful.
Set during the Spanish Civil War before 1939. The great powers are developing the weapons and delivery systems used in WEII 2 hour interview with Herr Hitler at his mountain top retreat. Lanny is traveling between America, London, Paris, Berlin, maintaining his ultra high and low level contacts, gathering secrete impressions while buying and selling art, there is a major development in the romantic area. Lanny and his father have their differences. It’s delightful.
October 8, 2023
Another enjoyable entry in this historical series, I find the perspective on the origins of World War II and the rise of fascism from the vantage point of 1943 to be fascinating. Consider that in 1943 the victory of the Allies was not yet certain and there still was real potential for Germany and Japan to win the war or at least avoid defeat. In this book, the Spanish Civil War takes center stage and Lanny Budd's (Sinclair's) view of communism and socialism still hasn't yet confronted the truth behind the conditions in the Soviet Union. Recommended.
October 17, 2019
As with all of the Lanny Budd novels by Upton Sinclair you get excitement, surprise, and a massive amount of history of the European condition and American stance towards their problems. Discussions of Fascism, Communism, Socialism and all the other isms taking place in the world at that time. How a war is being fought and how Germany is planning another war while Italy hangs in by the skin of their teeth and France and England ignore the situation to their future detriment.
December 1, 2021
Outstanding Literature
This is the fourth Lanny Budd novel in a series of eleven. Each of the book’s story line builds upon the last. Weaving history through each fictional character, it is understandable why the Pulitzer Prize for Literature was awarded to Upton Sinclair for this saga of the Budd family during a critical part of world history. The series is a work of masterful writing. I am hooked and cannot wait to start number five, Presidential Agent.
This is the fourth Lanny Budd novel in a series of eleven. Each of the book’s story line builds upon the last. Weaving history through each fictional character, it is understandable why the Pulitzer Prize for Literature was awarded to Upton Sinclair for this saga of the Budd family during a critical part of world history. The series is a work of masterful writing. I am hooked and cannot wait to start number five, Presidential Agent.
December 29, 2021
Book four of the Lanny Budd series. I think this was my favorite so far. Main focus is the Spanish civil war this time. I really have been learning a lot about the politics around events leading up to WWII by reading these books. The whole series is a serious commitment of reading time though. Not sure how far I'll go into the series, but I don't think I'm done yet.
July 28, 2024
First half is a rehashing of the previous book, its ideas and even scenes: once again Hitler, frau Goebbels and Goering. Latter half is Spain's civil war, that gives some fresh atmosphere and colour to the story. All in all reads like a pleasant unencumbering tv show melodrama
March 2, 2025
This fourth installment of the Lanny Budd series was better than the previous book. It is still too long and wholly preposterous. But it was good. Far from the best in the series, but definitely not the worst. I will continue with this series for as long as I can.
October 18, 2025
The novel succeeds both as a gripping story and as a thoughtful commentary on the rise of fascism and the moral choices faced by individuals caught in history’s tide. Lanny Budd remains a fascinating, complex protagonist, idealistic, courageous, and deeply human
December 20, 2020
Amazing, interesting informative, exciting read.
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