House of All Nations Read online

  The general series of the

  Miegunyah Volumes

  was made possible by the

  Miegunyah Fund

  established by bequests

  under the wills of

  Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade.

  ‘Miegunyah’ was the home of

  Mab and Russell Grimwade

  from 1911 to 1955.

  Miegunyah Modern Library

  Titles in this series

  Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children

  Christina Stead, For Love Alone

  Christina Stead, Letty Fox

  Christina Stead, House of All Nations

  Christina Stead, Cotter’s England (upcoming)

  Praise for Christina Stead

  ‘Christina Stead has the scope, the imagination, the objectivity of the greatest novelists.’

  David Malouf, Sydney Morning Herald

  ‘The most extraordinary woman novelist produced by the English-speaking race since Virginia Woolf.’

  Clifton Fadiman, New Yorker

  ‘I could die of envy of her hard eye.’

  Helen Garner, Scripsi

  ‘Stead is of that category of fiction writer who restores to us the entire world, in its infinite complexity and inexorable bitterness.’

  Angela Carter, London Review of Books

  Introduction

  Alan Kohler

  The title says it all really: House of All Nations was a high-class Paris brothel as well as being the fictional Banque Mercure, aka ‘Bertillon Freres’, of Christina Stead’s fourth novel. She was a Marxist, writing about capitalism and the men in it—there are no women—are financial whores.

  Except, that is, for the one who was her lover at the time and future husband, William J Blake. For in writing this epic novel, Stead was putting his work and his colleagues at Travelers’ Bank under a merciless spotlight. It might have been called ‘The Men Who Loved Money’, to paraphrase Stead’s great classic.

  Blake’s character in the book is Michel Alphendery, assistant to the principal of the bank, Jules Bertillon, who is, in turn, based on Peter Neidecker, the managing director of Travelers’ Bank, whom both William and Christina worked for while writing novels, before it collapsed in 1935.

  Blake/Alphendery is a Marxist too, which is one reason they fell for each so hard while working together at a grain merchant called Strauss & Co. Early on in House of All Nations Bertillon says to Alphendery: ‘You’re just an idealist. The people who can’t make money invent a theory that those who do are thieves. Without us there’d be no money at all. We make it: the smart people. You revolutionaries are crazy.’ But Christina loved that about him.

  She did not love his boss though. Stead describes Bertillon/Neidecker as ‘a robber by instinct, sharpshooter of commerce by career, nourished by corruption, (one of his grandfathers served his time), child of his age…’

  ‘He had only one interpretation of history and politics, an economic one; he saw in altruism the perspicacious self-interest of cunning ambition, imagined that philanthropists are good jelly souls who can’t bear to be afflicted by the sight of the misery of men.

  ‘He admired the successful and was cheered up by all success of any kind in any sphere of activity, gangsterism, revolution, politics, roguery, or even the arts, because art, he said, was a way to get oneself fed by the rest of mankind without working, or with little work, by reason of an inborn capacity.’

  Phew. This book is basically about that man and his behaviour, plus a much more appealing capitalist, Henri Leon, who is based on Christina and William’s earlier, beloved boss at Strauss & Co. He was Alfred Hurst, born Avrom Hersovici in Romania. Stead used to call him the ‘Grand Jew’ and lovingly referred to him in her letters to William as ‘Alfish’.

  House of All Nations was published in 1938, preceding The Man Who Loved Children by two years (Stead was a ferocious worker, engaging in what she called writing ‘blitzes’ of thousands of words a day), and she wrote it in Spain during the final years of the Great Depression.

  The fascinating and impressive thing about it is that the story is entirely recognisable today.

  Bankers are obviously the same throughout history, everywhere in the world, because we could be reading about Lehman Brothers in New York City rather than Bertillon Freres in Paris and the characters could have been working on a US mortgage scheme rather than the Wheat Scheme devised by Henri Leon.

  Today’s Wall Street and London bankers, or at least those of the decade up to 2008, are the same amoral, womanising robbers as those populating Stead’s remarkable novel. Today’s ones are sadder and wiser robbers, having been reminded of the fallibility of markets by the credit crisis and Great Recession of 2008, but what Stead reminds us is that through it all, they don’t really change.

  We learn from her that financial winters like the one we’ve been experiencing for five years, and the one in which House of All Nations is set, are mere intermissions in life’s rich drama for bankers and most of the time just deliver a whole new set of opportunities to profit. Through Stead, we watch them at play as well as at work; we eavesdrop on their conversations in sometimes mind-numbing detail.

  The book is set in 1931-32, when Wall Street was at its nadir, against the background of Hitler’s rise in Germany, Roosevelt’s ascent in the United States and the demise of the Macdonald Government in Britain. Austria’s largest bank, Creditanstalt, had collapsed, throwing the European financial world into a state of panic, Germany was in Depression and in September of 1931, England suddenly went off the gold standard.

  In the book, Jules Bertillon manages to keep Banque Mercure going until the end of 1932, when it collapses; in real life Peter Neidecker’s Travelers’ Bank lasts until 1935 before going under.

  There are no real heroes and villains in this book, or in Stead’s real life with bankers. Although she paints an affectionate portrait of Hurst as Leon in House of All Nations, she also described Hurst as a ‘mean bastard’ who underpaid Bill Blake and who, in the book, gave Michel Alphendery ‘as low a salary as possible’.

  As for Neidecker, Stead paints him (as Bertillon) as a charming rogue. Stead’s biographer Hazel Rowley writes that she and Blake admired Neidecker for his bursts of generosity, his boyish enthusiasm and inventive mind, yet morally and politically he stood for everything that Stead despised. As the final words of the novel put it: ‘he was ‘the chamer who deceived.’ But as she wrote to Blake in a letter: ‘to me he (Neidecker) is quite fascinating.’

  In fact throughout her life, says Rowley, Stead would be haunted and obsessed by people who attracted and angered her at the same time, and these were the people on whom she based her main characters.

  In the end House of All Nations was a terrible disappointment to Stead. She had been ‘quite sure’ it would sell 10,000 copies and would pay for a trip to Sydney for her and Blake, but Simon & Schuster refused to print more than 3000 copies. Later the Australian critic HM Green described it as ‘neither a popular nor artistic success’, which must have also been a bitter pill to swallow.

  But re-reading it today, the book stands up as an astonishing achievement, a sort of financial War and Peace. Like all great novels, the characters are timeless and confirm, once again, that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

  List of Characters

  AchitophelousGreek merchant

  Achitophelous, Mme.His wife

  Achitophelous, HenriettaHis daughter

  Alphendéry, MichelBank economist

  Alphendéry, EstelleHis wife

  AnnaA
servant

  Ashnikidzé, Mme. VeraA prostitute

  Beaubien, MaîtreFashionable lawyer

  Benezech, Inès de, ComtesseCarrière’s mother

  de Marengo

  Berthellot, ‘Old’ Jean-BaptisteChief accountant

  Bertillon, JulesBanker

  Bertillon, WilliamHis brother

  Bertillon, Paul and FrancisTwin brothers of Jules

  Bertillon, Claire-JosèpheJules’s wife

  Bomba, TheodorJules’s toady

  Brookings-Plessis, LordTout and sandwich-snatcher

  Brossier, ArmandGold clerk

  Brouwer, CornelisBrussels manager

  BettyAlphendéry’s cousin, professional family cadger

  Cambo, DanielEnterprising merchant

  Campoverde, Prince JuliusClient

  CancreArtist

  Carrière, Dr. JacquesAntagonist of Jules

  Caudal, Dacre-DerekLondon employee

  Claude, EstèpheBankrupt banker

  Constant, AdamTeller, poet

  Constant, SuzanneHis wife

  Cousse, Comtesse Rosy dePackingtown countess

  Cristopoulos, MnemonCustomers’ man

  Dalbi, Mlle. LucilleTypist

  DameExamining magistrate

  DannevigBertillon’s Oslo correspondent

  Dararat, FernandCustomers’ man

  Deville-de-RéJules’s secret go-between

  Devlin-SmitheOfficial at Washington

  Delisle-Delbe, PrincesseClient

  Duc-AdamHusband of Toots Legris

  Durban, FrankPlowman’s friend

  Dvorjine, IgnaceCashier

  Eloth, Mme. MimiSweetheart of Achitophelous

  EmpainHamburg grain dealer

  Eyk, Mr. vanDutch gold broker

  EtienneDoorkeeper

  Ferrure, Mme. deSociety figure

  FetterlingRaccamond’s man in Amsterdam

  Flower, RogerBlue Coast playboy

  Frère, JeanCommunist writer

  Frère, JudithJean’s wife

  Friesz, MaîtreAmsterdam lawyer

  Faniul, Caro deCarrière’s catamite

  Gairdner, AbernethyClient

  GarriguesSculptor

  Gentil, Mlle. AnnetteAccountant

  Guinédor, HenriLéon’s familiar

  Guipatin, Comte Jean deCustomers’ man

  Guildenstern, FranzWheat commission agent

  Haller, Georg and JulieClients, rentiers

  Huesca, Xesús Maria deClient

  JeanChauffeur

  KézébecBreton poet, client

  Koffer, BaronClient

  Kratz, JuliusLéon’s candleholder

  Klotz, EtienneImaginary employee invented by Jules

  Lalmant, ArmandComtesse de Voigrand’s librarian

  Lallant, MaîtreTalented shyster

  Ledger, JamesLondon solicitor

  Légaré, PhilippeNeurotic

  Legris, François and AnthonyAmsterdam brokers

  Legris, TootsHeiress

  Lemaître, MaîtreJurist

  Léon, HenriGrain merchant

  Lorée, Professor CharlesPhysicist

  Luc, Maître AndréFashionable lawyer

  Lucé, Comte HervéClient

  MacMahon, ArturitoArgentine client

  Manray, JacquesClerk

  MarcuzoBanker

  Martin, HenriCashier

  Méline, PaulLéon’s friend

  McCahey, EddieTout for pools

  MontdentBelgian richissime

  MouradzianCustomers’ man

  MunychionGreek philanderer

  Nanti, MaîtreLegris’ lawyer

  NewchurchLondon accountant

  Olympe, MaîtreAddled lawyer

  Olonsky, MaîtreRaccamond’s family lawyer

  Paëz, Mlle. ArmelleBank glamour girl

  PaleologosMouradzian’s best account

  Parouart, HenriNeedy swindler

  Partiefine, Marquis deThe marrying Casanova

  Pentous, StevieJules’s crony

  Pharion, FredAn actor

  PossetRaccamond’s man in Brussels

  Plowman, RichardRetired banker

  Quiero, Mme.Society medium

  Raccamond, AristideCustomers’ man

  Raccamond, MarianneHis wife

  Raoul and LucienLegitimate and adopted sons of Raccamond

  Ras BerriFashionable medium

  Rhys of RotterdamGrain dealer

  Rodolphe, MaîtreThe Wades’ lawyer

  Rosenkrantz, FranzWheat commission agent

  Schicklgrüber, DavigdorZinovraud’s stalking-horse

  Silva-Vizcaïno, Pedro deChilean client

  Sluys-Forêt, Mme. deClient

  SmithRaccamond’s man in London

  SournoisCarrière’s friend, a deputy

  Stewart, E. RalphLondon broker

  Sweet, ThomasCustomers’ man for Stewart

  Tanker, John, Sr.Client

  ThargelionGreek gentleman

  Thew, ManroseLondon employee

  TlquiPedro’s dog

  Treviranus, PaulBroker

  Tony and AlineFriends of Claire-Josèphe

  Vallat, FrançoisClients’ groom

  Vanderallee, MaîtreLegris’ lawyer

  Voulou, UrbainCustomers’ man

  Voigrand, Comtesse deRichissime

  Wade, André and LucienneCrooked clients

  WatersWashington official

  Weyman, Mrs. MargaretLéon’s passion

  Witkraan, JanAmsterdam manager

  Zinovraud, LordEnglish magnate

  Zurbaran, ZuccheroArgentine

  List of Firms

  Banque du Littoral du NordBank friendly to Bertillon

  Bertillon Freres, The scene of the story

  the Banque Mercure

  Claude & Cie.Private bank now bankrupt

  Cleat, Placket & Co.American competitors of Bertillon

  CréditFrench competitor of Bertillon

  Czorvocky BankPrivate Paris bank run by Marcuzo, relative of the Raccamonds

  Five Brothers SimlaBertillon holding company

  (Luxemburg) Corporation

  Ganz & GenugLondon brokers employing Schicklgrüber

  Green RayDetective Agency

  Interland Finance CorporationMéline’s financing trust

  International QuaysideLéon’s Swiss correspondents

  Corporation

  Kirkonhill TrustMéline’s financing trust

  Kaimaster-Blés, S.A.Firm of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern

  Lapage, A. & Cie.Decorators suing Bertillon

  Leadenhall Securities GuaranteeBertillon English company

  Corporation, Ltd.

  Ledger, Ledger & BravesLondon solicitors of Bertillon

  Legris & Co.Amsterdam correspondents of Bertillon

  Léon & Guinédor, S.A.Léon’s former business

  Magen (France), Ltd.English-derived firm favorable to Bertillon

  Mulloney & MoonsteynBrokers participating in pools

  Peney & Denari, S.A.Champs-Elysées brokers competing with Bertillon

  Strindl & Co.Léon’s London grain associates

  Sedeba, Roda, JonesLondon brokers

  Stewart, Murthen & Co.Bertillon’s London brokers

  House of All Nations

  Scene One: He Travels Fast But Not Alone

  They were in the Hotel Lotti in the Rue de Castiglione, but not in Léon’s usual suite. Léon’s medicine case in yellow pigskin lay open, showing its cry
stal flasks, on a Louis XV chair. The Raccamonds, man and wife, bent over this case and poked at it.

  ‘He always travels with it: cowardice of the lion before a common cold, eh?’ Aristide reflected.

  Marianne sniffed. ‘He’s afraid to lose his money, that’s all.’

  The white door opened a few inches and an immense head, with long black hair carefully brushed over a God’s acre of baldness, appeared in the crack. Clear brown eyes sunk in large sockets searched them, forgave them. ‘Hello, Aristide! Just having a bath,’ said the head. ‘Wait a few minutes, will you? Sit down, Marianne. Ring if you want anything. Excuse me.’ The door shut. In a moment, it reopened. ‘Excuse me. How are you, Marianne? Do you want some tea, some—a cockta’, sherry? Ring, on the telephone. I’ll be with you in a minute.’

  The door shut. Water was running behind several doors. Marianne fingered the curtains. ‘Why did they give him a suite at the back this time?’

  ‘Perhaps they’re full up?’

  ‘So early in spring? No. He must be economizing.’ They waited. The water stopped running and they heard distant splashing. Persuasively came the edged voice of a woman. Marianne pricked her ears and looked at Aristide. ‘Then Mme. Léon is here?’

  ‘No: one of his women, it must be.’

  Léon’s traveling library was on the table: three dictionaries; Cook’s handbook; Winter Sunshine; the Revue de Transylvanie, and Polish Up Your French.

  ‘She must be taking a bath, too.’

  Aristide shook his head vigorously. ‘Léon never lets his women use his bed or his bath: modesty.’

  Beside his bed was a faded breast-pocket photograph of a solid woman in ostrich plumes and kid gloves—his mother.

  Marianne laughed. ‘Fear.’

  In a moment more the door opened and Léon appeared, fully dressed and very fresh. Behind him was a dazzling young woman, a Ukraine blonde, with a long plump face, a complexion of radishes in cream, hair in page curls. Her eyes, large as imperial amethysts, roved in an indolent stare of proud imbecility. For a full minute after the sudden splendor of her entrance, Aristide Raccamond found himself bathed in her glare. In the exalted fashion of Paris whores, she singled out and courted the husband in the presence of the wife. Henri Léon waited for her a moment and then hurriedly introduced her: ‘My friends, Mr. and Mme. Raccamond, old friends, good friends: Mme. Vera Ashnikidzé, an old friend of mine.’