House of All Nations

 

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

T
he 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

Achitophelous Greek merchant

Achitophelous, Mme.
His wife

Achitophelous, Henrietta
His daughter

Alphendéry, Michel
Bank economist

Alphendéry, Estelle
His wife

Anna
A servant

Ashnikidzé, Mme. Vera
A prostitute

Beaubien, Maître
Fashionable lawyer

Benezech, Inès de, Comtesse
Carrière's mother

de Marengo

Berthellot, ‘Old' Jean-Baptiste
Chief accountant

Bertillon, Jules
Banker

Bertillon, William
His brother

Bertillon, Paul and Francis
Twin brothers of Jules

Bertillon, Claire-Josèphe
Jules's wife

Bomba, Theodor
Jules's toady

Brookings-Plessis, Lord
Tout and sandwich-snatcher

Brossier, Armand
Gold clerk

Brouwer, Cornelis
Brussels manager

Betty
Alphendéry's cousin
,
professional family cadger

Cambo, Daniel
Enterprising merchant

Campoverde, Prince Julius
Client

Cancre
Artist

Carrière, Dr. Jacques
Antagonist of Jules

Caudal, Dacre-Derek
London employee

Claude, Estèphe
Bankrupt banker

Constant, Adam
Teller
,
poet

Constant, Suzanne
His wife

Cousse, Comtesse Rosy de
Packingtown countess

Cristopoulos, Mnemon
Customers' man

Dalbi, Mlle. Lucille
Typist

Dame
Examining magistrate

Dannevig
Bertillon's Oslo correspondent

Dararat, Fernand
Customers' man

Deville-de-Ré
Jules's secret go-between

Devlin-Smithe
Official at Washington

Delisle-Delbe, Princesse
Client

Duc-Adam
Husband of Toots Legris

Durban, Frank
Plowman's friend

Dvorjine, Ignace
Cashier

Eloth, Mme. Mimi
Sweetheart of Achitophelous

Empain
Hamburg grain dealer

Eyk, Mr. van
Dutch gold broker

Etienne
Doorkeeper

Ferrure, Mme. de
Society figure

Fetterling
Raccamond's man in Amsterdam

Flower, Roger
Blue Coast playboy

Frère, Jean
Communist writer

Frère, Judith
Jean's wife

Friesz, Maître
Amsterdam lawyer

Faniul, Caro de
Carrière's catamite

Gairdner, Abernethy
Client

Garrigues
Sculptor

Gentil, Mlle. Annette
Accountant

Guinédor, Henri
Léon's familiar

Guipatin, Comte Jean de
Customers' man

Guildenstern, Franz
Wheat commission agent

Haller, Georg and Julie
Clients
, rentiers

Huesca, Xesús Maria de
Client

Jean
Chauffeur

Kézébec
Breton poet, client

Koffer, Baron
Client

Kratz, Julius
Léon's candleholder

Klotz, Etienne
Imaginary employee invented by Jules

Lalmant, Armand
Comtesse de Voigrand's librarian

Lallant, Maître
Talented shyster

Ledger, James
London solicitor

Légaré, Philippe
Neurotic

Legris, François and Anthony
Amsterdam brokers

Legris, Toots
Heiress

Lemaître, Maître
Jurist

Léon, Henri
Grain merchant

Lorée, Professor Charles
Physicist

Luc, Maître André
Fashionable lawyer

Lucé, Comte Hervé
Client

MacMahon, Arturito
Argentine client

Manray, Jacques
Clerk

Marcuzo
Banker

Martin, Henri
Cashier

Méline, Paul
Léon's friend

McCahey, Eddie
Tout for pools

Montdent
Belgian richissime

Mouradzian
Customers
'
man

Munychion
Greek philanderer

Nanti, Maître
Legris' lawyer

Newchurch
London accountant

Olympe, Maître
Addled lawyer

Olonsky, Maître
Raccamond's family lawyer

Paëz, Mlle. Armelle
Bank glamour girl

Paleologos
Mouradzian's best account

Parouart, Henri
Needy swindler

Partiefine, Marquis de
The marrying Casanova

Pentous, Stevie
Jules's crony

Pharion, Fred
An actor

Posset
Raccamond's man in Brussels

Plowman, Richard
Retired banker

Quiero, Mme.
Society medium

Raccamond, Aristide
Customers' man

Raccamond, Marianne
His wife

Raoul and Lucien
Legitimate and adopted sons of Raccamond

Ras Berri
Fashionable medium

Rhys of Rotterdam
Grain dealer

Rodolphe, Maître
The Wades' lawyer

Rosenkrantz, Franz
Wheat commission agent

Schicklgrüber, Davigdor
Zinovraud's stalking-horse

Silva-Vizcaïno, Pedro de
Chilean client

Sluys-Forêt, Mme. de
Client

Smith
Raccamond's man in London

Sournois
Carrière's friend, a deputy

Stewart, E. Ralph
London broker

Sweet, Thomas
Customers' man for Stewart

Tanker, John, Sr.
Client

Thargelion
Greek gentleman

Thew, Manrose
London employee

Tlqui
Pedro's dog

Treviranus, Paul
Broker

Tony and Aline
Friends of Claire-Josèphe

Vallat, François
Clients' groom

Vanderallee, Maître
Legris' lawyer

Voulou, Urbain
Customers' man

Voigrand, Comtesse de
Richissime

Wade, André and Lucienne
Crooked clients

Waters
Washington official

Weyman, Mrs. Margaret
Léon's passion

Witkraan, Jan
Amsterdam manager

Zinovraud, Lord
English magnate

Zurbaran, Zucchero
Argentine