The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (Neversink)
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1612190588
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
One of the biggest bestsellers of all time, and one of the first and most influential spy novels of the twentieth century, is back in print for the first time since 1948
Alan Furst fans will note that train passengers in his bestselling thrillers are often observed reading The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars. It’s a smart detail: First published in 1927, the book was one of the twentieth century’s first massive bestsellers, selling over 15 million copies worldwide.
It’s the story of two tremendously charming characters who embark on a glamorous adventure on the Orient Express—and find themselves on a thrilling ride across Europe and into the just-barely unveiled territories of psychoanalysis and revolutionary socialism.
Gerard Seliman—technically, a Prince—is so discouraged by the demise of his marriage that he flees to London to become the personal assistant of a glamorous member of the British peerage, Lady Diana Wyndham. But he soon finds himself involved in a wild scheme by Lady Diana to save herself from looming financial ruin while simultaneously fending off rich lotharios. At the center of it all: a plan to rescue her rights to a Russian oil field now under the control of revolutionaries who don’t like capitalists.
The book that set the standard for intellectual thrillers of political and social intrigue, The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars, with its jetsetting and witty protagonists, is still as fresh a page-turner as ever—and as fun.
Lying back in her chair, she was thinking deeply—a lovely picture with the sea-struck sun playing facetiously on her glorious hair. The quiet waters lapped against the yacht with a nonchalant ripple. Down below, the sailor who piloted the launch was whistling an old American tune. In the distance, a snorting iron crane plunged its claw into the hold of a freighter. “Gerard,” Griselda said at last, “there is no use in referring to a dead and buried past. Let me go my own way. Chance has brought.
I exclaimed, ‘Madam Mouravieff!’ “He made an evasive gesture which was anything but reassuring.… Wait a minute, let me think.… The next day I received your long dispatch from Constantinople which relieved me of all anxiety. I showed it to Varichkine. He read it several times and sighed: “ ‘Poor devil! But he got away from her, thank God.’ “For three entire days, Varichkine seemed far less interested in courting me than in discussing over and over again each line of your extraordinary message.
Are too far apart—to give light to the solemnity of long tunnels—to put a little spice into the faded menus of dining-cars and to chase the flies out of the hotel lobbies wherever we may happen to be.” Lady Diana gave me no time to answer. She added, “Of course it’s impossible to pay you what you’re really worth. You have a perfectly lovely title and my fortune would never suffice, but I offer you five hundred pounds a month just for your cigars, your gardenias, and your silk socks. Will you.
Mistress. And it is beyond me why these gentlemen should try to deceive you. I make it a principle never to deny my acts, my thoughts, or my loves. I wanted your lover from the moment I laid eyes on him. And he loved me too.… We have lived together in Berlin, London, and in this very castle; marvelous hours compared to those which he has spent with you. I have given him kisses which have doubtless made him forget the ones you gave him when you were nothing but a little student, envious of the.
Proof of that, the bullet hole in the wall there, near that picture, will satisfy the most inquisitive investigation. And we won’t fail, the Prince Séliman and I, two honorable witnesses, to give our testimony to the coroner when he arrives. Madam Mouravieff shot herself before our very eyes, because of disappointed love, after having attempted to assassinate you and before we could intervene to prevent the fatal gesture. The revolver, made in Russia before the war, will go still further toward.