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Friday, September 6, 2024

The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars - Notes

The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars by Maurice Dekobra is an entertaining story about Prince Seliman, a rich, sophisticated dude who goes gamboling across Europe in the company of beautiful women, some of whom he takes to bed, or vice versa. He signs on as secretary to the star of our story, Lady Diana Wynham (the Madonna) just to have something to do. She's beautiful, and he's handsome, but for some reason there is no sexual attraction between the two. And where does this title come from? There is no clue until we get to the bottom of page 95 where Madam Mouravieff lets loose with this tirade:

"I know what I know, Prince. Even if he were capable of resisting the temptation, I would still be suspicious of those beautiful English women who travel, those sleeping-car pets who carry a Pekinese in their arms and a lover at their beck and call. I know them, those emancipated females, whose souls are studded with gems from Cartier's and whose bodies are accessible to any sort of voluptuous pleasure. They would eat snobbery out of the hand of a leper and sacrifice their standing to astonish the gallery. Their colossal conceit bulges like a goître in the centre of their otherwise emaciated hearts. Their epicureanism intoxicates them. They are above conventions. They laugh at middle class morals. They prod prejudices with their fingers and they lift their skirts in the face of disconcerted virtue."

Okaaaay then. The Madonna is a jet-set playgirl, or an international slut, depending on how you view such behavior. Of course she's not in the jet-set, that would not happen for another 50 years, so she has to make do with sleeping cars in trains. Probably a lot more comfortable.

Prince Seliman might be a prototype for James Bond, except he is far too trusting. He travels to Batoum, Georgia, thinking he is going to be perfectly safe, but Georgia is in the hands of the Reds and he gets thrown in the slammer and comes within a hairsbreadth of being executed. Silly boy.

The book has some wonderful passages and a bunch of furrin words and phrases. While I was reading I was sometimes inclined to make some notes. Here they are:

Chapter 7 An Angel Needs a Valet

  • Page 90 top. 
    • Dr. Otto Kupfer, Zahnart (Dentist)
    • Fraulein Erna Dickerhoff, Gesangsunterricht (Singing lessons)
  • Page 92 top.  
    • "That depends on your definition of honesty. Have you the 18th century point of view? Or do you think along the 20th century lines?" I still haven't figured out what he means by this.
Chapter 8 The Proverbial Seventh Heaven
  • Page 110 "a beige coat trimmed with skunk fur". Skunk fur? Is that a real thing. Apparently so.
  • Page 112 "Our two glasses of Chartreuse danced merrily with the motion of the train." I seem to remember my parents having a bottle of it. I thought it was sweet, but I don't actually remember tasting it. I might have to get a bottle.
  • Page 113 "Two real tziganes, with the faces of ex-convicts, were playing softly." tzigane - Hungarian gypsy.
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
before being damaged in WW2
  • Page 114 "Marvelous dreams in the shadow of the Church of the Memory of Wilhelm the First."
  • Page 115 
    • Nicklolaia - probably Nikolaya Ostrovskogo in Russia. See map.
    • Piraeus Greece. See map.
  • Page 116
    • Kaffee Franz - just a coffee shop
    • Weiner Abendblatt - newspaper
    • Bretzel - pretzel
    • moka - coffee
    • Haluschka - a pasta dish with curd or sheep's cheese and bacon cubes
  • Page 117 Heidsick Monopole - A brand of champagne. Monopole just means there is only one company that makes it.
Map

Chapter 9 Wind From The West
  • page 119 Budapest, Brasov, Bucharest, Constanza - stops on the Orient Express from Berlin to Constantinople. See map.
Chapter 16 Ohi Djarrardi

Chapter 17 Scotch Thistles Sometimes Prick

  • Page 214 Locke Lamond - Lake in Scotland
  • Page 215 
    • Rob Roy - a Scottish outlaw, who later became a folk hero.
    • Wallace Island - Small island in Lake Lamond possibly named for William Wallace, one of the leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence
  • Page 216 Ben Lomond - hill in Scotland
  • Page 218 'Our Jury has not for criminals, even when they act under the impulse of passion, the stupid indulgence of French juries, which by acquitting guilty persons, encourage the abuse of revolvers and knives.'
  • Page 220
  • Page 221 
  • Page 222 Countess of March, known as Agnes the Black - 14th century Scottish hero
  • Page 222 demagogy - rabble rousing
  • Page 223 "You know that I prefer the sparkle of champagne to the dregs of port and the silent language of love to the eloquence of the flesh." - ???
  • Page 224 "You will soon be rich again. And nothing else matters very much." - Really?
  • Page 224 ". . . admirable Raeburn hung above the immense sofa." - 18th century Scottish portrait painter
  • Page 225 ". . . the metamorphosis of nature."
  • Page 226 arrière-pensée - a concealed thought or intention; an ulterior motive.
Chapter 18 Resolutions May Be Broken
  • Page 230 Harry Lauder's popular songs - YouTube playlist
  • Page 230 propitious solitude - favorable state of being alone
  • Page 234 our S. R. in London - Solicitor Rex - criminal prosecutor
Chapter 19 Eternity Explains Everything
  • Page 239 de trop - not wanted; unwelcome.
Chapter 20 The Madonna Of The Sleeping Cars
  • Page 246 Josephstadt - suburb of Vienna
  • Page 247 The Garden of Hesperides - a world from Greek mythology
    • Page 247 midinette - a seamstress or assistant in a Parisian fashion house
  • Page 248 mon chevalier errant - my knight straying from the proper course
  • Page 248 the virgins of Correggio - The Assumption of the Virgin is a fresco by the Italian Late Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio decorating the dome of the Cathedral of Parma, Italy.
Afterward
  • Page page 253 Destiny's Bazaar - the vast array of possibilities that may become available in the future

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