The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars

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I've started reading The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars by Maurice Dekobra. I picked up on it a year ago when I was reading The Foreign Correspontant by Alan Furst and I just now got a copy.

Early on in the book Lady Diana is performing a dance for a tubercular society fundraiser and the orchestra is playing this tune. I had never heard of it, so I thought to give it a listen and, oh, I recognize it now. If I recall correctly it often accompanies scenes of springtime in old Disney movies.

The book is a hoot. The language is extravagant, possibly even ridiculous. The characters occupy the upper reaches of society where the gossip is most vicious and possibly dangerous.

From Google Books:

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.