The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
THE MADONNA
OF THE SLEEPING CARS
“This Madonna still has all her charms.”
—
LE MONDE
“Railway travelers—appropriately enough—seem constantly to be reading it.”
—
THE NEW YORK TIMES
(1929)
“Pawing over the detritus in my bookshelf latterly, I was confronted after two decades by the very copy of
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
that had set me roving … Before you could say Maurice Dekobra, I was in the horizontal, drinking in the stuff in great, thirsty gulps.”
—
S.J. PERELMAN
,
THE NEW YORKER
(1949)
“In the spring twilight, as the Dewoitine airplane began its descent to Berlin, the change of pitch in the engines woke Carlo Weisz, who looked out the window and watched the drifting cloud as it broke over the wing. On his lap, an open copy of Dekobra’s
La Madone des Sleepings—The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
—a 1920s French spy thriller, wildly popular in its day, which Weisz had brought along for the trip. The dark adventures of Lady Diana Wynham, siren of the Orient Express, bed-hopping from Vienna to Budapest, with stops at ‘every European watering-place.’ ”
—
ALAN FURST
,
THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
MAURICE DEKOBRA
(1885–1973) was born Maurice Tessier in Paris, and changed his name to “Dekobra” in 1908, after encountering an Algerian snake charmer who told fortunes with two cobras. He began his writing career in England, where he worked as a journalist and translator. In 1912, he published his first novel,
The Memoirs of Rat-de-Cave, or Burglary Considered as One of the Fine Arts
. During World War I, he served as liaison officer with the British and U.S. armies, and, after the war, he covered presidential elections and interviewed Hollywood stars, politicians, and scientists. The publication of
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
in 1925 was an international success; the book was translated into thirty languages and sold millions of copies. It was banned in Boston and the
New York Times
dubbed him “the biggest seller of any living French writer—or dead one either.” Dekobra pursued a life of adventure: he shot big game in Africa, canoed on the Nile, and made long journeys to Japan, India, Pakistan, and Nepal. He incorporated his wide range of experiences into his novels, whose style, combining fiction and journalism, has earned its own adjective,
dekobrisme
. He died of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 88.
NEAL WAINWRIGHT
translated many of Maurice Dekobra’s books and the two became close friends—so close that Dekobra dedicated
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
to him.
RENÉ STEINKE
is the author of the National Book Award finalist
Holy Skirts
, a fictionalized account of the life of the artist and performer Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. She is also the author of the novel
The Fires
.
THE NEVERSINK LIBRARYI was by no means the only reader of books on board the
Neversink.
Several other sailors were diligent readers, though their studies did not lie in the way of belles-lettres. Their favourite authors were such as you may find at the book-stalls around Fulton Market; they were slightly physiological in their nature. My book experiences on board of the frigate proved an example of a fact which every book-lover must have experienced before me, namely, that though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much
.
—
HERMAN MELVILLE,
WHITE JACKET
THE MADONNA OF THE SLEEPING CARS
Originally published in French as
La Madone
des sleepings
by Maurice Dekobra, 1927
Copyright © 2006 Zulma
Translation © Neal Wainwright, 1927
Afterword © René Steinke, 2012
First Melville House printing: August 2012
Melville House Publishing
145 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
The Library of Congress has cataloged the paperback edition as follows:
Dekobra, Maurice, 1885-1973.
[Madone des sleepings. English]
The madonna of the sleeping cars / Maurice Dekobra; translated by Neal Wainwright.
pages cm
eISBN: 978-1-61219-059-4
I. Wainwright, Neal, translator. II. Title.
PQ2607.E22M313 2012
843′.912–dc23
2011053352
v3.1_r1
Author’s Dedication—
To NEAL WAINWRIGHT:
Truly,
cher ami
, you are my American pen. You have known how to make two languages speak as one. I dedicate “The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars” to you.
MAURICE DEKOBRA
THE MADONNA OF THE SLEEPING CARS
AN EXCEPTIONALLY STUPID GENTLEMAN
LADY DIANA WYNHAM WAS RESTING. HER LEGS, enmeshed in a silken web, caressed a small beige cushion. The other half of her lovely self was hidden behind a copy of the
Times
unfolded in her snowy arms. Her tiny feet quivered in their cerise and silver mules, seriously endangering the future of a real Wedgwood cup on the table at her side.
“Gerard,” she exclaimed, “I must have a consultation with Professor Traurig.”
I had just mutilated a piece of sugar with a ridiculously small spoon which bore the coat of arms of the Duke of Inverness. Always anxious to satisfy Lady Diana’s slightest whim, I stopped drinking her bad coffee—the coffee they drink in London out of cups the size of a plover’s egg.
“Nothing simpler, my dear. I’ll telephone him at the Ritz,” I said.
“Please do, Gerard.”
The boudoir telephone stood upright in its ebony tomb. I picked up the receiver.
“Hello! Is this Professor Siegfried Traurig? Prince Séliman speaking. Lady Diana Wynham’s secretary. Lady Diana wishes an interview with you on a matter of utmost importance.”
A guttural voice said, “I can receive her at four o’clock this afternoon.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
I told Lady Diana. Like lightning that blond hair and that pure and classic face, only slightly ravaged by all-night revels at the
Jardin de Ma Soêur
or at the
Ambassadors
, appeared from behind the paper screen—but what is the use of describing Lady Diana’s beauty? Anyone could look at her for the price of a copy of the
Tatler
or the
Bystander
. Weekly magazines all over the world in that period of some twenty years ago never failed to include a picture of Lady Diana Wynham playing golf, cuddling a baby bull, driving a Rolls-Royce, shooting a grouse on the Scotch moors, or climbing the slopes above Monte Carlo, in a white sweater.