David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn & The Courilof Affair (2008) (5 page)
Read David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn & The Courilof Affair (2008) Online
Authors: Irene Nemirovsky
Tags: #Irene Nemirovsky
| DATE | AUTHOR’S LIFE | LITERARY CONTEXT |
|---|---|---|
| with their nurse’s family in Issy-Eveque on the outbreak of war. She embarks on a life of Chekhov (La Vie de Tchekhov). | ||
| 1940 | Les Chiens et les loups (Dogs and Wolves), Albin Michel. Les Echelles du Levant (The Ports of Call of the Levant) is serialized in Gringoire (from May 18). Watching the exodus from Paris as the Germans advance, and recalling The Rains Came by Louis Bromfield (19”7), Irene conceives the idea of a choral novel,” Tempete en juin (Storm in June), the first novel of her Suite franc aise. Visits the children in Issy-l’Eveque (May) and decides to stay there, joined by Michel in June. Issy-l’Eveque is occupied by the Germans on June 18. First “Law on the Status Ofjews” (October): Fayard reneges on contract to serialize her new novel, Jeunes et vieux (Young and Elderly) in his weekly, Candide. Michel is fired from the Banque du Nord. | Sartre: L’Imaginaire. Cocteau: Le Bel Indifferent. Maritain: De la justice politique. Troyat: Dostoevsky. Akhmatova: From Six Books. Koestler: Darkness at Noon. Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls. Greene: The Power and the Glory. |
| 1941 | Publishes stories under various pseudonyms in Gringoire, Carbuccia, though a collaborator, being sympathetic to her situation. In April Gringoire begins serializing Les Biens de ce monde (The Goods of this World), a new title for Jeunes et vieux. Most of her so-called friends in the literary world and previous publishers turn aside from her. Albin Michel, however, offers financial and moral suport. Second “Law on the Status Ofjews” (June). The German soldiers leave Issy-Eveque. Irene begins to write Dolce (July)—the second novel of Suite francaise. | Aragon: Le Creve-coeur. Mauriac: Le Pharisienne. Blanchot: Thomas l’obscur. Simone Weil starts writing the Cahiers which form the basis of La Pesanteur et la Grace. Nabokov: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Brecht: Mother Courage. |
HISTORICAL EVENTS
Hitler’s armies advance rapidly through the Netherlands and Belgium (May), breaking French defensive line near Sedan and entering Paris on June 14. Government leaves Paris (June 10) for Tours, then Bordeaux. Petain, right-winger who favors surrender, gains control of cabinet. From London De Gaulle appeals to French patriots to continue the struggle. Armistice signed (June 22). France divided into an occupied zone (north and west coast) and an unoccupied southern zone. Daladier and others plan to set up a government-in-exile in Morocco but on Petain’s orders are arrested on arrival. Vichy parliament meets July 9-10, and votes itself out of existence on advice of Petain and Laval, thus ending the Third Republic. Petain dismisses Laval (December).
David Rapoport forms one of the first relief organizations for Jews in Paris at rue Amelot (June 15). Such organizations, run by both Jews and Christians, were to help many children to escape the Holocaust. Germans order Jews in the occupied zone to register (September 27). The
Statut des Juif s
—first anti-Jewish legislation introduced by Vichy government (October 3). First “Otto List” (October 4) of prohibited books in France. Auschwitz concentration camp established (April). Warsaw ghetto opened (October).
Germany invades Norwary and Denmark. Italy enters war. Dunkirk evacuation. Battle of Britain. USSR annexes Baltic states. Assassination of Trotsky.
German army invades USSR (June): Russia rallies under Stalin to embark on the Great Patriotic War. Hitler’s demands for money, raw materials and food from France become heavier as the Eastern front develops. French resistance movement now strengthened by participation of Communists. De Gaulle claims status of legal government-in-exile for his Comite National Francais. Vichy government establishes a Commissariat General aux Questions Juives (April) to work with German authorities to “aryanize” Jewish businesses in the occupied zone. German edict denies Jews access to their bank accounts (May 8). Jews rounded up for the first time in Paris (May 14): 3700 foreign Jews arrested and sent to camps at Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande. Second
Statut des juif s
(June 2). Arrests continue throughout the year: detention center opened at Drancy (August). Siege of Leningrad begins (September). Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: US enters the war (December).
| DATE | AUTHOR’S LIFE | LITERARY CONTEXT |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Last short story published in Gringoire (February). Entrusts her chief editor, Andre Sabatier, with all her manuscripts (March). Begins to work on Les Feux de l’automne (Autumn Fires) and Captivite (Captivity), the third volume of Suite francaise. Arrested by French police on July 13, in pursuance of the latest Nazi decrees. Taken to a detainment camp at Pithiviers. Her last story, “Les Vierges” (The Virgins), is published in Present on July 15: “Look at me. I am alone now, but my solitude was not chosen or wanted, it is the worst one, the humiliated, bitter solitude of abandonment and betrayal.” Departs for Auschwitz on July 17. Dies in Auschwitz of typhus on August 19. Michel is arrested and gassed at Auschwitz on November 6. Their daughters Denise and Elisabeth live hidden until the Liberation of France in August 1944. | Camus: Le Mythe de Sisyphe; L’Etranger. Eluard: Poesie et verite. Vercors: Le Silence de la mer. Queneau: Pierrot mon ami. Simone Weil writes essays and articles which are later assembled in Attente de Dieu and Pensees sans ordre sur l’amour de Dieu. Maritain: Les droits de l’homme et la loi naturelle. |
| 1946 | Posthumous publication ofLa Vie de Tchekhov (The Life of Chekhov), Albin Michel. | |
| 1947 | Les Biens de ce monde (The Goods of this World), Albin Michel. | |
| 1957 | Les Feux d’automne (Autumn Fires), Albin Michel. | |
| 2004 | Suite francaise (Denoel). (English translation published in 2006.) | |
| 2005 | Le Maitre des ames (Master of Souls), Denoel (formerly Les Echelles du Levant). | |
| 2007 | Chaleur du sang (Fire in the Blood), Denoel—a previously unpublished novel. |
HISTORICAL EVENTS
Laval is restored, the result of German pressure (April). He agrees to conscription of French workers for German factories in return for the release of French POWs and undertakes to take action against the growing French underground movement.
A curfew imposed on Jews (February 7). First Jews from France deported to Poland and Germany (March). In total some 75,000 Jews are deported during the war, of whom only about 3 per cent survive.
Jews ordered to wear the yellow star of David (June 7). Second “Otto List” (July). “Operation Vent Printanier” (July): on the orders of the German authorities, French police undertake to arrest foreign Jews, targeting mainly Eastern European adults without French citizenship.
Fall of Singapore. German army reaches Stalingrad. Rommel defeated at El Alamein. Allied landings in French North Africa (November) to a short-lived resistance from Vichy troops in Morocco and Algeria. Hitler orders German troops to occupy the whole of France (November 11): Vichy government survives on suffrance.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Olivier Philipponnat and Patrick Lienhardt, authors of
The Life of Irene Nemirovsky
, who have provided the biographical details necessary for this chronology.
“
NO,
”
SAID
GOLDER,
tilting his desklamp so that the light shone directly into the face of Simon Marcus who was sitting opposite him on the other side of the table. For a moment Golder observed the wrinkles and lines that furrowed Marcus’s swarthy face whenever he moved his lips or closed his eyes, like the ripples on dark water when the wind blows across it. But his hooded eyes with their Oriental languor remained calm, bored, and indifferent. A face as unyielding as a wall. Golder carefully lowered the lamp’s flexible metal stem.
“A hundred, Golder? Think about it. It’s a good price,” said Marcus.
“No,” Golder murmured again, then added, “I don’t want to sell.”
Marcus laughed. His long white teeth, capped in gold, gleamed eerily in the darkness.
“How much were your famous oil shares worth in 1920 when you first bought them?” he drawled; his voice was nasal, sarcastic.
“I bought them at four hundred. And if those Soviet pigs had given the nationalised land back to the oil companies, I would have made a lot of money. Lang and his group were backing me. In 1913, the daily output from the Teisk region was already ten thousand tons… seriously. After the Genoa Conference, I remember my shares fell from four hundred to one hundred and two … After that…” Golder made a vague gesture of frustration. “But I held on to them … Money was no object, in those days.”
“Yes, but now, in 1926, don’t you realise that your Russian oilfields aren’t worth shit to you? Well? I mean, it’s not as if you have either the means or the inclination to go and run them yourself, is it? All you can hope to do is shift them for a higher price on the Stock Market… A hundred is a good sum.”
Golder slowly rubbed his eyes; the smoke that filled the room had irritated them.
“No, I don’t want to sell.” He spoke more quietly this time. “I’ll sell after Tubingen Petroleum signs the agreement for the concession in Teisk. I think you know the one I’m talking about…”
Marcus mumbled what sounded like “Ah, yes…” and fell silent.
“You’ve been negotiating that deal behind my back since last year, Marcus,” Golder said slowly. “You know you have … I bet they offered you a good price for my shares once they closed the deal, didn’t they?”
He said no more, for his heart was beating almost painfully, just as it always did when he claimed a victory. Marcus slowly stubbed out his cigar in the overflowing ashtray.
“If he suggests we go fifty-fifty,” Golder thought suddenly, “it will all be over for him.”
He leaned forward so he could hear what Marcus was about to say. There was a brief silence, then Marcus spoke.
“Why don’t we go halves, Golder?”
Golder clenched his teeth. “Are you serious?”
“You know, Golder, you shouldn’t make another enemy,” Marcus murmured, lowering his eyes. “You’ve got enough already.”
His hands were clutching the wooden table, and as they moved, his nails made short, sharp little scratching noises. Beneath the light of the lamp, his long fingers with their heavy rings shone against the mahogany of the Empire desk; they were trembling.
Golder smiled. “You’re no longer very threatening, my friend…”
Marcus remained silent for a moment, carefully examining his manicured nails.
“Fifty-fifty, David! What do you say? We’ve been partners for twenty-six years. Let’s wipe the slate clean and start again. If you’d been here in December when Tubingen spoke to me …”
Golder fiddled with the telephone wire, winding it around his wrists.
“In December,” he repeated, frowning. “How good of you … only …”
He said no more. Marcus knew as well as he did that in December he had been in America looking for investors in Golmar, the company that had bound them together for so many years, like a ball and chain.
“David, there’s still time…” Marcus continued. “Let’s negotiate with the Soviets together, what do you say? It’s a difficult business. We’ll split everything down the middle— commissions, profits … How about it? That’s fair, isn’t it? David? Otherwise…”
He waited for some reply, an agreement, even an insult, but Golder’s breathing was laboured and he said nothing.
“Listen,” Marcus whispered, “Tubingen’s not the only company in the world…” He touched Golder’s unmoving arm as if to wake him. “There are other companies, newer ones, and…” he searched for the right words. “There are companies more willing to speculate, companies that didn’t sign the 1922 Oil Agreement and who don’t give a damn about who holds the old stock, you, for example … They could…”
“You mean Amrum Oil?” said Golder.
“Oh!” Marcus winced. “So you know about that as well? Well listen, my friend, I’m sorry, but the Russians are going to sign with Amrum. Since you’re now refusing to play ball, you can keep your shares in Teisk till Judgement Day. You can take them with you to your grave …”
“The Russians aren’t going to sign with Amrum.”
“They’ve already signed,” cried Marcus.
Golder waved his hand. “Yes, I know. A provisional agreement. But it was supposed to be ratified by Moscow within forty-five days. That was yesterday. Now it’s all up in the air again, and you’re worried, so you came to see what you could get out of me …” Golder started to cough. “Let me explain it all to you. Tubingen right? He wasn’t too happy when Amrum whipped those Persian oilfields out from under his feet two years ago. So, this time, I suspect he’d rather die than lose the fight. Actually, it hasn’t been that difficult so far: just a question of offering a bit more to that little Jew who has been helping you negotiate
with the Soviets. Give them a call right now, if you don’t believe me…”
“You’re lying, you pig!” shouted Marcus in the strange, shrill voice of a hysterical woman.
“Give them a call. You’ll see.”
“And… what about Tubingen? Does the old man know?”
“Of course.”
“This is all your doing, you bastard, you crook!”
“Well, what did you expect? Think about it… Last year there was that oil deal in Mexico, and three years ago the high octane deal. How many millions went from my pocket into yours? And what did I say about it? Nothing. And then…” Golder seemed to be looking for more proof, attempting to bring everything together in his mind, but then he brushed it all aside with a shrug of the shoulders.
“Business,” was all he murmured, as if he were naming some terrifying god…
Marcus fell silent. He took a packet of cigarettes from the table, opened it, and carefully struck a match. “Why do you smoke these disgusting Gauloises, Golder, when you’re as rich as you are?”
Golder watched Marcus’s shaking hands as if he were contemplating the final death throes of a wounded animal.
“I need the money, David,” Marcus suddenly said in a different tone of voice, the corner of his mouth contorting into a grimace. “I… I’m really desperate for money, David. Couldn’t you… let me make just a little? Don’t you think that…”
“No!”
Golder shook his fist in the air. He saw the pale hands clasp each other, the clenched fingers digging their nails into the flesh.
“You’re ruining me,” Marcus said finally, in an odd, hollow voice.
Golder said nothing, refusing to look up. Marcus hesitated, then quietly pushed back his chair.
“Good-bye, David,” he said, and then shouted suddenly, “What was that?”
“Nothing,” said Golder. “Good-bye.”