WORLD'S END

WORLD'S END

Upton Sinclair

1940

WORLD'S END

Upton Sinclair

_{Authors Note}

In the course of this novel a number of well-known persons make their appearance, some of them living, some dead; they appear under their own names, and what is said about them is factually correct.

There are other characters which are fictitious, and in these cases the author has gone out of his way to avoid seeming to point at real persons. He has given them unlikely names, and hopes that no persons bearing such names exist. But it is impossible to make sure; therefore the writer states that, if any such coincidence occurs, it is accidental. This is not the customary "hedge clause" which the author of a roman а clef publishes for legal protection; it means what it says and is intended to be so taken.

Various European concerns engaged in the manufacture of munitions have been named in the story, and what has been said about them is also according to the records. There is one American firm, and that, with all its affairs, is imaginary. The writer has done his best to avoid seeming to indicate any actual American firm or family.

Contents

Book One: God's in His Heaven

I. MUSIC MADE VISIBLE

II. CФTE D'AZUR

PLAYGROUND OF EUROPE

CHRISTMAS-CARD CASTLE

V. THE FACTS OF LIFE

VI. ARMS AND THE MAN

Book Two: A Little Cloud

VII. THE ISLES OF GREECE

VIII. THIS REALM, THIS ENGLAND

IX. GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND

X. LA BELLE FRANCE

XI. C’EST LA GUERRE

Book Three: Bella Gerant Alii

xii. loved i not honour more

xiii. women must weep

xiv. the furies of pain

xv. amor inter arma

xvi. business as usual

xvii. a man's world

xviii. away from all that

Book Four: Land of the Pilgrims' Pride

XIX. OLD COLONIAL

XX. THE PIERIAN SPRING

XXI. THE THOUGHTS OF YOUTH

XXII. ABOVE THE BATTLE

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM

THE WORLD WELL LOST

Book Five: They Have Sown the Wind

XXV. THE BATTLE FLAGS ARE FURLED

XXVI. THE PARLIAMENT OF MAN

XXVII. THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD

XXVIII. THE RED PERIL

XXIX. A FRIEND IN NEED

XXX. OUT OF THE DEPTHS

XXXI. IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY

Book Six: They Shall Reap the Whirlwind

XXXII. I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE

XXXIII. WOE TO THE CONQUERED

XXXIV. YOUNG LOCHINVAR

XXXV. I CAN NO OTHER

XXXVI. THE CHOICE OF HERCULES

XXXVII. PEACE IN OUR TIME

XXXVIII. BATTLE OF THE STAGS

Book One

God's in His Heaven

I

Music Made Visible

The American boy's name was Lanning Budd; people called him Lanny, an agreeable name, easy to say. He had been born in Switzerland, and spent most of his life on the French Riviera; he had never crossed the ocean, but considered himself American because his mother and father were that. He had traveled a lot, and just now was in a little village in the suburbs of Dresden, his mother having left him while she went off on a yachting trip to the fiords of Norway. Lanny didn't mind, for he was used to being left in places, and knew how to get along with people from other parts of the world. He would eat their foods, pick up a smattering of their languages, and hear stories about strange ways of life.

Lanny was thirteen, and growing fast, but much dancing had kept his figure slender and graceful. His wavy brown hair was worn long, that being the fashion for boys; when it dropped into his eyes, he gave a toss of the head. His eyes also were brown, and looked out with eagerness on whatever part of Europe he was in. Just now he was sure that Hellerau was the most delightful of places, and surely this day of the Festspiel was the most delightful of days.

Upon a high plateau stood a tall white temple with smooth round pillars in front, and to it were drifting throngs of people who had journeyed from places all over the earth where art was loved and cherished; fashionable ones among them, but mostly art people, writers and critics, musicians, actors, producers - celebrities in such numbers that it was impossible to keep track of them. All Lanny's life he had heard their names, and here they were in the flesh. With two friends, a German boy slightly older than himself and an English boy older still, he wandered among the crowd in a state of eager delight.

"There he is!" one would whisper.

"Which?"

"The one with the pink flower."

"Who is he?"

One of the older boys would explain. Perhaps it was a great blond Russian named Stanislavsky; perhaps a carelessly dressed Englishman, Granville Barker. The boys would stare, but not too openly or too long. It was a place of courtesy, and celebrities were worshiped but not disturbed. To ask for an autograph was a crudity undreamed of in the Dalcroze school.