Product Description

Translated by Sandra Smith, with an introduction by Patrick Marnham. In 1929, 26-year-old Irene Nemirovsky shot to fame in France with the publication of her second novel David Golder. At the time, only the most prescient would have predicted the events that led to her extraordinary final novel Suite Francaise and her death at Auschwitz. Yet the clues are there in this astonishingly mature story of an elderly Jewish businessman who has sold his soul. Golder is a superb creation. Born into poverty on the Black Sea, he has clawed his way to fabulous wealth by speculating on gold and oil. When the novel opens, he is at work in his magnificent Parisian apartment while his wife and beloved daughter, Joy, spend his money at their villa in Biarritz. But Golder's security is fragile. For years he has defended his business interests from cut-throat competitors. Now his health is beginning to show the strain. As his body betrays him, so too do his wife and child, leaving him to decide which to pursue: revenge or altruism? Available for the first time since 1930, David Golder is a page-turningly chilling and brilliant portrait of the frenzied capitalism of the 1920s and a universal parable about the mirage of wealth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44768 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Sunday Telegraph, rev'd by George Walden
`striking first work, sensitively translated by Sandra Smith'

Evening Standard
`This is a writer of rare power, make no mistake'.

Spectator
`competent but surprisingly harsh novel'

Customer Reviews

Fantastic - A modern classic
Right from the first page, when David Golder refuses to help his business partner out of financial difficulties, this is a page-turner. An old-school personal fable, a morality tale about the perils of personal fortune and narcissism, Nemirovsky's short work is reminiscent of Dickens, Balzac and Tolstoy, yet it is a resolutely modern tale of cut-throat financial speculation. It should be compulsory reading for anyone seeking or more especially guarding a fortune!

David Golder and his family and associates are deeply unattractive people and there appears to be much anti-semitic stereotyping deployed here, although it is fair to say that Nemirovsky both knew this world from her upbringing and marriage and also wrote this before the Nazi rise to power in neighbouring Germany. That aside, this is a fantastic novel. David Golder is a thoroughly believable and believably flawed individual; for all his faults, I felt sorry for him and wanted to know how things would pan out. I had trouble putting this down, it's a real classic, in an old-school way, but a real gem to read.

Nemirovsky's first novel is brilliant debut
Irene Nemirovsky's brilliant first book (originally published in France in 1929) deals with the eponymous businessman, a ruthless man in his late sixties who has amassed an enormous wealth, but who increasingly faces a brutal reversal of fortune. Hated by his wife and daughter (who only expect money from him), with a heart condition that augurs him just a few months of life, his business deals collapsing, he looks at his life and sees that he has never loved anyone, except a daughter that may not be really his. Reportedly autobiographical (Nemirovsky was the estranged daughter of an exiled Russian Jewish banker; she could be the inspiration for Golder's daughter Joyce), what is a bit disturbing about the book is how Golder's greed and the materialism of his wife and daughter are seen as an exclusively Jewish trait; to her defence, Nemirovsky wrote this before Hitler's rise to power, but in in a post-Holocaust world, this gives the book a strange feeling as if it was written by a very talented antisemite (paradoxically, Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz).

Money and Greed
This book is written in a completely,different style to Suite Francaise.In that book her style has matured and ripened into a dense,descriptive narrative.In the earlier David Golder,very little description,instead an intense economy of narrative,no ornamentation whatsoever,just brutal emotions.
A compelling read,which l had trouble reading slowly,as the sheer force of the writing drove me quickly onto the next page.She often comes close to characature with the characters in that they are so unrelentingly selfish and self-absorbed.Irene though stays within reality,just.
The author,jewish, has been wrongly suggested to be anti-semetic.She is that rare person who is critical of her own race and culture,but remains firmly within it.
The theme of pursuit of money at the expense of humanity is wonderfully explored.When Golders health deserts him,he wants to turn to something for comfort,but nothing exists as he has destroyed all possible compassion towards him.His own daughter and wife only seek money from him.
As a young women you can sense Irene's burning emotions in the book.The headstrong and uncompromising book reflects the young heart of the writer.Later in Suites Franscaise,her emotions have matured to a reflective and sad adult,and hence a different narration.A must read