World's End

Upton Sinclair

Jan 2016 · The Lanny Budd Novels Book 1 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

From the acclaimed author of The Jungle: The first in a Pulitzer Prize–winning historical saga about the son of an American arms dealer during WWI.

Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first thirteen years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious—but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end.
 
When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him; his language skills and talent for decoding messages are in high demand. At his father’s side, he meets many important political and military figures, learns about the myriad causes of the conflict, and closely follows the First World War’s progress. When the bloody hostilities eventually conclude, Lanny joins the Paris Peace Conference as the assistant to a geographer asked by President Woodrow Wilson to redraw the map of Europe.
 
Perfect for fans of The Winds of War, World’s End is the magnificent opening chapter of a monumental series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. A thrilling mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

Ratings and reviews

As someone who is a total nerd about both World Wars, I have been meaning to tackle the Lanny Budd series of historical novels since first learning about them perhaps five years ago. [It is a shame they are now so forgotten, especially since the third book of the series won author Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) a Pulitzer Prize.] Written between 1940-53, Sinclair’s novels use the life of Lanny Budd to tell the sequential history of Europe and America in the first half of the 20th century. So, now I have completed the first of 11 books. And it is nothing short of a masterpiece! Awarded five stars on Goodreads. Readable, compelling, full of complex and interesting characters, and deeply informative about both history and politics. In fact, much of it seems applicable to current events. WORLD’S END begins in 1914 when Lanny Budd is 14– the son of a wealthy, American arms manufacturer, Robbie Budd, and a beautiful French woman who goes by the nickname Beauty. Though his parents don’t live together, Lanny remains a child of privilege, growing up in Southern France amid cosmopolitan members of the elite class, who are themselves primarily focused on, travel, social activities and the arts. Attending the best schools, Lanny is popular, excels at his studies, and forms close friendships with fellow students Rick (British) and Kurt (German), who later wind up on opposites sides of the coming World War. Fiercely loyal, honest, intelligent, and curious — Lanny quickly becomes someone for us to both love and admire. Like me, you will no doubt identify with him, as I’m sure the author intended. Because Lanny, aside from being central to the story, also serves as the character who winds up asking the difficult questions and examining contradictions, when trying to figure out what is right in an increasingly complex world. Sinclair skillfully presents a vivid picture of pre-war Europe — where class served as the most important organizing principle of society. One did not socialize outside one’s class, let alone contemplate marriage outside. Class opened doors OR limited opportunities. Lower classes maintained deep respect for those they perceived as higher up. Through the unfolding story of the Budd family and their friends, Sinclair then examines how World War I destroyed this structure, leaving countries open to new governments, social pressures, and political movements in the post-war era. That is QUITE a tall order, but honestly, Sinclair masters it! NOTE: Known as a American muckraker (his popular novel, THE JUNGLE, was considered instrumental to the passage of both the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act) and activist, understand going in that Sinclair approaches history with a liberal bias. Which means committed Capitalists don’t necessarily come off very well in this novel. World’s End is a long book (750 pages)— carrying us (as Lanny comes of age) through both the war and the lengthy peace process that followed in Paris, with President Woodrow Wilson, French Prime Minister George Clemenceau and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George leading the negotiations. Somehow, because of his position of privilege, Lanny always manages to be close to the key “dealmakers” who, in turn, expose him to the wide range of competing political viewpoints, economic imperatives, and sometimes desperate actions of the period. I am truly in awe of the accomplishment of this book. And I WILL go on to read more Lanny Budd books.

One of the most interesting books I have ever read.

About the author

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, activist, and politician whose novel The Jungle (1906) led to the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Born into an impoverished family in Baltimore, Maryland, Sinclair entered City College of New York five days before his fourteenth birthday. He wrote dime novels and articles for pulp magazines to pay for his tuition, and continued his writing career as a graduate student at Columbia University. To research The Jungle, he spent seven weeks working undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. The book received great critical and commercial success, and Sinclair used the proceeds to start a utopian community in New Jersey. In 1915, he moved to California, where he founded the state’s ACLU chapter and became an influential political figure, running for governor as the Democratic nominee in 1934. Sinclair wrote close to one hundred books during his lifetime, including Oil! (1927), the inspiration for the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood; Boston (1928), a documentary novel revolving around the Sacco and Vanzetti case; The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism; and the eleven novels in the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lanny Budd series.