The Lanny Budd Novels Volume Two: Wide Is the Gate, Presidential Agent, and Dragon Harvest

Lanny Budd #4-6

by Upton Sinclair

Books four through six in the Pulitzer Prize–winning series of historical novels about an international spy in the first half of the twentieth century.    An ambitious and entertaining mix of history, adventure, and romance, Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Lanny Budd novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller. “Few works of fiction are more fun to read; fewer still make history half as clear, or as human” (Time). In these three novels, as the threat of Nazism grows in the 1930s, Lanny progresses from international art dealer to international spy.  Wide Is the When his arms dealer father strikes a business agreement with Hermann Göring, Lanny uses the opportunity and his art world reputation to move easily among the Nazi high command and gather valuable information he can transmit back to those who are dedicated to the destruction of Nazism and Fascism. He’s playing a dangerous—albeit necessary—game, which will carry him from Germany to Spain on a life-and-death mission on the eve of the Spanish Civil War.  The Presidential In 1937, Lanny’s boss from the Paris Peace Conference—now one of Roosevelt’s top advisors—connects him to the president. Appointed Presidential Agent 103, he embarks on a secret assignment that takes him back into the Third Reich as the Allied powers prepare to cede Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in a futile attempt to avoid war. But Lanny’s motivations are not just The woman he loves has fallen into the brutal hands of the Gestapo, and Lanny will risk everything to save her.  Dragon Lanny has earned the trust of Adolf Hitler and his inner circle, who are convinced the American art dealer is a “true believer” committed to their Fascist cause. But when Roosevelt’s secret agent learns of the Führer’s plans for conquest, his dire warnings to Neville Chamberlain and other reluctant European leaders fall on deaf ears. The bitter seeds sown decades earlier with the Treaty of Versailles are now bearing fruit, and there will be no stopping the Nazi war machine as it rolls relentlessly on toward Paris.

2909 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 17, 2018

About the author

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.

Reviews

[John Reino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lost interest in 1st book maybe later I'll read but not now. Sometimes I get bored with a book and it not worth time. Maybe it's the time year or maybe it's the time of man but I don't know who I am by life is for learning.we are starfish we are golden we are filled with the rebels fodder but I have to get myself back to the garden.I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be any one around now.my baby does the hanky spankme.

Extreme weather events that you have between two 6years and I think Andy Warhol museum is not going over there

[Elizabeth Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who want a less-academic way to study the historical events from just prior to WW I to the end of WW II, I can't recommend this series highly enough. The same applies to anyone who finds it hard to believe the rich really are very different, and not just because they have more money.

[Chuck Helma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Good.

Excellent books. I would like to keep reading more of the works by Upton Sinclair. Brilliant mind! You won't be disappointed.