In 1961, Graham Anders, suave, self-confident, thirty-three-year-old partner in the prestigious Philadelphia law firm of Coneyers & Dean, is about to experience the most shattering moments of his life.

Already shaken with doubts - about the quality of his work, about the state of his marriage and the state of his mind - Anders is invited to Salzburg as a participant in an international law conference. There he is confronted with some highly unsettling memories: the enigmatic death of his father in the Spanish Civil War; his own youthful awakening in occupied Salzburg; collaboration with Jews fleeing the refuge internment camps en rout to Palestine; and most unforgettably, the haunting face of Paola von Fyrmian, his tragic and beautiful Austrian mistress.

Graham Anders has been a divided man. Now, in Salzburg, dealing with a fascinating and mysterious figure named Boris Fleischer, handling a corporate takeover which could insure his future with Coneyers & Dean, confronting the dynamics of political infiltration, Graham watches the disintegration of his own dream. And, ironically, finds himself uniquely qualified to save the dream of another man - but at enormous cost.

In a tense courtroom drama Graham Anders makes his choice - and Arthur Solmssen reveals once again his consummate knowledge of the law and his flawless ability to make its most intricate details exciting and relevant.

Alexander's Feast, brilliant successor to Rittenhouse Square, intrudes on the bedrooms and boardrooms of Philadelphia and penetrates the hearts of one of the most romantic towns in Europe. Exploring the past and present as they are interwoven in one man's life, this novel represents an impressive development in the power and scope of Arthur Solmssen as a compelling contemporary storyteller


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Cover Page
Novels by Arthur R.. Solmssen
Copyright
Title Page
Publisher's Forword
>Summary
Preface
Map of Austria
 

BOOK I
1961 - A Point of View
[1] The annual meeting of the stockholders of the Boatwright Corporation
[2] What are you going to do about Boatwright and what are you going to do about yourself?
[3] Have we learned anything this evening, Doctor?
[4] Producing results?
[5] Alexander's Feast
[6] How'd you like to go over to Salzburg for a month with me?

BOOK II
1947 - An Island
[7] You're not going to Berlin. You're staying here.
[8] All right, we're the Military Government.
[9] The Americans are teaching us to be democratic instead of fascistic.
[10] Well, this is Fasching.
[11] Letters after Ash Wednesday
[12] Say Boris is at Schloss Fyrmian.
[13] THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN EUROPE - Prospectus for the First Session
[14] Learn to think of people as individuals.
[15] Parlez-moi d'amour, redites-moi des choses tendres.
[16] Not one thing left to show that you've ever been on earth? - "Sources of Soviet Conduct"
[17] A Countess, a Prussian Officer and a Ländler
[18] Now this part of your life is over and I'm sending you home.
[19] A father who's too busy to watch his son die. - The Spring of 1961
[20] I cannot sell Schloss Fyrmian to the Academy.

BOOK III
1961 - A Change of Air
[21] The first thing I saw was the Festung Hohensalzburg far in the distance, silhouetted against the shadowy curtain of the high mountains.
[22] Next day at the Academy we got to work - Graham, you know what Fleischer did?
[23] Im weißen Rößl am Wolfgangsee
[24] Brockaw writing a thesis on Austrian baroque architecture? - Boatwright Corporation and Boris Fleischer, plaintiffs
[25] You know there a Mr. Devereaux? Mr. Armistead Devereaux?
[26] I think always of Peter Devereaux.
[27] It sounds like an act of desperation, and it won't hold up in court.
[28] In those Oklahoma Hills WHERE AH WAS BOW-AHHHN!
[29] ... that we should meet again like this . . . I think perhaps there is a reason.
[30] "Is there here an American by name of Brockaw?"
[31] This is Boris Fleischer!
[32] "Does Hans work for Gehlen?" Paola shook her head. "More the other way around."
[33] Won't you please come home? Everybody needs you, I most of all.
[34] With this Waffenstillstand you have time now.
[35] You're going to regret this for the rest of your life!
[36] We Europeans would not do it. None of us. - People think you need medical attention.
[37] Will they trust you?
[38] Some things about the U.S.A. are perhaps rather important, and to us impressive.
[39] You're going to need a good lawyer.


version: March 2, 2004
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Arthur R.G. Solmssen, Joachim Gruber