Lack of judgment

The Neglected Books Page website reviews House of All Nations.

The webmaster writes:

In House of All Nations, it is this very lack of judgment that in collusion with her giddy, caustic humor, allows Stead to probe so deeply.

It would almost be impossible for you to emulate

The Rdginmalaysia blog reviews House of All Nations.

The blogger writes:

For this book is also a primer for writers not in the how to sense but more like the scale Everest sense. That is one human being does something you yourself know it would almost be impossible for you to emulate.

Makes brilliant sense of gigantic currency speculations

Time reviews House of All Nations in 1938 and likes it.

The reviewer writes:

Unlike most novelists of financial high life, Author Stead gives the complex details of shady transactions, banking manipulations, stock transfers, wheat deals, makes brilliant sense of gigantic currency speculations, of how the Bertillons make millions in bear operations on Kreuger stocks.

The magazine reviews House again in 1978 and likes it less.

The new reviewer writes:

This is a long, unfathomably static but often exhilarating novel about money. There are 104 chapters, at least as many characters, and dialogue that runs on and on like ticker tape.

Its matter is cold and abstract

The Village Voice reviews House of All Nations.

The reviewer writes:

It may put off admirers of that indelible horror story of family life [The Man Who Loved Children] for its matter is cold and abstract as the other is visceral and intimate.

There's no going past Stead's epic satire

In The Australian, Michael Ackland discusses House of All Nations in an article called, "On Christina Stead and our financial crisis."

He writes:

Is it still true, as Stead wrote, that "I know, as well as you do, that no banker can afford to have his books looked into"? Certainly leading banks still enjoy considerable leeway in their reporting, and seem to acknowledge risks and losses as they see fit.

Later the newspaper mentions House again at the bottom of this article about recommended reading for politicians.

[Brigid] Rooney says. "For a penetrating anatomy of the corruptions of high finance, the mystery of the market and voodoo economics, there's no going past Stead's epic satire. It should be required reading for any treasurer or finance minister."

The flow of life the same as the flow of cash

The Pykk blog glances at the first lines of House of All Nations.

The blogger writes:

The idea that a man would value his health because, "He's afraid to lose his money" - the flow of life the same as the flow of cash - is not something she's put here idly.

Miss Stead has chosen to write about the most loathsome and amoral characters

Time reviews A Little Tea, a Little Chat.

The reviewer writes:

The main trouble is that Miss Stead has chosen to write about the most loathsome and amoral characters that can be dredged up from the cocktail bars and brokerage houses of New York.