Abstract
In July 1864, Emile Pereire II wrote a letter to his brother Henry in Egypt in which he expressed some slight annoyance with their sister, Fanny. This chapter explores the inner world of the Pereires as they maintained and experienced it: the relationships between wife and husband, mother and children, siblings, and extended family, for family was crucial to the contentedness, the well-being, and, ultimately, the success of the Pereire brothers. And it was to Herminie and Fanny that the construction of a close, intimate circle of family and friends was entrusted. A notable feature of this inner circle was the importance of continuing and close personal friendships with former Saint-Simonians. In Herminie's case, the Rodrigues family of ten children was large in comparison with other French Jewish families.
