In The Living Present, the American historical novelist Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948) showed how Frenchwomen from every level of society were forced into new roles to support soldiers, as well as civilians whose lives were uprooted by the war. Atherton had been contributing political commentary to newspapers that often differed in tone from her popular novels.
The first two-thirds of The Living Present are devoted mostly to personal sketches of women whom Atherton used as examples of motivated and dedicated female workers on the French home front.
In the the last third of the book, Atherton wrote about the place of women in modern society. She used examples of the earlier mentioned Frenchwomen as proof that women were capable of more occupations than what society currently allowed them.
The war-related parts of The Living Present were based on Atherton's travels and observations in war-torn France from May 9, 1916 to August 19, 1916. She was near the Battle of the Somme when it broke out in July 1916. The book was published several months after the United States entered the war in April 1917, but Atherton does not write about that event.
A year earlier, Atherton wrote the short book Life in the War Zone, which went into more detail than The Living Present about her travels in France.
Atherton used her skills as a novelist in The Living Present. Her descriptions of different individuals are often colored with details of their appearance, social standing, and living conditions. These descriptions sometimes have an idealized tone, but Atherton was probably trying to give these individuals as much credit as possible for their significant accomplishments.
These details were used to contrast the pre-war lives of these women with the responsibilities that they took on during the war. These responsibilities included:
- Caring for Belgian and French refugees. Atherton wrote very poignantly about child refugees.
- Providing material and personal comfort for soldiers both at the front and behind it.
- Helping to find new work for women who were left unemployed because of closed businesses.
The duchess immediately turned the hôtel into a hospital. When I arrived last summer it looked as if it had been a hospital forever. All the furniture of the first floor had been stored and the immense dining room, the red and gold salon, the reception rooms, all the rooms large and small on this floor, in fact, were lined with cots. The pictures and tapestries have been covered with white linen, four bathrooms have been installed, and a large operating and surgical-dressing room built as an annex.Atherton went into much sociological detail about the three levels of people that she perceived in French society: the upper noblesse class; the middle bourgeoisie class; and the lower industrial and peasant class.
These details showed how class barriers were broken down during the war. They also showed how people from different levels of society adapted to their circumstances.
A wealthy woman might use her social connections and financial resources to gather many people into a service organization. A young farm girl, hardened to outdoor life, might smoothly take over the responsibilities of the family farm after her father and brothers were called to fight.
The last section of The Living Present is titled "Feminism in Peace and War" and often seems like a completely different book than the earlier sections. For students of World War I eyewitness history, this section might not hold much interest except for the few war-related parts.
But students of feminism can learn much about the thinking of that movement in the early 20th century, especially with the later accomplishment of many of Atherton's goals for women (voting rights, expanded economic opportunities). Contemporary reviews of The Living Present included much discussion of this section.
In that last section, Atherton wrote:
It is probable that after this war is over the women of the belligerent nations will be given the franchise by the weary men that are left, if they choose to insist upon it. They have shown the same bravery, endurance, self-sacrifice, resource, and grim determination as the men.A year after The Living Present, Atherton wrote The White Morning: A Novel of the Power of German Women in Wartime.
The Living Present was published around July 7, 1917, when it was advertised in the New York Tribune. Front page headlines in that day's Tribune included:
- U.S. Training Bases in France Are Ready
- Nation Awakening to the Spy Peril; Four Arrested Here / Close Censorship on Outgoing Cables Now Being Planned
- U-Boat Hunting Made Difficult By New Devices / Anti-Submarine Campaign Fails to Keep Pace with German Inventions
Online versions:
Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/).
Photograph of the Marquise d'Andigné, President Le Bien—Être du Blessé from The Living Present.
No comments:
Post a Comment