Fighting France

Opening in August 1914, as the onset of the First World War is announced to a sunlit Paris, Edith Wharton's chronicle of her experience of the front lines powerfully evokes a country and a way of life under threat. As nuanced in her observations of human behaviour as she is in her vivid depictions of French landscape and architecture, Wharton fully exploits her unique position as consort to Walter Barry, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which allows her unparalleled access to life in the trenches. Sensitive without sentimentality, Fighting France is nothing less than an inspirational testament to the strength of the human spirit at a time of the greatest adversity.

American novelist and short-story writer Edith Wharton is best remembered for her expertly constructed stories of New York society life. Based in France for some thirty years, she became one of Paris' most popular literary hostesses, counting fellow American Henry James among her friends. It was whilst in Paris that she wrote her most famous work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence.