Doves of War: Four Women of the Spanish Civil War

by PaulPreston (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.25

  Love, war, duty, faith, betrayal and belief - this book presents a portrait of the Spanish Civil War from the viewpoint of the experience of four women. The last war fought for ideals, the Spanish Civil War tore Spain apart. Much has been written about its effects on the people and country but little about the women involved. However, behind the well-documented experiences of Martha Gellhorn and La Pasionaria lie the forgotten stories of the women whose lives proved crucial to the struggle - and to understanding it. In Doves of War , Paul Preston focuses on the stories of four women whose very different beliefs and experiences help crystallise a new vision of the Spanish Civil War. In the book, as in the war, communist is pitted against fascist. In the red corner we have Margarita Nelken the revolutionary feminist, writer and politician; and Nan Green the Communist nurse whose International Brigader husband was killed in battle on the last day of the war. In the blue corner there is Mercedes Sanz Bachiller whose entry into politics rapidly followed her miscarriage on hearing of the death of her husband in battle, and Priscilla Scott-Ellis daughter of a supporter of Oswald Mosley and married, with disastrous results, to a Spanish playboy, her alcoholic and sexual exploits with the German airforce notorious. Each story casts a different light on the events of the war and on the experiences of women in Spain.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.25

  Love, war, duty, faith, betrayal and belief - a revolutionary new view of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes and experiences of the women who endured it, by the greatest historian of Spain: `Passionate and deeply moving... when Preston writes about these women, you feel as if you are in their company.' Scotland on Sunday

  `Four extraordinary women whose personal histories should dispel any illusions that the Spanish Civil War was an all-male war...Written with a shrewd eye and a sure touch, the book is full of wonderful stories and acute observations. Above all, these are compellingly human dramas in which moral issues, right and wrong, Fascism and Communism, melt away.' Sunday Telegraph

  The Aristocrat: PIP SCOTT-ELLIS fell in love with a Spanish prince and set off for Madrid in a chauffeur-driven limousine. She ended up nursing in front-line Francoist hospitals.

  The Communist: NAN GREEN, by contrast, travelled to war third class. Leaving her children behind in England, she went to fight for the International Brigade.

  The Intellectual: MARGARITA NELKEN was an art critic and novelist, who had translated Kafka into Spanish. Denounced as a whore by the Catholic Right, she became a radical politician.

  The Fascist: After her husband was killed in the fighting and miscarrying her baby on hearing the news, MERCEDES SANZ-BACHILLER set up a welfare organisation that was to change the face of Spain.

  `Preston has harnessed biography to serve history by vividly telling the stories of four very different women whose lives were starkly altered by the conflict... significant, tragic and remarkable' Irish Times