8.4 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1930 Pages 300 OCLC 18741174 | 4.2/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print Originally published 1930 Page count 300 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre War-fiction, feminist fiction Similar Evadne Price books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War was published in 1930 by Evadne Price, using the pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith. The semi-biographical account of an ambulance driver provides female insight to the horrors of World War I. Not So Quiet criticises nationalism, masculinity in women, and the social, physical, and psychological effects of the war upon England's youth.
Price was originally asked by her publisher to compose a spoof of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Instead, she wrote a serious work, based on the (now lost) diaries of Winifred Young, who served in France during the war as an ambulance driver
Legacy
In October 1930, a play based on the book opened at the Empire Theatre on Broadway. It was directed by Chester Erskine with Katharine Alexander playing a calloused and disillusioned ambulance driver, and Warren William physiologically damaged officer. The two fall in love, in an ultimately doomed relationship. The production was only modestly successful as the start of the Great Depression made audiences prefer lighter, more diverting entertainment.