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The Englishman's Daughter
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Plot Summary of The Englishman's Daughter
"THE ENGLISHMEN'S DAUGHTER

FSG, Mar 2002, 24.00, 254 pp.
ISBN: 0374129851

    In 1914, a small cadre of English military was stranded behind enemy lines. The French peasants of Villeret tried to hide the soldiers from the occupying German forces. However, the German army began using the homes of the villagers to quarter their troops and living off the local economy straining the food supply. The villagers refused to turn their English “guests” over to the Germans and collectively protected them over the next two years. One of the English, Private Robert Digby even fell in love with a local girl. However, by 1916 as sustenance became a problem and the withdrawal of the occupying army seemed like it would never happen, someone broke ranks and turned in Robert and his peers. The Germans executed the English soldiers.

    In high school and college World War I is a desert dry footnote starting with Ferdinand, consisting of Wilson, neutrality, and the Lusitania, and ending with the League of Nations. On the other hand, Ben Macintyre takes a relatively minuscule incident from that War and breaths life into it and for that matter any war. THE ENGLISHMAN'S DAUGHTER focus on that French incident between 1914-1916, but furbishes the audience with the underlying generalization that in war in spite of technology people count. It is the true human drama that makes history hum and enables the audience to understand the past, connects it to the present, and projects it into the future. Mr. Macintyre has written a winner that should be required reading at the military academies and included in any world history class so that we can learn in a lively exciting environment.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Englishman's Daughter
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 60%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - depressing/sad
Time/era of story: - 1900-1920's
War Thriller Yes
Armed Forces: - Civilian resistance
Specific to - WW I
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Escape/rescue behind enemy lines? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - infantry soldier
Age: - 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use? - a little
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
Profession/status: - government investigator
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist - power

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - France

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - hundreds or more
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to The Englishman's Daughter
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Blooding Of The Guns by Alexander Fullerton
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
The Unconquerable by Helen MacInnes
Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer


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