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Mary Chamberlain

Författare till The Dressmaker of Dachau

15 verk 397 medlemmar 17 recensioner

Om författaren

Mary Chamberlain has lived and worked in England and the Caribbean, and is Emeritus Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University. Her book, Fenwomen, was the first to be published by Virago Press in 1975. Since then she has written many books on women's history, oral history and Caribbean visa mer history. She is a graduate of the acclaimed Creative Writing MA at Royal Holloway, University of London. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre
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Londres, 1939. Ada Vaughan es una joven y ambiciosa costurera cuyo gran sueño es abrir, algún día, su propia boutique y convertirse en una aclamada modista. Cuando se enamora de Stanislaus von Lieben, un seductor aristócrata húngaro, cree posible hacer realidad sus sueños. Juntos viajan a París, pero el inminente estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial trunca todos sus planes. Perdida y sola en un país extranjero, Ada ha quedado atrapada por la guerra, y deberá hacer todo lo que esté en sus manos para sobrevivir. En medio del horror, el don de Ada para crear belleza y glamour es lo único que la mantiene con vida, y pasará sus días confeccionando elegantes vestidos para las mujeres de los dirigentes de las SS. Cosió para salvarse, para seguir adelante sin mirar atrás. Pero cuando pensaba que todo había terminado, tuvo que enfrentarse al fin a la verdad: nunca podría recuperar lo que había perdido en el camino.… (mer)
 
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Natt90 | 11 andra recensioner | Jan 15, 2023 |
A friend handed me The Fenwomen saying, "I thought you might be interested." Well, sort of? I doubt I would have picked up the book on my own, but I don't regret reading it. There are three (maybe more?) layers to my interest -- one is to do with the content, the actual study of the women of a village in the fens of East Anglia, the second is the timing--in the seventies Women's studies were new and exciting, ground-breaking even but also critical for capturing information soon to be lost. The third interest is looking at the book fifty years into women's studies. So, to the first: for Chamberlain to successfully coax the women of Gislea (which I could not find on a map) to talk to her was a remarkable achievement and not without cost, as it turned out as some smart-aleck reporter/reviewer (I'd like to use a harsher word) put in a newspaper header: "Villagers Reveal all their Love Secrets" which made the villagers feel betrayed and Chamberlain to feel terrible. The book got the wrong attention. (By the way there are no love secrets whatsoever.) Second, Chamberlain's timing was, as with collectors of folk tales and music, critical. In the seventies there were many women still living who remembered the 'old ways' vividly, a few born in the previous century. A few too, still lived more or less as they always had in 'clunch' cottages (stone built, on the ground, simple) with no indoor plumbing although I think, by then, all had electric. And the younger women are living recognizably in 'our' contemporary world, a rural environment but nonetheless. So there is a full view, as these older women lived much as women had for generations. Many of these older women, dependent on tiny pensions from their husbands and too old to cope with newfangled stuff, were lonely and living in relative poverty, but without the cohesion of an isolated village community (which has its goods and bads) to support them. Lastly, I have tried to reflect on what, if anything, the fifty years of inquiry into the everyday lives and reflections of women has done to change perceptions and to improve understanding. Is it certainly? Or only maybe? Are things truly better? Much is gained for women with roads and cars and electric and so on, but to me, isolation is still a factor for women, especially older ones, and the turmoil of child-raising, the guilt and the necessities are still mostly burdening the women. To me, the whole edifice of women's lives is still precarious depending more on a smoothly running economy and law than on men actually believing women should be regarded, treated, respected as they expect for themselves. Sorry to be so negative, but there you have it. I'm not reviewing the book, but sharing my own thoughts. The book itself was thought-provoking though I don't think anyone needs to run out and find it unless your field or primary interest is women's studies.****… (mer)
 
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sibylline | 1 annan recension | Nov 29, 2022 |
Eternal hope or gross naivety? Ada had no doubt that her family would welcome her with open arms when she returned home and had hope that the jury would acquit her of murder. After being bitten once, she still had confidence that she could deal with Gino and extricate herself from him. I kept thinking she is so stupid while reading but then, without hope, where would we all be?
 
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siok | 11 andra recensioner | Dec 3, 2021 |
Love and loss in the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands.
 
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Teresa1966 | 1 annan recension | Dec 22, 2020 |

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Statistik

Verk
15
Medlemmar
397
Popularitet
#61,078
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
17
ISBN
80
Språk
7

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