A Woman's Experiences in the Great War

Louise Mack (1870 - 1935)

An eye-witness account of the fall of Antwerp to the Germans in the opening months of World War I, Mack’s story has passages of extraordinary vividness and immediacy. Flawed by the most treacly sentiment in some places and the most ferocious anti-German invective in others, her account endures as an uncommonly forthright, passionate testimony to those tragic events and the ordinary people who were the true heroes of them. As a forty-something, coquettish war correspondent wrapped in sable furs and speaking French in her native Australian accent, she seems to have inspired amusement in some observers, but her courage in the face of wartime brutality bordered on suicidal effrontery, as she insisted time after time on having a vantage-point in the most dangerous places at the most dangerous times. Perhaps over-generous to the “little” Belgians (who had not long before this been perpetrators of hideous imperial atrocities themselves), she is able to be honest even about those she admires most, pointing out, for example, the appalling number of spies among the Belgian population and the foibles of those who claimed to be its leaders. There are startling moments in this book, riveting details that could only have been recorded by an eyewitness as audacious and authentic as Mack, no matter her sentimental biases. - Summary by Expatriate

Genre(s): *Non-fiction, War & Military, Memoirs

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Chapter 01 Expatriate
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Play 02 Chapter 02 Expatriate
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Play 03 Chapter 03 Expatriate
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Play 04 Chapter 04 Expatriate
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Play 05 Chapter 05 Expatriate
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Play 06 Chapters 06-07 Expatriate
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Play 07 Chapter 08 Expatriate
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Play 08 Chapters 09-10 Expatriate
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Play 09 Chapters 11-12 Expatriate
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Play 10 Chapters 13-15 Expatriate
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Play 11 Chapters 16-18 Expatriate
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Play 12 Chapters 19-22 Expatriate
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Play 13 Chapters 23-25 Expatriate
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Play 14 Chapters 26-28 Expatriate
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Play 15 Chapters 29-31 Expatriate
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Play 16 Chapters 32-35 Expatriate
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Play 17 Chapters 36-40 Expatriate
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Play 18 Chapters 41-42 Expatriate
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Play 19 Chapter 43 Expatriate
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Play 20 Chapters 44-45 Expatriate
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Play 21 Chapters 46-47 Expatriate
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Play 22 Chapters 48-50 Expatriate
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Play 23 Chapter 51 Expatriate
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Play 24 Chapters 52-53 Expatriate
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