The Happy Foreigner
by Enid Bagnold
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The war had stopped. The King of England was in Paris, and the President of the United States was hourly expected. Humbler guests poured each night from the termini into the overflowing city, and sought anxiously for some bed, lounge-chair, or pillowed corner, in which to rest until the morning. Stretched upon the table in a branch of the Y.W.C.A. lay a young woman from England whose clothes were of brand-new khaki, and whose name was Fanny. She had arrived that night at the Gare du Nord at show more eight o'clock, and the following night at eight o'clock she left Paris by the Gare de l'Est. show lessTags
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The Happy Foreigner is Enid Bagnold's first novel and is a fictionalization of her experiences as a driver for the French army immediately following World War I. It is a vivid piece of history as she describes the ravages of war upon a countryside that has not yet repeopled itself. Fanny is a young Englishwoman whose good family has been willing for her to strike out alone in a foreign country among soldiers where women are few. Fanny goes eagerly, accepting primitive living conditions, long working hours, and primary responsibility for maintaining the cars that she drives for officers.
Fanny also falls in love with a Frenchman, Julien, who falls as immediately in love with her. Their tentative steps towards each other and then their show more machinations to snatch time together make up the central plotline. Inevitably, the constraints of their jobs separate them. Not at all inevitably, Fanny manages to make happiness for herself as she lives alone, works, and waits for Julien to reappear. Realizing that they could never have a future together, Fanny is able to live in the present and enjoy each gracious moment.
If this is not the most stylistically interesting book I've read recently, it is certainly one that lingers and resonates. Fanny is in no way a modern feminist; yet she exhibits resourcefulness, sense and sensitivity, and a comfort in her own skin that many a modern feminist might envy and hope to emulate. show less
Fanny also falls in love with a Frenchman, Julien, who falls as immediately in love with her. Their tentative steps towards each other and then their show more machinations to snatch time together make up the central plotline. Inevitably, the constraints of their jobs separate them. Not at all inevitably, Fanny manages to make happiness for herself as she lives alone, works, and waits for Julien to reappear. Realizing that they could never have a future together, Fanny is able to live in the present and enjoy each gracious moment.
If this is not the most stylistically interesting book I've read recently, it is certainly one that lingers and resonates. Fanny is in no way a modern feminist; yet she exhibits resourcefulness, sense and sensitivity, and a comfort in her own skin that many a modern feminist might envy and hope to emulate. show less
A young woman, Fanny, enlists to drive for the French Army - just as WW1 comes to an end. She can't have been there more than three or four months, but in that time she moves around the area of northwest France hardest hit, bodies have been buried, but mangled machinery and houses are everywhere, signs in German, craters, blasted out bridges..... There are seven other Englishwomen in her 'section' - they are assigned cars, given some basic instructions on car maintenance and repair, and sent out to drive, mainly officers - very often foreign ones on various missions. Early on, at a party, she meets 'Julien' a French officer and they fall in love. Throughout there is a sense of utter unreality, Fanny is thrown completely out of her own show more known world, but she is determined to make the best of her adventure. She is stalwart and uncomplaining, thus earns the sobriquet of 'the happy foreigner' - she watches everything curiously, but remains just disengaged enough, not to be hurt by anything. In real life, Bagnold drove and nursed in the war and wrote letters home. The novel's details, which are its strength, are built from these. I had no idea of the citadel dug underneath Verdun, for example, and I spent hours looking at maps and photographs of the area where Fanny was billeted. For many the book would earn four stars, I think, just for the feeling of the time and place, but I found the story itself to fall so short of the details and the writing - the 'love affair' was so much simply a limp structure on which to hang the descriptions and evoke the feeling. Perhaps just publishing the letters would have been a stronger choice? But, it was a first novel, and I don't want to be too nit-picky. It's definitely worth reading and that is what matters. ***1/2 show less
This isn't great. Bagnold's _A Diary Without Dates_ is more interesting. Still, I have enough for 1/3 of a dissertation chapter.
I can't even seem to articulate how I feel about this book. I've cherished several copies, and it's one book I always put onto my little e-reader device just so I have a bit of Enid with me.
strange book. interesting but strange.
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Books referenced in A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39
199 works; 6 members
Author Information
26+ Works 3,520 Members
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Virago Modern Classics (247)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Happy Foreigner
- Original publication date
- 1920
- People/Characters
- Fanny; Julien Chatel; Stewart
- Important places
- Bar-le-Duc, Grand-Est, France; Lorraine, France; Chantilly, Hauts-de-France, France; Charleville-Mézières, Grand-Est, France
- First words
- The war had stopped.
"Isn't it disappointing," Enid Bagnold wrote to her parents after ten days of driving ambulances in France, "I don't believe I can stick it out...I can't think how the others stick to it. (Introduction)
Between the grey walls of its bath - so like its cradle and its coffin - lay one of those small and lonely creatures which inhabit the surface of the earth for seventy years. (Prologue) - Quotations
- '"I am old enough - I have learnt again and again - that there is only one joy - the Present; only one Perception - the Present. If I look into the future it is lost."'
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And drawing her chair up to the table, she lit the lamp, and sat down to write her letter.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The novel ends on an optimistic note; Fanny, who had been content to live only for the present, is now full of plans for the future. (Introduction)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And suddenly the little creature chanted aloud:-
"The strange things of travel,
The East and the West,
The hill beyond the hill,-
They lie within the breast!" (Prologue)
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- Reviews
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- English
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- ISBNs
- 23
- ASINs
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