The Forbidden Zone (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories)

By: Mary Borden

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: In 1914, Mary Borden, a wealthy heiress from Chicago and mother of three, volunteered for the French Red Cross during World War I. She quickly rose to the position of director of the French field hospitals in la zone interdite, known to English language speakers as the “Forbidden Zone,” near the Western Front of Belgium and France. Borden was troubled by the brutality she witnessed and the irony of wartime nursing—healing soldiers only to send them back to war and possibly their death. Her remarkable memoir, The Forbidden Zone, is a collection of vignettes written from 1914 to 1918. Initially censored due to its realistic portrayal of the war, her lyrical prose captures the chaos, devastation, and raw emotions of battle through seventeen fragmented stories, revealing the complex realities faced by nurses and soldiers. Borden’s narrative articulates the alienation, confusion, and dehumanization of industrialized warfare, offering modern readers a profound understanding of the war’s atrocities—effectively putting them in the room where it happened.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9780486856100
Related ISBNs:: 9780486854632
Publisher:: Dover Publications
Date of Addition:: 03/18/25
Copyrighted By:: Dover Publications
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Military, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Literature and Fiction
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.