Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War

Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War is a 1930 novel by Evadne Price under the pseudonym "Helen Zenna Smith". The semi-biographical account of an ambulance driver provides female insight to the horrors of World War I. Not So Quiet criticises nationalism, masculinity in women, and the social, physical, and psychological effects of the war upon England's youth.

Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War
AuthorHelen Zenna Smith (Evadne Price)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreWar-fiction, feminist fiction
Publication date
1930
Media typePrint
Pages300
ISBN093531282X
OCLC18741174
Followed by
  • Women of the Aftermath (1931)
  • Shadow Women (1932)
  • Luxury Ladies (1933)
  • They Lived with Me (1934)
 

Price was originally asked by publisher Albert E. Marriott to compose a spoof of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.[1] Instead, she wrote a serious work, based on the (now lost) diaries of Winifred Young, who served in France during the war as an ambulance driver.[1][2]

Legacy

In October 1930, a play based on the book opened at the Empire Theatre on Broadway. It was directed by Chester Erskine, with Katharine Alexander playing a calloused and disillusioned ambulance driver, and Warren William a physiologically damaged officer. The two fall in love, in an ultimately doomed relationship. The production was only modestly successful, as the start of the Great Depression made audiences prefer lighter, more diverting entertainment.[3]

Price wrote four sequels to Not So Quiet… under the Smith pseudonym between 1931 and 1934, but none were as popular as the first, leaving the book as "a victim of its own success".[1]

Sources
Citations
  1. Scholes, Lucy (29 March 2019). "Re-Covered: Not So Quiet … Stepdaughters of War". The Paris Review. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  2. Kingsbury, Celia (2004). Deats, Sara; Lenker, Lagrett; Perry, Merry (eds.). War And Words: Horror And Heroism In The Literature Of Warfare. Lexington Books. p. 236. ISBN 0739105795.
  3. Stangeland, John (2010). Warren William: Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood. McFarland. p. 82. ISBN 0786448784.
Editions
  • Smith, Helen Zenna (1930), Stepdaughters of War, New York: E.P. Dutton, OCLC 4998092
  • Smith, Helen Zenna (1931), Not So Quiet…, London: George Newnes, OCLC 504714270
  • Smith, Helen Zenna (1988), Not So Quiet... Stepdaughters of War, London: Virago Modern Classics, ISBN 9780860688501
  • Smith, Helen Zenna (1989), Not So Quiet...Stepdaughters of War, New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, ISBN 0-935312-82-X
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