Opening in August 1914, as the onset of the First World War is announced to a sunlit Paris, Edith Wharton’s chronicle of her experience of the front lines powerfully evokes a country and a way of life under threat.

As nuanced in her observations of human behaviour as she is in her vivid depictions of French landscape and architecture, Wharton fully exploits her unique position as consort to Walter Barry, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which allows her unparalleled access to life in the trenches. Sensitive without sentimentality, Fighting France is a testament to the strength of the human spirit at a time of the greatest adversity.