NARRATING THE WAR FROM THE WINDOW: MILDRED ALDRICH AND THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

The American author Mildred Aldrich was one of the first writers to publish an autobiographical account, A Hilltop on the Marne, about the First World War. This essay explores the letters that conform that text, written in the summer of 1914, and analyses the difficulties that Aldrich had to overcome in order to describe the first weeks of the conflict from a house strategically located a few miles away from the Battle of the Marne. Paying special attention to the rural space where the house is located and the urban space of the city of Paris, I explore the effects that the outbreak of the war caused on the French population and how the author dealt with her own war experience.