What do you think?
Rate this book
The Woman Who Shot Mussolini
A gripping account of the life and fate of the woman who almost assassinated Benito Mussolini.7 April 1926: on the steps of the Capitol in Rome, surrounded by chanting Fascists, The Honourable Violet Gibson raises her old revolver and fires at the Italian head of state, Benito Mussolini - the darling of Europe's ruling class. The bullet narrowly misses the dictator's bald head, hitting him in the nose. Of all his would-be assassins, she came closest to changing the course of history.What brought her to this moment? The daughter of an Anglo-Irish lord, she had once consorted with royalty and the peerage. Yet terrible unhappiness lurked beneath that glittering surface. She loved Italy and when Mussolini's thugs took it into the moral cesspit of Fascism, she felt she had to act.She paid for it for the rest of her life, confined to a lunatic asylum, like other difficult women of her class. Frances Stonor Saunders' moving and compulsively readable book rescues this gentle, driven woman from a silent void and restores her dignity and purpose.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
23 people are currently reading
473 people want to read
About the author
Frances Stonor Saunders
6 books53 followersFrances Hélène Jeanne Stonor Saunders is a British journalist and historian.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
January 21, 2013
Here is an interesting piece of history. I didn't know of Violet Gibson, nor of her attempt to kill Mussolini. I picked up this book because I wanted to read about Italy around the time that my grandparents left it.
The book had some of cultural milieu I was looking for. I learned about Italian law and justice at the time, the women's prisons run by nuns, the treatment of the mentally ill and the general tenor of Mussolini's adoring crowds. In the chapter "Stigmata" there is a section on the Fascist view of women. There is also interesting material English-Irish politics in the post-Victorian era.
Besides this and the slice of history it covers, the book provokes a lot of thought. There is the disparity in treatment of Mussolini's would be assassins; how the Fascists used the assassination attempts as an excuse to solidify dictatorial control; the changing views on Mussolini by such powerful figures as the Chamberlain brothers and Winston Churchill; the post-war treatment of Ezra Pound vs that of Violet Gibson; how mental institutions can create conditions that induce or increase the probability of derangement symptoms, etc. As an alternative history, had Violet Gibson done this 15 years hence, would she have been a heroine?
While this is not an essential read for historians, it will certainly hold your interest.
The book had some of cultural milieu I was looking for. I learned about Italian law and justice at the time, the women's prisons run by nuns, the treatment of the mentally ill and the general tenor of Mussolini's adoring crowds. In the chapter "Stigmata" there is a section on the Fascist view of women. There is also interesting material English-Irish politics in the post-Victorian era.
Besides this and the slice of history it covers, the book provokes a lot of thought. There is the disparity in treatment of Mussolini's would be assassins; how the Fascists used the assassination attempts as an excuse to solidify dictatorial control; the changing views on Mussolini by such powerful figures as the Chamberlain brothers and Winston Churchill; the post-war treatment of Ezra Pound vs that of Violet Gibson; how mental institutions can create conditions that induce or increase the probability of derangement symptoms, etc. As an alternative history, had Violet Gibson done this 15 years hence, would she have been a heroine?
While this is not an essential read for historians, it will certainly hold your interest.
March 23, 2011
Very occasionally, I come across a book that is so interesting that I read it in one sitting and this is one of these. The subject matter is a virtually forgotten incident which occurred in 1926 and its protagonists are Violet Gibson, an aristocratic British spinster and Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy. If events that morning had gone just a little differently, the whole course of twentieth century history might have been very different.
On that long ago Wednesday Violet Gibson had set out from the convent where she was staying in Rome carrying a pistol, a stone and a scrap of newspaper on which she had written "Palazzo del Littorio", the address of the Fascist Party headquarters where she intended to carry out her deed in the afternoon. But instead she stopped at the Campodoglio where a crowd had gathered because of Mussolini's presence and, seeing him emerge from the Palazzo dei Conservatori, she shot him at point blank range, injuring the tip of his nose. Violet Gibson got as close to her target as Jack Ruby got to Lee Harvey Oswald 37 years later, murder, as the author of this book points out, sometimes being " a very intimate business".
At this point you may well be asking yourselves, as I did, why you have not heard of this incident before and the answer seems to be because it suited both the British and Italian governments to hush it up. It made the newspapers in both countries, of course, and Mussolini's supporters bayed for Violet's blood but both sets of diplomats were only too happy for Violet's family to take her back to Britain and have her quietly shut away. That is what happened and Violet remained in what we would now call a "private mental health facility" for the rest of her life.
Two questions remain about Violet: why did she do it and was she mad? The first has never been definitively answered, as Violet always implied that there were others involved, though no evidence of this was ever found. If she was mad , she was an "intelligent lunatic" who read the papers and analysed political events. She was also born at a time when women of her class were brought up to be ornaments. It is possible, then, that she was looking for a cause and she seems to have thought that she was acting on some sort of divine command.
For years, Violet led investigators and her doctors a dance, at one point asserting,
"What I say can't be believed because I am mad"
and she hardly helped her own cause. Despite her numerous, cogent pleas to the highest in the land, she was never set free or even allowed to reside in a Catholic hospital as she requested and her family became exasperated and more than a little concerned about costs. At this point the book becomes a kind of chronicle of the way in which the well-off mentally ill were treated in the first half of the twentieth century and it is none the less fascinating for that.
The book, however, is as much Benito Mussolini's story as it is Violet's and its early part poses a third question: was Mussolini mad? I'll leave you to make up your own minds on that one!
Meanwhile, back to our mysterious "heroine": When Violet Gibson died in 1956 no public announcement was made and no friend or relative attended her funeral. She remains, in death as in life, an enigma.
On that long ago Wednesday Violet Gibson had set out from the convent where she was staying in Rome carrying a pistol, a stone and a scrap of newspaper on which she had written "Palazzo del Littorio", the address of the Fascist Party headquarters where she intended to carry out her deed in the afternoon. But instead she stopped at the Campodoglio where a crowd had gathered because of Mussolini's presence and, seeing him emerge from the Palazzo dei Conservatori, she shot him at point blank range, injuring the tip of his nose. Violet Gibson got as close to her target as Jack Ruby got to Lee Harvey Oswald 37 years later, murder, as the author of this book points out, sometimes being " a very intimate business".
At this point you may well be asking yourselves, as I did, why you have not heard of this incident before and the answer seems to be because it suited both the British and Italian governments to hush it up. It made the newspapers in both countries, of course, and Mussolini's supporters bayed for Violet's blood but both sets of diplomats were only too happy for Violet's family to take her back to Britain and have her quietly shut away. That is what happened and Violet remained in what we would now call a "private mental health facility" for the rest of her life.
Two questions remain about Violet: why did she do it and was she mad? The first has never been definitively answered, as Violet always implied that there were others involved, though no evidence of this was ever found. If she was mad , she was an "intelligent lunatic" who read the papers and analysed political events. She was also born at a time when women of her class were brought up to be ornaments. It is possible, then, that she was looking for a cause and she seems to have thought that she was acting on some sort of divine command.
For years, Violet led investigators and her doctors a dance, at one point asserting,
"What I say can't be believed because I am mad"
and she hardly helped her own cause. Despite her numerous, cogent pleas to the highest in the land, she was never set free or even allowed to reside in a Catholic hospital as she requested and her family became exasperated and more than a little concerned about costs. At this point the book becomes a kind of chronicle of the way in which the well-off mentally ill were treated in the first half of the twentieth century and it is none the less fascinating for that.
The book, however, is as much Benito Mussolini's story as it is Violet's and its early part poses a third question: was Mussolini mad? I'll leave you to make up your own minds on that one!
Meanwhile, back to our mysterious "heroine": When Violet Gibson died in 1956 no public announcement was made and no friend or relative attended her funeral. She remains, in death as in life, an enigma.
May 26, 2010
pretty good book about the british woman who in 1926 tried to assassinate mussolini. unfortunately for everyone(except mussolini)she missed only grazing his nose and the gun jammed when she tried to fire again. i must admit i wasn't even aware that this event had happended.
for a history book, it's very well written and very easy to read. trying to make a book of over 300 pages on this topic means the author has had to pad the book with details of other family members, other non-related events in mussolini's life etc. but that's ok...it's all very interesting.
the woman (violet gibson) spent most of the rest of her life in an insane asylum, when she probably should have been given a medal. still, mussolini came to a bad end eventually, as was well deserved.
for a history book, it's very well written and very easy to read. trying to make a book of over 300 pages on this topic means the author has had to pad the book with details of other family members, other non-related events in mussolini's life etc. but that's ok...it's all very interesting.
the woman (violet gibson) spent most of the rest of her life in an insane asylum, when she probably should have been given a medal. still, mussolini came to a bad end eventually, as was well deserved.
January 21, 2012
Violet Gibson, the woman who shot Mussolini was my great aunt . In a recording by Flanagan and Allen of "Underneath the Arches" they read the related headline of a contemporary newspaper. However, it was great to read such a sympathetic account of her life since I knew very little about her. Who knows whether she was mad or not. Her action now seems eminently sensible.
Whether or not you already know anything about Violet Gibson or Mussolini, this book is a great read. As well as describing the actual event of the title it also goes into the detail of how the Italian government, the British government and the Gibson family (who were Irish aristocrats) reacted.
Whether or not you already know anything about Violet Gibson or Mussolini, this book is a great read. As well as describing the actual event of the title it also goes into the detail of how the Italian government, the British government and the Gibson family (who were Irish aristocrats) reacted.
July 4, 2014
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Sinead Cusack reads from Frances Stonor Saunders' account of the troubled life of Violet Gibson, the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lord who attempted to assassinate Mussolini in Rome in 1926.
Sinead Cusack reads from Frances Stonor Saunders' account of the troubled life of Violet Gibson, the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lord who attempted to assassinate Mussolini in Rome in 1926.
February 11, 2022
Whose tale is this?
One woman intuited the danger of fascism early on and determined to eliminate the Duce outright. Violet Gibson, the daughter of a Conservative MP, liked to visit Italy for its art and poetry.
In the cult of ducismo she saw a betrayal of parliamentary liberalism and the noble Italy of Dante and the Renaissance. On 7 April 1926, amid a crowd of adoring fascists, she shot the dictator at close range in Rome. The bullet missed Mussolini's head by a fraction, but removed a morsel of flesh from the tip of his nose.
The crowd would have lynched Gibson, had the police not intervened and arrested her.
Read this book, to know more.
One woman intuited the danger of fascism early on and determined to eliminate the Duce outright. Violet Gibson, the daughter of a Conservative MP, liked to visit Italy for its art and poetry.
In the cult of ducismo she saw a betrayal of parliamentary liberalism and the noble Italy of Dante and the Renaissance. On 7 April 1926, amid a crowd of adoring fascists, she shot the dictator at close range in Rome. The bullet missed Mussolini's head by a fraction, but removed a morsel of flesh from the tip of his nose.
The crowd would have lynched Gibson, had the police not intervened and arrested her.
Read this book, to know more.
March 6, 2014
Sinead Cusack reads from Frances Stonor Saunders' account of the troubled life of Violet Gibson, the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lord, who attempted to assassinate Mussolini in Rome in 1926. On Wednesday 7th April 1926, in front of a crowd of cheering Fascist supporters, Benito Mussolini is shot at close quarters. The bullet nicks the bridge of his nose and the bleeding is profuse. Who shot him and why did they do it?
Abridged by Jill Waters
Was she mad or was she pretending to be mad to execute her theosophically rooted political agenda? And dontcha think it's a shame that the second bullet misfired? 2.5 stars
Abridged by Jill Waters
Was she mad or was she pretending to be mad to execute her theosophically rooted political agenda? And dontcha think it's a shame that the second bullet misfired? 2.5 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2018
I found this book fascinating. I embarked on it because I had never heard of Violet Gibson or read about Mussolini’s rise. The author has a drily funny way of talking about the absurdity of fascism that is very satisfying at the moment, even as she acknowledges the horror of it, and treats Gibson with a great deal of sympathy.
What the book doesn’t really do is give me more than a glimpse of the Italy that my anti-fascist grandparents grew up in before they fled for the US. I’ll have to look further for that.
What the book doesn’t really do is give me more than a glimpse of the Italy that my anti-fascist grandparents grew up in before they fled for the US. I’ll have to look further for that.
February 26, 2023
The Woman Who Shot Mussolini
by Frances Stonor Saunders
Violet Gibson was born to wealth and position, daughter of an influential Anglo-Irish peer, but died - surviving, possibly surprisingly, into her eightieth year - incarcerated in an English mental asylum. On page 285 (of the Faber paperback edition) there is a 1935 photograph showing her feeding birds in the grounds of the hospital. Her hand is palm up, with two of the birds eating from it, others on the lawn before her.
At first glimpse, the photo might appear sad, an elderly lady in a heavily walled yard, wearing a nondescript, full-length coat providing a compassionate value that gives her life meaning. As Frances Stonor Saunders writes, ‘Denied the spiritual comforts of her (adopted) Catholic liturgy… she spent more and more time outside… where she waited patiently for the little birds.’ One might wonder if, in her afflicted mind, she was attempting to fulfil some part of the life aspiration of Saint Francis?
The Honourable Violet Gibson underwent a dramatic change in fortune. Born to Edward Gibson Ashbourne, one-time Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his wife, Lady Frances, her family was staunchly Protestant and republican. Violet suffered both physical and mental illness as a child and young woman, her temper tantrums a case in point. In her late teens, she also lost an unnamed fiancee, but the who and the how remain obscure. It was a time in which she continued to study and draw closer to Catholic teachings, a faith to which she converted in her mid-twenties.
Lord Ashbourne was unable to offer the paternal sympathy or understanding she yearned for.
Violet moved to France, working for pacifist organisations in Paris, and visited Italy with the intention of distributing largesse. It was at a time, a century past, when Benito Mussolini was gaining greater control of Italian society and soon elevated to lead the fascisti into power as their Duce. Mussolini’s style and influence had great bearing on Hitler who managed much the same in Germany a decade later.
Violet Gibson carried a revolver, perhaps either for personal protection or for other purposes; she had an avowed intent to ‘shoot someone.’ That ‘someone’ eventually took the form of Mussolini. She had the weapon with her one fateful day in April 1926 when, heading for Fascist Party Headquarters in Palazzo del Littorio, she was attracted to a crowd at the Palazzo dei Conservatori. People thronged there for a glimpse of Mussolini who was leaving a congress of surgeons following an address to them.
Somehow, the slight woman - she stood barely five foot one in the old scale - managed to push her way through the applauding mob, evidently coming within eight feet of the leader. Raising her weapon, she fired twice. The first shot grazed the bridge of Mussolini’s nose, while the second jammed in the revolver. She was quickly brought down and disarmed, but taken away by police before the crowd could do her any serious injury.
The enigmatic Violet Gibson who so nearly assassinated one of history’s most repugnant modern dictators was whisked away to St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, with evident complicity between the British and Italian governments. Despite appeals, especially for transfer to a Catholic institution, it was to be her home for the final thirty years of her life.
There are cogent arguments to the effect Violet Gibson was, indeed, mad. But so too might many of the same arguments be applied to her fellow protagonist…
History boring? Oh gosh no, especially when so brilliantly written by someone with Stonor Saunders storytelling ability, and about such an intriguing occurrence. Five stars for a captivating read!
by Frances Stonor Saunders
Violet Gibson was born to wealth and position, daughter of an influential Anglo-Irish peer, but died - surviving, possibly surprisingly, into her eightieth year - incarcerated in an English mental asylum. On page 285 (of the Faber paperback edition) there is a 1935 photograph showing her feeding birds in the grounds of the hospital. Her hand is palm up, with two of the birds eating from it, others on the lawn before her.
At first glimpse, the photo might appear sad, an elderly lady in a heavily walled yard, wearing a nondescript, full-length coat providing a compassionate value that gives her life meaning. As Frances Stonor Saunders writes, ‘Denied the spiritual comforts of her (adopted) Catholic liturgy… she spent more and more time outside… where she waited patiently for the little birds.’ One might wonder if, in her afflicted mind, she was attempting to fulfil some part of the life aspiration of Saint Francis?
The Honourable Violet Gibson underwent a dramatic change in fortune. Born to Edward Gibson Ashbourne, one-time Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his wife, Lady Frances, her family was staunchly Protestant and republican. Violet suffered both physical and mental illness as a child and young woman, her temper tantrums a case in point. In her late teens, she also lost an unnamed fiancee, but the who and the how remain obscure. It was a time in which she continued to study and draw closer to Catholic teachings, a faith to which she converted in her mid-twenties.
Lord Ashbourne was unable to offer the paternal sympathy or understanding she yearned for.
Violet moved to France, working for pacifist organisations in Paris, and visited Italy with the intention of distributing largesse. It was at a time, a century past, when Benito Mussolini was gaining greater control of Italian society and soon elevated to lead the fascisti into power as their Duce. Mussolini’s style and influence had great bearing on Hitler who managed much the same in Germany a decade later.
Violet Gibson carried a revolver, perhaps either for personal protection or for other purposes; she had an avowed intent to ‘shoot someone.’ That ‘someone’ eventually took the form of Mussolini. She had the weapon with her one fateful day in April 1926 when, heading for Fascist Party Headquarters in Palazzo del Littorio, she was attracted to a crowd at the Palazzo dei Conservatori. People thronged there for a glimpse of Mussolini who was leaving a congress of surgeons following an address to them.
Somehow, the slight woman - she stood barely five foot one in the old scale - managed to push her way through the applauding mob, evidently coming within eight feet of the leader. Raising her weapon, she fired twice. The first shot grazed the bridge of Mussolini’s nose, while the second jammed in the revolver. She was quickly brought down and disarmed, but taken away by police before the crowd could do her any serious injury.
The enigmatic Violet Gibson who so nearly assassinated one of history’s most repugnant modern dictators was whisked away to St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, with evident complicity between the British and Italian governments. Despite appeals, especially for transfer to a Catholic institution, it was to be her home for the final thirty years of her life.
There are cogent arguments to the effect Violet Gibson was, indeed, mad. But so too might many of the same arguments be applied to her fellow protagonist…
History boring? Oh gosh no, especially when so brilliantly written by someone with Stonor Saunders storytelling ability, and about such an intriguing occurrence. Five stars for a captivating read!
September 29, 2014
UUG I had a review written and then Goodreads went down and didn't post it. What a pain.
Anyway. When people ask me what I read I usually say something like, "I'll read anything." I have no grudges with any particular genre, and I've read bits and pieces of just about everything. But the truth is that I don't read outside of YA/Children's lit very often. So when I read something like this I'm given pause while I'm like... can't tell if badly written... or just unfamiliar genre style...
There were a couple of tense shifts, and the narrative tone changed quite a bit. It was pretty clear that the author is really invested in this subject, and sometimes the narrator became a little protective of Violet. Sometimes the narrator was also really, really funny.
I found Saunders relied a lot on the information of sources that were only tangentially related, like the Fitzgeralds and the Joyces. I liked when she drew the parallels, but sometimes a.) she went on a long tangent and there was too much information and b.) sometimes she tried to relate it too closely and it wasn't always helpful.
Small problems aside, I really enjoyed this book. There were some parts that were so ridiculous, like when part of Violet's insanity defense was that you'd have to be insane to want to kill Mussolini (her lawyer was a freaking genius, btw). If you tried to write that in fiction, no one would buy it. Real life, man.
Parts of it were really, really horrifying. When it started talking about some of the cures for "madness" in women... it was nothing short of torture. I had no idea things like that were still happening even up to WWII. Some of the beliefs about women, and the way they were treated... it makes me feel ill. Some things you can't un-know. But I also wouldn't want to un-know them; these things are important, our history is important. So if only for that reason, it's an important book.
Anyway. When people ask me what I read I usually say something like, "I'll read anything." I have no grudges with any particular genre, and I've read bits and pieces of just about everything. But the truth is that I don't read outside of YA/Children's lit very often. So when I read something like this I'm given pause while I'm like... can't tell if badly written... or just unfamiliar genre style...
There were a couple of tense shifts, and the narrative tone changed quite a bit. It was pretty clear that the author is really invested in this subject, and sometimes the narrator became a little protective of Violet. Sometimes the narrator was also really, really funny.
I found Saunders relied a lot on the information of sources that were only tangentially related, like the Fitzgeralds and the Joyces. I liked when she drew the parallels, but sometimes a.) she went on a long tangent and there was too much information and b.) sometimes she tried to relate it too closely and it wasn't always helpful.
Small problems aside, I really enjoyed this book. There were some parts that were so ridiculous, like when part of Violet's insanity defense was that you'd have to be insane to want to kill Mussolini (her lawyer was a freaking genius, btw). If you tried to write that in fiction, no one would buy it. Real life, man.
Parts of it were really, really horrifying. When it started talking about some of the cures for "madness" in women... it was nothing short of torture. I had no idea things like that were still happening even up to WWII. Some of the beliefs about women, and the way they were treated... it makes me feel ill. Some things you can't un-know. But I also wouldn't want to un-know them; these things are important, our history is important. So if only for that reason, it's an important book.
December 12, 2011
Good account of a blip in history I had never heard anything about. In 1926 Violet Gibson gets close enough to take a shot at Mussolini and got a part of his nose. If her gun had not jammed history would have been markedly changed. Good effort to put the reader in the context of the times. A number of famous people are included - again as an effort to give the reader that feel for the times. I thought it was a little long. Covers the backgrounds of both major characters (she a lady of Irish upper class and he a youth from poor background). Shows Mussolini's lack of real commitment to any real political view simply wanted power. And it is never known whether Violet Gibson - in the throes of religious fervor - tries to assassinate Il Duce or was she part of a conspiracy. Either way she spent the rest of her long life in an asylum.
July 29, 2022
This is possibly one of the best books I've ever read in my historical queue! Frances Stonor Saunders writes about Fascism and the Mental health system. This book is well researched and smartly written and you may be keeping your computer nearby to look up some of the characters/words involved but.. it will make you more informed in the end as this story relates so much to our present times. Violet Gibson guardianship was unsettling but a good example for advocating for the mentally challenged. This book is educationally riveting from beginning to the very end. A must read.
February 3, 2017
Bit of a long winded account of daughter of Lord Ashburne who was prime minister of Ireland who went a bit mad and zealous and attempted to shoot Mussolini but just shot a bit off his nose. Too much talk of was she mad or was she part of an anti-Mussolini plot and about whether Italy were going to charge her as a criminal or as a mad woman. Eventually they let her leave and her family put her in a mental home
November 14, 2023
In 1950 Dr. Tennent, the deputy medical supervisor at St. Andrew's, the English lunatic asylum where the Irishwoman Violet Gibson had been confined for many years, reported that she was "....a very distinguished lady who might have altered the whole course of history if she had been a little more accurate when deciding to dispose of Mussolini in the early 1920s..."
I cannot add much to what the other reviewers have said about this very well documented and brightly written authoritative account, except to say that the ending is doubly tragic because by a strange twist of fate, St. Andrew's is the same institution where James Joyce's beloved daughter Lucia ended up, due to the indifference towards her that was shown by the remaining members of the Joyce family, in a way that resembles the indifference of the Gibson family to Violet. Thus incidentally, Frances Stonor Saunders has filled a hole in one's own knowledge of what became of poor Lucia Joyce.
One of the most admirable aspects of this biography, which takes a very welcome approach that is firmly on the side of the women who feature in the story, is that it explains the historical context so well. It would appear that Violet Gibson was indeed a deluded religious fanatic who, for most of her life, had more money than sense like the rest of her decadent Irish landed gentry family, and was not associated with any coherent political ideas or organised groups in Rome or, indeed, in Republican Ireland (unlike her brother) and that her attempt to kill Mussolini in 1926 was not the result of a conspiracy - despite the efforts of the Fascist regime to demonstrate that it was.
Inter alia, this book succeeds in the mammoth task of encapsulating a series of very complex historical events into a succinct and accurate account of Mussolini's rise to power, and of Italian history in that period: a fresh interpretation that alone makes it essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of modern Italy.
The Author very well documents the circumstances of the assassination attempt and its intriguing consequences, but one cannot help wondering if it really is the last word on the subject. Is it enough to discount the "conspiracy" interpretation that the Fascist authorities followed up, methodically and in great detail, simply because they were Fascists?
And although our Author is not given to speculation, it is tempting to consider what would have transpired had Violet Gibson succeeded in killing Mussolini in 1926. We all know how Gavrilo Princip changed the course of world history in 1914 with a single pistol shot in Sarajevo. Twelve years later Violet Gibson, in a split second, nearly did the same.
In 1926, for one thing, most people had never heard of Adolf Hitler. Mussolini had been in control of a resurgent Italy since 1922, and his dramatic achievements were the admiration of every leader in the world, including Churchill. On the other hand, few people had ever heard of Adolf Hitler. Had Violet Gibson succeeded it seems very likely that Hitler, who took his whole inspiration from what Mussolini started, would probably never have risen to power. Let's just leave that thought there.
I cannot add much to what the other reviewers have said about this very well documented and brightly written authoritative account, except to say that the ending is doubly tragic because by a strange twist of fate, St. Andrew's is the same institution where James Joyce's beloved daughter Lucia ended up, due to the indifference towards her that was shown by the remaining members of the Joyce family, in a way that resembles the indifference of the Gibson family to Violet. Thus incidentally, Frances Stonor Saunders has filled a hole in one's own knowledge of what became of poor Lucia Joyce.
One of the most admirable aspects of this biography, which takes a very welcome approach that is firmly on the side of the women who feature in the story, is that it explains the historical context so well. It would appear that Violet Gibson was indeed a deluded religious fanatic who, for most of her life, had more money than sense like the rest of her decadent Irish landed gentry family, and was not associated with any coherent political ideas or organised groups in Rome or, indeed, in Republican Ireland (unlike her brother) and that her attempt to kill Mussolini in 1926 was not the result of a conspiracy - despite the efforts of the Fascist regime to demonstrate that it was.
Inter alia, this book succeeds in the mammoth task of encapsulating a series of very complex historical events into a succinct and accurate account of Mussolini's rise to power, and of Italian history in that period: a fresh interpretation that alone makes it essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of modern Italy.
The Author very well documents the circumstances of the assassination attempt and its intriguing consequences, but one cannot help wondering if it really is the last word on the subject. Is it enough to discount the "conspiracy" interpretation that the Fascist authorities followed up, methodically and in great detail, simply because they were Fascists?
And although our Author is not given to speculation, it is tempting to consider what would have transpired had Violet Gibson succeeded in killing Mussolini in 1926. We all know how Gavrilo Princip changed the course of world history in 1914 with a single pistol shot in Sarajevo. Twelve years later Violet Gibson, in a split second, nearly did the same.
In 1926, for one thing, most people had never heard of Adolf Hitler. Mussolini had been in control of a resurgent Italy since 1922, and his dramatic achievements were the admiration of every leader in the world, including Churchill. On the other hand, few people had ever heard of Adolf Hitler. Had Violet Gibson succeeded it seems very likely that Hitler, who took his whole inspiration from what Mussolini started, would probably never have risen to power. Let's just leave that thought there.
June 27, 2022
Am 7. April 1926 stand Benito Mussolini auf den Stufen des römischen Kapitols und ließ sich von seinen Anhängern feiern. Plötzlich fiel ein Schuss, der den Diktator nur streifte. Die Schützin war Violet Gibson, eine englische Adlige. Auch wenn das Attentat unzureichend geplant und noch schlechter ausgeführt war, war Violet diejenige von allen Attentätern, die die beste Möglichkeit hatte um die Geschichte zu verändern. In ihrem Buch erzählt Frances Stonor Saunders die Geschichte der Attentäterin und des Mannes, den sie töten wollte.
Meine Meinung
Violet ist eine typische Frau ihrer Zeit, die einen untypischen Weg geht. Als Mitglied einer Adelsfamilie schien ihr Weg vorgezeichnet. Aber Frances wollte weder heiraten, noch sich den Dingen widmen, denen sich ihre Freundinnen widmen. Obwohl man von Freundinnen nicht wirklich sprechen kann, denn Violet ließ niemand wirklich an sich heran. Auch wenn sie gemeinsam mit anderen etwas unternahm, war sie nie wirklich Teil der Gruppe.
Ihre Geschwister erzählen, dass Violet kein einfaches Kind war. Wenn man ihre ganze Geschichte kennt, kann man rückblickend erkennen, dass sich damals schon ihre Persönlichkeit gezeigt hat. Violet hätte Aufmerksam und Zuwendung gebraucht und nicht ein amüsiertes Dulden ihrer Schrullen. Später fand sie Zuflucht im Glauben. Aber Violet war niemand, der Dinge nur halb tat. Sie stürzte sich förmlich auf ihre neue Berufung, legte alle Schriften penibel aus und sah so Zeichen, die sonst niemand sah. Das Attentat war für sie eine heilige Mission.
Es ist leicht, Violet nur als eine verwirrte Frau zu sehen. Dann übersieht man aber, in welcher Zeit sie gelebt hat und wie die Rolle der Frau damals war. Ich habe den Eindruck gewonnen, als ob sie an genau dieser Rolle zerbrochen ist, denn Violet wollte sich nicht den Konventionen beugen und ein unabhängiges Leben führen. Auch nach ihrer Tat war es einfacher, sich nicht mit den Ursachen auseinander zu setzen, sondern Violet wegzusperren.
Aber man darf auch nicht übersehen, welche Folgen Violets Attentat hatte. Es hatte nicht nur private, sondern auch politische Folgen. Von daher war es für alle einfacher, sie als geistesgestört hinzustellen als einen diplomatischen Skandal zwischen den beiden Ländern zu provozieren.
Violet war kein sympathischer Charakter, aber sie war auch jemand, der mit ihren Nöten alleine gelassen wurde. Dass es diese Folgen haben würde, konnte niemand ahnen. Die Autorin erzählt Violets Geschichte mit allen Facetten, deshalb konnte sich sie zumindest ein wenig verstehen.
Meine Meinung
Violet ist eine typische Frau ihrer Zeit, die einen untypischen Weg geht. Als Mitglied einer Adelsfamilie schien ihr Weg vorgezeichnet. Aber Frances wollte weder heiraten, noch sich den Dingen widmen, denen sich ihre Freundinnen widmen. Obwohl man von Freundinnen nicht wirklich sprechen kann, denn Violet ließ niemand wirklich an sich heran. Auch wenn sie gemeinsam mit anderen etwas unternahm, war sie nie wirklich Teil der Gruppe.
Ihre Geschwister erzählen, dass Violet kein einfaches Kind war. Wenn man ihre ganze Geschichte kennt, kann man rückblickend erkennen, dass sich damals schon ihre Persönlichkeit gezeigt hat. Violet hätte Aufmerksam und Zuwendung gebraucht und nicht ein amüsiertes Dulden ihrer Schrullen. Später fand sie Zuflucht im Glauben. Aber Violet war niemand, der Dinge nur halb tat. Sie stürzte sich förmlich auf ihre neue Berufung, legte alle Schriften penibel aus und sah so Zeichen, die sonst niemand sah. Das Attentat war für sie eine heilige Mission.
Es ist leicht, Violet nur als eine verwirrte Frau zu sehen. Dann übersieht man aber, in welcher Zeit sie gelebt hat und wie die Rolle der Frau damals war. Ich habe den Eindruck gewonnen, als ob sie an genau dieser Rolle zerbrochen ist, denn Violet wollte sich nicht den Konventionen beugen und ein unabhängiges Leben führen. Auch nach ihrer Tat war es einfacher, sich nicht mit den Ursachen auseinander zu setzen, sondern Violet wegzusperren.
Aber man darf auch nicht übersehen, welche Folgen Violets Attentat hatte. Es hatte nicht nur private, sondern auch politische Folgen. Von daher war es für alle einfacher, sie als geistesgestört hinzustellen als einen diplomatischen Skandal zwischen den beiden Ländern zu provozieren.
Violet war kein sympathischer Charakter, aber sie war auch jemand, der mit ihren Nöten alleine gelassen wurde. Dass es diese Folgen haben würde, konnte niemand ahnen. Die Autorin erzählt Violets Geschichte mit allen Facetten, deshalb konnte sich sie zumindest ein wenig verstehen.
February 11, 2023
’The distance separating these two people, who have never met, is approximately eight inches. Close enough to breathe each other’s breath. Murder can be a very intimate business.’
In his rise to power, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini survived three assassination attempts. The middle attempt on his life came nearest to success, a bullet taking a chunk out of Il Duce’s nose, and was perpetrated by an unlikely hit woman, an expatriate English noblewomen named Violet Gibson. Tracing the life of this wayward daughter of the wealthy Ashbourne family, author Francis Stonor Saunders portrays a young women struggling with mental health issues well before she developed an obsessive hatred for the Italian tyrant. Her missed shot did not end Mussolini’s life as she hoped, but ironically only further burnished the Italian’s flamboyant reputation, further propelling him up the fascist ladder.
Stonor Saunder’s research is detailed and her prose at times (for example in the prologue) is delivered with a syncopated rhythm that feels nearly breathless. The challenge here, however, is that there is not quite enough drama -- once past the assassination -- to keep that pace. Occasionally, it reads more like a term paper, heavy with quotes from tangential lives, ranging from Virginia Wolfe to Ezra Pound to Lucia Joyce, and feels stretched past the centerline of the story. The end of Gibson’s biography is poignant, cashiered by her family in asylum to die decades later, with Stonor Saunders sifting through letters Violet wrote to friends, family, and government officials begging for clemency -- all of which went unsent by hospital officials and remain dusty, yellowed, and unread in Gibson’s medical file, years after her death.
There are palpable parallels to other attacks made by mentally-challenged individuals on notable public figures. Gibson’s state of mind feels reminiscent to that of John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt on American President Ronald Reagan. Unlike Gibson, however, Hinckley was eventually paroled. For those who question the wisdom of that decision, the calumny of Gibson’s incarceration in steadily declining accommodations and failing health, severed from her connections to her friends and faith, right until her final gasp of breath, may demonstrate the mercy inherent in a more enlightened decision for Hinckley.
Maybe the world would have been a better place had Violet killed Mussolini on that day in April 1926. Instead, her shot martyred only herself.
June 29, 2024
This is a 1-2 star book for the first half and a 4-5 star book for the second half. It is very well researched and it gives an interesting perspective on the life of Violet Gibson, the woman who shot Mussolini.
In the first half of the book, the narration style is very choppy, with many random quotes thrown in that have nothing to do with anything. The book is about Violet Gibson, but we hardly get anything about Violet in the first half. We get some interesting bits about Mussolini and Violet's family, but when it switches over to a narrative about Violet herself, it almost always uses quotes, stories, and moments from other contemporary women's lives, not Violet's. Also, the first half was written in a style that feels very condescending to early 20th-century people and culture, which is not something I appreciate from a history book. I want to know the stories and the facts, not the author's opinion on what those stories and facts mean from a 21st-century perspective. It was painful to read.
However, almost exactly halfway through the book, there was a big narrative shift. This may be because this half focused on Violet after the attempt on Mussolini, and not before. It felt like there was more first-hand material about Violet's life, and so the story finally started to center around her. Almost instantly it was easier to read. There was a solid narrative and historical line I could follow through the rest of the book, and I no longer felt like I was being preached to by a 21st-century activist.
In the first half of the book, the narration style is very choppy, with many random quotes thrown in that have nothing to do with anything. The book is about Violet Gibson, but we hardly get anything about Violet in the first half. We get some interesting bits about Mussolini and Violet's family, but when it switches over to a narrative about Violet herself, it almost always uses quotes, stories, and moments from other contemporary women's lives, not Violet's. Also, the first half was written in a style that feels very condescending to early 20th-century people and culture, which is not something I appreciate from a history book. I want to know the stories and the facts, not the author's opinion on what those stories and facts mean from a 21st-century perspective. It was painful to read.
However, almost exactly halfway through the book, there was a big narrative shift. This may be because this half focused on Violet after the attempt on Mussolini, and not before. It felt like there was more first-hand material about Violet's life, and so the story finally started to center around her. Almost instantly it was easier to read. There was a solid narrative and historical line I could follow through the rest of the book, and I no longer felt like I was being preached to by a 21st-century activist.
January 6, 2019
This is a fascinating book. It captures the uncertain political landscape and turbulent social changes of the years between the World Wars. The book exposes the hypocrisy and self serving nature of politicians on all sides, not just Mussolini.
It gives insight into the collapse or at least waning of the power of priviledge and aristocracy as Irish society moved from Empire to Commonwealth and the emergence of the Irish Republic. It also sheds light on the mental health care system before and after the creation of the NHS.
But as well as all that, the book captivates with the truly human story of a woman with obvious, but ill defined, problems who chose a higher path, albeit delusional but ultimately if she had succeeded would have changed history. A woman whom everyone tried to forget has been tastefully and masterfully immortalised.
I would recommend this book to anyone seeking something out of the ordinary.
It gives insight into the collapse or at least waning of the power of priviledge and aristocracy as Irish society moved from Empire to Commonwealth and the emergence of the Irish Republic. It also sheds light on the mental health care system before and after the creation of the NHS.
But as well as all that, the book captivates with the truly human story of a woman with obvious, but ill defined, problems who chose a higher path, albeit delusional but ultimately if she had succeeded would have changed history. A woman whom everyone tried to forget has been tastefully and masterfully immortalised.
I would recommend this book to anyone seeking something out of the ordinary.
July 26, 2020
The Hon. Violet Gibson, known to the great and good of English society, travelled to Italy, spending time in the poor parts of Rome, distributing money. One morning she walked to Campidoglio and stationed herself next to a lamp post. When Mussolini emerged from the building, she walked over and shot him in the face. Violet is arrested - and so begins a nightmare for the British politicians, her family and Violet herself. She is only one of those who made an attempt on his life.
This is a poignant story, well written and it is obvious that a lot of research has been done. What is scary is the 'moral' and physical causes of mental illness at that time: novel-reading, disappointment in love, pecuniary difficulties, change of life, old age (I should have been put away long ago then!). Thankfully, our view of mental illness have changed for the better.
This is a poignant story, well written and it is obvious that a lot of research has been done. What is scary is the 'moral' and physical causes of mental illness at that time: novel-reading, disappointment in love, pecuniary difficulties, change of life, old age (I should have been put away long ago then!). Thankfully, our view of mental illness have changed for the better.
December 9, 2023
I’d say 4.5 ⭐️ . It’s a shame that Violet Gibson is so forgotten to society, and how she lived out her life undeserved. There was random characters in there I could have gone without, but I understood what their intent was of being mentioned (although it might’ve been the same without them).
August 6, 2025
Overall, it was a good book and full of interesting information about both Violet Gibson (the woman who shot Mussolini) as well as information about IL Duce himself. Some parts dragged on, and there were sode stories that weren't necessary to the main story, but educational nonetheless.
April 13, 2019
An interesting, albeit rambling, account of a generally unknown bit of history.
January 21, 2020
Interesting how conspiracies theories are such a big part of Fascism.
May 11, 2021
Good book.Never heard of this story. Very interesting
October 26, 2022
Fascinating!
May 9, 2014
For all the men who have statues erected in their name, yet have failed to achieve the missions they set out on, it is doubly remarkable that a woman such as Violet Gibson has faded from public consciousness. That she is remembered at all must come down to her family’s class, or the likelihood of records remaining would be greatly diminished. But it is also because of this family background that Violet’s story is so problematical.
Stonor Saunders uses the sources of others of the same generation to fill out Gibson’s story. At first this seems a little confusing for those not part of or familiar with that circle. But as the work progresses the relevance of these other sources becomes clearer.
Gibson’s life spanned a very volatile period in history, when practices were becoming established in such a way that smacked of tradition and yet had nowhere near outlasted previously established traditions around family, work and other social relations. The practice of colonialism had its backlash of dissenting voices from the colonies. Religion was still a major influence but which one and what to make of the newer spiritual enquiries burgeoning across the continent. Even the seemingly privileged position as a daughter of the first Irish Lord Chancellor, Lord Ashbourne, was not as stabilising a position in the world as one might have thought.
The choice to render this biography in a religious context, by the parts having the biblical names Revelation, Acts and Lamentations, rather challenges the same basis within Violet Gibson herself as a religious seeker or convert to Catholicism. An Irish woman converting to Catholicism? The image in itself breaks any stereotypical thinking we may bring as an audience to this tale.
The clash of ideas and viewpoints within the writing actually provide the social scape of the times rather effectively. It is difficult to be sure of one’s own bearings among so many ideas and influences and questions – everyone seems to have their own half-answers and probing questions.
To maintain a kind of parallel between the lives of Mussolini and Violet Gibson throughout the book is quite an accomplishment for the writer. While Mussolini would have reached a point where Gibson was no longer relevant to him, he certainly remained of significance to her. The title of the book reiterates this as if it is the only reason to be remember her is in relation to him.
Yet part of Violet Gibson’s story remains the similarity to so many other women – even as a single woman her entire life – as being seen or defined by her relationship to a man. This must be what makes her own particular story so memorable: that her attempt to finish a man that she did not want any further relationship with should hold such sway throughout the most significant part of her life, and taint her memory in the minds of others!
Even the wording of that sentence makes it seem as if it is only the relationship between a man and a woman. That is what we still tend to think eighty years after her great act of bravery. And yet it is actually the political stage she stepped up to that is the signifier of her bravery, and the defiance of her father and others in her own social circle that must make us question whether all acts of bravery are also forms of insanity as hers became defined.
This is the story of one person at a threshold that others do not recognise for what it is. At a time when the whole world was redefining and reinventing itself, this one woman embodies something of the inner turmoil we all must face to be able to transform ourselves. The greater the enforced isolation, the greater the proof that no person is an island. If they were, no effort would be required to silence and exile them.
This story must raise the philosophical issues of existence for us all. And with it the social, political, and economic factors that play across our lives and even our spirituality to go on beyond the borders of our own existence into the lives of others.
Stonor Saunders uses the sources of others of the same generation to fill out Gibson’s story. At first this seems a little confusing for those not part of or familiar with that circle. But as the work progresses the relevance of these other sources becomes clearer.
Gibson’s life spanned a very volatile period in history, when practices were becoming established in such a way that smacked of tradition and yet had nowhere near outlasted previously established traditions around family, work and other social relations. The practice of colonialism had its backlash of dissenting voices from the colonies. Religion was still a major influence but which one and what to make of the newer spiritual enquiries burgeoning across the continent. Even the seemingly privileged position as a daughter of the first Irish Lord Chancellor, Lord Ashbourne, was not as stabilising a position in the world as one might have thought.
The choice to render this biography in a religious context, by the parts having the biblical names Revelation, Acts and Lamentations, rather challenges the same basis within Violet Gibson herself as a religious seeker or convert to Catholicism. An Irish woman converting to Catholicism? The image in itself breaks any stereotypical thinking we may bring as an audience to this tale.
The clash of ideas and viewpoints within the writing actually provide the social scape of the times rather effectively. It is difficult to be sure of one’s own bearings among so many ideas and influences and questions – everyone seems to have their own half-answers and probing questions.
To maintain a kind of parallel between the lives of Mussolini and Violet Gibson throughout the book is quite an accomplishment for the writer. While Mussolini would have reached a point where Gibson was no longer relevant to him, he certainly remained of significance to her. The title of the book reiterates this as if it is the only reason to be remember her is in relation to him.
Yet part of Violet Gibson’s story remains the similarity to so many other women – even as a single woman her entire life – as being seen or defined by her relationship to a man. This must be what makes her own particular story so memorable: that her attempt to finish a man that she did not want any further relationship with should hold such sway throughout the most significant part of her life, and taint her memory in the minds of others!
Even the wording of that sentence makes it seem as if it is only the relationship between a man and a woman. That is what we still tend to think eighty years after her great act of bravery. And yet it is actually the political stage she stepped up to that is the signifier of her bravery, and the defiance of her father and others in her own social circle that must make us question whether all acts of bravery are also forms of insanity as hers became defined.
This is the story of one person at a threshold that others do not recognise for what it is. At a time when the whole world was redefining and reinventing itself, this one woman embodies something of the inner turmoil we all must face to be able to transform ourselves. The greater the enforced isolation, the greater the proof that no person is an island. If they were, no effort would be required to silence and exile them.
This story must raise the philosophical issues of existence for us all. And with it the social, political, and economic factors that play across our lives and even our spirituality to go on beyond the borders of our own existence into the lives of others.
June 20, 2025
The hype - ' ... the life and times of a woman who sought to forestall catastrophe, whatever the cost' - is overdone. Any way you look at it, the Hon. Violet Gibson was not a political visionary, a self-sacrificing freedom fighter, a heroic foe of tyrants, etc., etc. I suspect that had she not been the daughter of a peer whose fate it was to decline from a life of wealth, glamour and ease to an ignominious and forsaken death, she wouldn't now be exciting any more interest than do many other lunatics who wander across the world's stage. To make a long story short, she was a neurasthenic religious crank who went mad and in 1926 tried to assassinate Mussolini; possibly she was also contemplating having a shot at Pope Pius XI. If her gesture had any effect at all it was to heighten the adulation that Mussolini enjoyed before World War II by creating a sudden upsurge of public sympathy- this has been suggested by other people who have reviewed this book. If you watch video footage now of Mussolini's speeches, you will almost certainly come away with an impression of an absurd poseur; we have mostly forgotten how tremendously Mussolini was admired - not only by his own people but by prominent members of the British establishment - in the 1920s and 30s. Perhaps Violet Gibson made an involuntary contribution to his stature. If she did, I think it can only have been in a very small way.
Her assassination attempt (despite firing at point-blank range, she succeeded only in grazing the bridge of his nose) was the culmination of an unbalanced personal history. By 1922 she had had a mental breakdown and been committed to a lunatic asylum; by 1924 she had convinced herself that God wanted her to kill someone as a sacrifice; in 1925 she tried to kill herself (as a sacrifice) by shooting herself in the chest; she was inclined to assault people (in one case with a small hammer) for little or no reason. By 1926 she was properly unhinged. Francis Stonor Saunders tries to treat her with sympathy, and gives at least some consideration to the question of whether she really was mad or not; but there seems no doubt that she was. Repatriated to England in 1927 she spent the rest of her life in St Andrew’s asylum in Northampton, largely forgotten or ignored by her family, and subject to periodic fits of delusion and violence. The suggestion that she was put away merely because it would have been politically inconvenient to leave her at large is not plausible. The Woman Who Shot Mussolini is interesting not because it celebrates the career of a misunderstood heroine or unmasks the injustice of a faulty or politically motivated diagnosis, but for the discursive insights that it gives into pre-War polite society in Dublin, the career of Mussolini, the rise and decline of fascism in Italy, the treatment of mental illness, and the power of control and definition that is vested - vested to this day, after all - in psychiatry. I found it fascinating and very sad; but poor Violet certainly wasn't a world-historical figure, and, all things considered, her deranged act wasn't a particularly significant event.
Her assassination attempt (despite firing at point-blank range, she succeeded only in grazing the bridge of his nose) was the culmination of an unbalanced personal history. By 1922 she had had a mental breakdown and been committed to a lunatic asylum; by 1924 she had convinced herself that God wanted her to kill someone as a sacrifice; in 1925 she tried to kill herself (as a sacrifice) by shooting herself in the chest; she was inclined to assault people (in one case with a small hammer) for little or no reason. By 1926 she was properly unhinged. Francis Stonor Saunders tries to treat her with sympathy, and gives at least some consideration to the question of whether she really was mad or not; but there seems no doubt that she was. Repatriated to England in 1927 she spent the rest of her life in St Andrew’s asylum in Northampton, largely forgotten or ignored by her family, and subject to periodic fits of delusion and violence. The suggestion that she was put away merely because it would have been politically inconvenient to leave her at large is not plausible. The Woman Who Shot Mussolini is interesting not because it celebrates the career of a misunderstood heroine or unmasks the injustice of a faulty or politically motivated diagnosis, but for the discursive insights that it gives into pre-War polite society in Dublin, the career of Mussolini, the rise and decline of fascism in Italy, the treatment of mental illness, and the power of control and definition that is vested - vested to this day, after all - in psychiatry. I found it fascinating and very sad; but poor Violet certainly wasn't a world-historical figure, and, all things considered, her deranged act wasn't a particularly significant event.
November 1, 2012
This was a fantastic look at a range of characters, and also at political trends and movements. It begins with wouldbe assassin Violet Gibson's Anglo-Irish ascendancy background, and the rifts that old and new allegiances caused between members of her family. They seemed like people in search of something, anything - hence one brother's love of all things Irish, including the language and a strange costume highlighted by an orange kilt, which he always wore, despite never living in Ireland; her mother was also drawn to the blatant fakeness of Christian Science. Violet herself outraged all of them by becoming a Catholic. She seemed to have fixed on killing Mussolini for a long time, though it was a wish that was gestating in her, and not a plan, as such. Mussolini's own background is also shown in detail. He was not simply the pompous buffoon portrayed somewhat lazily by commentators. There was much more - and much worse - to him than that. He was also a man in search of something to cling to. His fascism was made up on the spot and was therefore devoid of any solid policy, his friendships were made very unwisely and the disastrous empire-building decisions he took were based on an illusion of his, and his rather backward country's, supposed greatness. You almost feel sorry for the hapless Mussolini as the book goes on; stuck with the dreadful fallout of all those bad friendships and decisions. Not that sorry, though. Violet Gibson came very close to putting the dictator out of the misery to come when she joined a fawning crowd one morning in Rome and took a pot shot at him that struck him on the nose. Mussolini made much of his seeming invincibility, and the fact that he was almost unembarrassable, and within a day he had resumed his duties, including a state visit, with a bandage covering much of his face. What happened to Violet after her arrest takes up the second half of this book, and I don't want to spoil that in a review, so I'll just say that she was very shamefully treated, even after it was decided that it was possibly crazier NOT to shoot Europe's dictators, and long after an Italian partisan group had finished what Violet started, and put an end to Mussolini.
April 27, 2016
Francis Stonor Saunders reminds me of the White Queen, as "trying to believe at least six impossible things before breakfast" is a modest feat in comparison to getting at least three interesting things that I hitherto didn't know into each paragraph!
I just wish I could retain all the information that I get from each page, all relevant, if not necessarily just around the subject of the book, leading you on to make connections with something similar in the past or future that links to the subject under discussion. I am in awe.
Whilst this book is not yet as well thumbed and annotated as my copy of her book about the Diabolical Englishman John Hawkwood I am sure that it will be a useful source of reference on Mussolini, the Rise of Fascism, Murder, Madness, Italian Law & Justice and much besides for years to come.
I just wish I could retain all the information that I get from each page, all relevant, if not necessarily just around the subject of the book, leading you on to make connections with something similar in the past or future that links to the subject under discussion. I am in awe.
Whilst this book is not yet as well thumbed and annotated as my copy of her book about the Diabolical Englishman John Hawkwood I am sure that it will be a useful source of reference on Mussolini, the Rise of Fascism, Murder, Madness, Italian Law & Justice and much besides for years to come.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews