Non-Combatants and Others

by Rose Macaulay, Sarah Lefanu (Foreward)

Rose Macaulay’s powerfully felt pacifist novel of World War I records the suffering and passion of Alix Sandomir’s rebellion against the foolishness of her fellow noncombatants. The year is 1915, and Alix moves from her cousins’ home in the country to the suburban villa "Violette" with its impervious, engrossed household. There a gallery of preoccupied characters, drawn with all Rose Macaulay’s wit and observation, distract Alix from the frustrations and impotence of her position. But when she learns the truth about the death of her younger brother on the front line she becomes increasingly aware of the ineffective role of women in war. Angered by her own ineffectualness Alix finally begins her battle for peace.

Genres: World War I, Fiction, War, Classics, British Literature, Essays, Short Stories

Hardcover

First published February 13, 1916

About the author

Emilie Rose Macaulay, whom Elizabeth Bowen called "one of the few writers of whom it may be said, she adorns our century," was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master. Descended on both sides from a long line of clerical ancestors, she felt Anglicanism was in her blood. Much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa, and memories of Italy fill the early novels. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read history at Somerville, and on coming down lived with her family first in Wales, then near Cambridge, where her father had been appointed a lecturer in English. There she began a writing career which was to span fifty years with the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.

From BookRags: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ros...

Reviews

[Andrew H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dame Rose Macaulay appears to be one of the numerous women writers from the early part of the C20 who have fallen out of memory. Non-Combatants and Others contains her novel of that name (1916), sixteen pieces of journalism (1936-1945)and a short story, "Miss Anstruther's Letters" (1942). All bear her hallmark intelligence and caustic wit.

The novel has an unfinished feel to it-- an inevitable feel, for it was written during World War I at a time when the horrors were apparent and the future was unknown. The writing is therefore exploratory, convinced of the wrongness of war whilst being unsure what might come after. Increased liberty? Or greater restrictions on freedom? The novel does not preach, then again it is keen on expounding as many arguments as possible for peace. This is done through the hesitant mind of Alix Sandomir, her certain, indomitable mother, Daphne. and various other related characters. Daphne Sandomir "had been at Newnham in the days when girls went to college ardently, full of aims and ideals and self-realisations and great purpose." There is a strong educational vein to Macaulay's writing and she writes often in the philosophical spirit of George Eliot.

The journalistic pieces are well worth reading , especially Macaulay's account of a Fascist meeting with Oswald Mosley, "Marginal Comments (March, 1936)", which she compares to a day out a mental home, and her compassionate attack on war in "Apeing the Barbarians."

The concluding short story is a finely written account of The Blitz.

Some of Macaulay's anti-war statements have real relevance today. She had no time for the cant of politicians and equivocating States. She rightly deplores the term "just war" and observes that the killing of one person is murder, but "if you kill enough people at once, it is no longer murder, it is patriotism, or class war, or the saving of civilisation."

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting thing about this book is the context in which it was written, the knowledge that every observation and opinion was informed by events of the time and not influenced by any benefit of hindsight. For this I believe it is very much worth a read.

I found the story itself to be meandering and clumsy. Only a few times did I find it particularly compelling. Sometimes events seemed just to happen in order to set up a discussion but only occasionally did I find any argument persuasive, although I agreed with some of the sentiment. It seemed as though the author expected her readers to want simply to be told exactly what a pacifist should think.

Towards the end of the book she spent about half a page detailing which groups of villagers, from a selection of Cambridgeshire villages, were most stupid! She later expresses a need for education, for an understanding that people on all sides do not wish to die. Mothers on all sides mourn for their sons. We all are much the same, want the same things from life, and war is directly opposed to those desires.

I felt the most interesting chapter was Chapter Nine, Sunday in the Country. Maynard’s argument about the “fundamentally untouched” particularly stood out to me, although I don’t think it was meant to. “We all hope our pet organisation or tendency... is going to step in and transform society. But really I believe the world will be left very much where it was, because of that great immobile section which weighs it down.” I wonder how far this applies to the world today; are we all hoping that one day, through force or otherwise, the whole world will have one unified political stance and thereby find peace? Am I hoping that view will be my view?

As a happy coincidence the book ends on New Year’s Eve, which is today! This was the last book I read in 2017. Happy New Year!

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early novel by Rose Macaulay presents a fascinating insight into an section of liberal, middle-class society during the First World War. Originally published in 1916, it is set in the preceding year, when the war on the Western Front had effectively ground to a stalemate of grinding trench warfare and before the introduction of mass conscription. The non-combatants of the title are many and various: men unfit to fight, those who had managed to justify to themselves that they shouldn’t fight, pacifists of various shades of opinion, and, of course, women. As a panorama of home front life among the artistic, semi-bohemian intelligentsia it is a revealing and surprising contemporary document; as a novel it is patchy and an inferior work to later books like The World my Wilderness, her brilliant novel of the Second World War.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to realize, reading this novel a 100 years later, that when it was published in l916 , World War I was far from over. The novel, in its attitude toward the effects of war, particularly on a civilian population, has the feeling of looking back critically on an an irrational conflict, not a novel written in its midst.

The noncombatants of the title are mostly women, the chief one of whom is Alix, a young woman who is an a painter. The center of her middle-class family is John who has suffered head injuries in the war and has been sent home. As a combatant he is asked questions about how the war was going, but in fact he knows little more about it than his civilian questioners.

This dis-connect with the war is a prevalent concern of the book. Alix is uninterested in the war and avoids talking or thinking about it as much as she can. Others in her family follow reports of advances and retreats but finally are no more knowledgeable than Alix.

The novel empasizes that the war’s effect on most people is filtered through propaganda. “The cinema, the state, and the press were now used extensively as organs to express governmental points of view. . .” They are not used to tell the truth.

She and a friend discuss a book that they think is full of claptrap about how through the arts the war is “putting an end to sordidness and littleness . . . we have come surely to the heroic, the epic pitch of living.” They see its destruction and killing as an insanity, wasteful and brutal, and mostly what it has produced in literature is cheap heroics and commonplace patriotic nonsense.

Cheap heroics and patriotic nonsense are not just confined to writing. Alix moves to London where there are more opportunities for painting , but attitudes are the same as where she came from. She boards with cousins whose mother utters noting but patriotic platitudes. She has two daughters, both around Alix’s age. One busies herself mostly with self-important but negligible church work, and the other, Evie, a pretty girl, finds her chief interest in the war is flirting with officers young veterans.

Alix as an observer of this behavior tries to ignore the war, but she is devastated when she learns of the death of her brother who died a lingering, horrible battle death. When the war does affect someone directly, as with Alix, it is overwhelming.

Alix’s mother is what would be called today a peace activist. She is an active intelligent woman who organizes peace conferences that attempt to make people realize the causes of war, that it is irrational behavior on both sides that are the causes. Do her efforts have any success? Not apparently, but she argues that there is no alternative and at as the new year of 1916 begins,, she is continuing her work. Alix, after her initial skepticism of her mother’s efforts, begins to support her. She asks, what is the alternative?

[Jerry Wall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anti war World War I
The war at its depths before the U. S. became an ally in 1916, ending the year 1915 with the thoughts of divers people, mostly non-combatants.
The individuals concerned were frustrated with the war and the loss and the futility.
Very well written, very interesting.
Why does anyone support war.
There are things to believe, you know. You'll have to believe -- some of them, anyhow.'
I suppose so, I dare say it's not so very difficult is it?
Very, I believe. I've never tried personally, but so I am told by this who have.
Oh well, I don't care. Lots of quite stupid people seem to manage it so I don't see why I shouldn't. I shall try, anyhow. p. at 96 percent through. Just before coda of New Years Eve/
No glory to war, just suffering through!

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a bit of pointless meandering near the end of the book where she seems to lose focus, so not quite a 5 star effort - but if you need to be reminded about what a horrific waste of life WWI was, this is a must-read. There's some fairly pitiless skewering of stupid young women, too.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose Macaulay is an underrated and underread writer. This early novel about a young woman's political awakening during World War I is a brilliant character study and an insightful commentary about gender roles in wartime. I think it's out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, I definitely recommend it!

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was just an ok book. I would not recommend it unless some is seriously interested in the Great War and its affects on English women. I thing the most insightful character in the book was Nicholas, the protagonist's elder brother. So if you bother to read this novel, pay close attention to what he says.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read, especially at is was actually written and published in 1916, right in the middle of the First World War. No "looking back" and "with the benefit of hindsight" here. Sometimes it felt like I was reading a political pamphlet rather than a novel (especially towards the end) but there were some sensitively written and affecting sections too.

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this book.
why is Rose Macaulay not better known and more widely read?! Or, should I say, why hadn't I ever read or heard anything about this amazing writer?!
why is this book not a classic of sorts?
i am not a fan of wwi or wwii books--but this was a beautiful, beautiful book.

beautiful.