Mrs. Miniver
Jan Struther
May 2019 · Open Road Media
Ebook
153
Pages
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Eligible
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About this ebook
The beloved classic novel of an English housewife bravely enduring WWII—the basis for the Academy Award–winning film starring Greer Garson.
Winston Churchill once remarked that Mrs. Miniver, the fictional British housewife featured in Jan Struther’s newspaper columns about quotidian English life, did more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships. As tensions rose across Europe, Mrs. Miniver’s domestic concerns expanded from automobiles and Christmas shopping to include gas masks, keeping calm, and carrying on.
An international sensation when it was first published, this novelized collection of those columns won America’s heart—and broad public support for entering WWII. Mrs. Miniver’s story was so essential to Allied morale that when William Wyler’s film adaption was made, President Roosevelt ordered it rushed to theaters.
Winston Churchill once remarked that Mrs. Miniver, the fictional British housewife featured in Jan Struther’s newspaper columns about quotidian English life, did more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships. As tensions rose across Europe, Mrs. Miniver’s domestic concerns expanded from automobiles and Christmas shopping to include gas masks, keeping calm, and carrying on.
An international sensation when it was first published, this novelized collection of those columns won America’s heart—and broad public support for entering WWII. Mrs. Miniver’s story was so essential to Allied morale that when William Wyler’s film adaption was made, President Roosevelt ordered it rushed to theaters.
About the author
Jan Struther was the pen name of Joyce Anstruther, later Joyce Maxtone Graham, and finally Joyce Placzek, a writer remembered for her character Mrs. Miniver and a number of hymns, including “Lord of All Hopefulness.” During the 1930s, Struther became known as the author of stylish poems and essays for Punch, and Peter Fleming of the Times asked her to create a character whose doings would enliven the Court Page of the paper: “an ordinary sort of woman who leads an ordinary sort of life—rather like yourself.” In fact, Struther was very far from ordinary: She was tiny, very pretty, and bursting with unconventional zest and enthusiasm (two of her favorite words). The collected articles, which had become enormously popular, were published as Mrs. Miniver in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. Soon afterward, Struther went to lecture in America, where Mrs. Miniver became a much-loved Hollywood film starring Greer Garson. President Roosevelt told Struther that the book had hastened America’s entry into the war, and Churchill was to declare that it had done more for the Allies than a flotilla of battleships.
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