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War, I know, is a serious game, but sometimes very humble actors are of great use in it.
Mary Seacole wrote this book to share her adventures with her fans, but also as a means to make money as she found herself having to declare herself bankrupt upon her return from the Crimea.
5 in stock
As Penguin Books themselves state: Written in 1857, this is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale’s during the Crimean War. Seacole’s offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to the Crimea where she acted as doctor and ‘mother’ to wounded soldiers while running her business, the ‘British Hotel’. A witness to key battles, she gives vivid accounts of how she coped with disease, bombardment and other hardships at the Crimean battlefront.
This Penguin Classic is accompanied by an extensive introduction by Sara Salih, placing Wonderful Adventures in its historical and political contexts, and discussing Seacole’s attitudes to race, slavery and war. The original introduction to Seacole’s book is also included, written by William Howard Russell. Russell is himself a fascinating and important figure in history, being one of the first War Reporters, and who spent 22 months in Crimea covering the conflict. He would later go into write about the American Civil War. The very fact that he was involved with Seacole’s book serves to show just how important a figure she was considered in her day. As he himself states, I have witnessed her devotion and her courage; I have already borne testimony to her services to all who needed them…I trust that England will not forget one who nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead.
It is not only a book telling of her time in Crimea. The nineteen chapters cover everything from her parentage and birth; her dealings with Cholera and Yellow fever, long before her time in Crimea; trips to America and wanderings in London
This is an important book that also includes suggestions for further reading, a chronology, an appendix, notes and maps.
Author – Mary Seacole
Publisher – Penguin Books
Format – Paperback
Pub date – 2005 (First published 1857)
ISBN – 9780140439021
Pages – 224
Dimensions – 129mm x 198mm
Weight – 214g
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