In the Whirlpool of War

In this historically significant work, Isabelle Rimbaud (1860-1917) describes her flight with her invalid husband from Roche, in the Ardennes, to Paris, at the time when the Germans were advancing to the Marne. Writing in diary form, she draws a graphic picture of the misery of the hordes of refugees, of the bombardment of Rheims, and of the devastation left behind by the Germans in their retreat. By relating personal sufferings and happenings which would ordinarily be excluded from a work of a more general character, the author puts a sense of emotional attachment to her journey and the tragedies along the way.