Thursday, January 17, 2013

"The flies have conquered the flypaper!" Two classic resistance reads, and two of my favories.

Rifleman Dodd by C.S. Forester. Originally published in 1932 with the title Death to the French.
The novel relates the adventures of a British rifleman of the 95th Regiment of Foot who is cut off from his regiment when the Allied army retreats behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. He is forced to survive for several months in territory that has been devastated by the Allies and occupied by the French. With some help from a few local Portuguese, Dodd wages guerrilla warfare against the French.[1] The story is told from both the perspective of Dodd and the Frenchmen he is fighting. Its picture of the hero's resolution and devotion to duty in dangerous circumstances caused it to be put on the official reading list endorsed by the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. -- Wikipedia.
I first read The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck in high school and have always remembered the Nazi occupier who went off his nut and ran through the streets shouting "The flies have conquered the flypaper!"
The Moon Is Down, a novel by John Steinbeck fashioned for adaption for the theatre and for which Steinbeck received the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Cross, was published by Viking Press in March 1942. The story tells of the military occupation of a small town in Northern Europe by the army of an unnamed nation at war with England and Russia (much like the occupation of Norway by the Germans during World War II). A French language translation of the book was published illegally in Nazi-occupied France by Les Éditions de Minuit, a French Resistance publishing house. Furthermore, numerous other editions were also secretly published across all of occupied Europe, including Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Italian versions; it was the best known work of US literature in the Soviet Union during the war. Without naming the occupying force as Nazis, references to 'The Leader', 'Memories of defeats in Belgium and France 20 years ago' clearly suggest it. Written with a purpose to motivate and enthuse the resistance movements in occupied countries, it has appeared in at least 92 editions across the world, proving its popularity. -- Wikipedia.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two of my favorites also. I read both as a teenager. I remember fondly watching the black and white movie adapted from the book. Both Steinbeck and Forrester are favorite authors of mine. Our youth have not had the opportunity to read the literature written by good writers like these nor the stories of World War II written by our veterans. History is a "verboten" subject by the progressive public schools. Too much violence, guns and oh yes, independent thinking and action.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this.My huband and I are always looking for the next good read and are very partial to bygone eras.