Suffragette Girl
Florrie Maltby is a rich, bubbly, young English countrywoman with a social conscience. Rather than marry her dear friend and neighbor, Gervase, Florrie sets off for London to join the Suffragettes, militant activists working to obtain the vote for women. Her acts of property violence land her in prison, where she undertakes a hunger strike, enduring starvation and then forced feeding, mostly, it seems, to prove that she can. Weak and ill, she is rescued by Gervase, whose devotion never wavers. (Never. As the story progresses, this devotion becomes unrealistic.)
The skills Florrie learns as a Suffragette serve her well when World War I breaks out and she volunteers as a nurse at the front. Brave, outspoken, and beautiful, she attracts the attention of a handsome, recklessly determined Swiss field doctor, Ernst Hartmann. They begin a passionate affair which is not as discreetly conducted as Florrie believes. Florrie is convinced the doctor loves her; however, when her beloved younger brother is arrested for desertion, it is Gervase, not Ernst, who lends his support.
Florrie is a feisty protagonist, but her insistence on the rightness of her actions clashes with her naiveté and sense of entitlement, so it’s difficult to be too impressed. Although the politics of the Suffragettes and the wartime scenes are convincingly portrayed, they remain background to a love story that fails to inspire. This is an entertaining read, but not a memorable one.
