The Olive Field

This proletarian novel, published in 1936, is set in Andalusia and Asturias between 1932 and 1934. The central character, Joaquín Caro, leaves the small Andalusian town of Los Olivares de Don Fadrique following the brutal suppression of a workers’ protest. He goes to Asturias with his wife Lucía and later takes part in the unsuccessful revolution of October 1934 before returning to Los Olivares to begin again.

The author, Ralph Bates (born 3 November 1899), grew up in the southern English railway town of Swindon and his first job was in a railway factory. He enlisted in the army in 1917 and served with the Royal West Surrey Regiment. After the war, he returned to the factory and became interested in the workers’ political movement. He moved to Spain in 1923. His first book (a collection of short stories) was published in 1933 and his first novel appeared in the following year. He served with the International Brigades during the civil war and afterwards emigrated to Mexico. In 1947 he moved to New York to lecture in creative writing and English literature at New York University and he worked there until his retirement in 1966. Although he had continued to write, his last book to be published had appeared in 1950. Before his death as centenarian, he had been writing a history of the Greek island of Naxos, where he had been living, as well as a collection of poems.

The suppression of the workers’ protest in Los Olivares resembles the slaughter of advancing soldiers on the Flanders battlefields:
“ ‘They're coming, the bastards,’ shouted the sergeant of the Civil Guard... and Montaña wrenched his pistol from its holster and shouted, ‘Fire!'. Rifles flew up and the muzzles came down to the waistline of the advancing fours of the procession and the first volley cracked like lightning... The leading ranks crumpled and blew apart as if a terrific ráfaga had whirled among them, an uplifted placard spun round and the paper was torn away by an invisible thong which whipped fragments of wood into the air. The screams of the procession and the thundering of the rifles drowned Montaña’s cracking voice as he yelled, ‘Fire! Fire!’

Cradle of Life

This epic novel, published in 1936, is a fictional autobiography set in Croatia in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The narrator, Rudo Stanka, born to a young aristocratic mother out of wedlock in 1889, spends his early childhood as a foster child in a peasant family in a village near Zagreb. Ten years later his wealthy grandfather finds him and purchases a large country estate for him. Towards the end of the novel, Rudo increasingly turns his affections towards his peasant foster mother and her family and shows socialist sympathies. His attitude to the aristocracy which he was born into and which he benefits from is increasingly sceptical and he considers radical changes to the systems that uphold the status quo. A peculiar feature of the novel is the author's deconstruction of the narrator into Rudo at different ages, each age conversing with each other about his perspective on life.

The author, Louis Adamič (born 23 March 1898; his official year of birth in the United States was 1899 as he needed to subtract a year from his age in order to leave Austria-Hungary in 1913), grew up in Lower Carniola in southern Slovenia. Having become involved in nationalist politics and been expelled from school, he left for America in December 1913. At first he lived in New England and by 1916 was working in Boston as a reporter. Towards the end of the First World War, he served with the United States Army on the Western Front. After the war he continued to work as a journalist. His first book (a work of political non-fiction) was published in 1931. In his 1934 book, The Native's Return, he described a visit he made to his native country. His first novel appeared in 1935 and was followed in 1936 by this one. Among his other books were other autobiographical books and several publications promoting ethnic diversity in the United States. His book From Many Lands was the non-fiction winner of the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award (for books promoting multiculturalism) in 1941.

The central character Rudo’s aristocratic mentor, Prince Arbogast von Hohengraetz, gives Rudo his personal insight into the character of Franz Ferdinand:
“I make no claim to being a prophet but mark my words, this century will be a century of explosions and unless I am greatly mistaken, this fellow F.F. will be a factor in starting or bringing them about... He is essentially stupid, yet forges ahead. He is virtually regent already. And who is his great friend but that Mich-und-Gott lunatic in Berlin, who is also 17th century or even further back, a robber baron imbued with the Bismarckian Drang nach Osten idea.”
At the very end of the novel, Rudo’s brother-in-law discusses the latest news:
“I read in the newspapers that Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand is to be in Sarajevo tomorrow and is there to be officially received — on Vidov dan [an important Serbian holiday]! He is now on the way to Bosnia to witness the great army manoeuvres. All of which, obviously, is intended to be a high-handed gesture against the pro-Serbian and Yugoslav feeling in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.”

Woman of Glenshiels

This impassioned industrial novel, published in 1935, is set in a small town near Glasgow in the first three decades of the 20th century. It's a sequel to the 1932 novel Glenshiels. The strong-willed central character, Mary Bassett, leaves school in 1908 at the age of 14 to begin work in the local meat factory. In the coming-of-age section of the novel, she grapples with the socialism of her boyfriend Donald. He overcomes conscientious objections to militarism and volunteers for the Western Front. At the end of the novel she speaks defiantly to her son, like a soldier having experienced a crushing defeat: “We willna stop fighting... us wha are the fighters.” All that she has been striving for as an adult life (all her economic ambitions) are lost and she begins to accept Donald’s socialist arguments about the class struggle.

The author, Lennox Kerr (born 1 July 1899), grew up in Paisley, near Glasgow. Like the heroine of this novel, he left school at the age of 14 to work in the local meat factory. In 1915, however, claiming to be 18 years old, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He remained overseas until 1930. His first book, an account of some of his travels, was published in the same year. He went on to write 23 books for adults, including an autobiography, and 32 books for children (mostly using the pseudonym Peter Dawlish). Among these books were two historical accounts of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

As the central character Mary's boyfriend Donald prepares to leave for the Western Front, there are many similar scenes of farewell at the central station in Glasgow:
“Central Station was crowded with soldiers and sailors and their wives and parents. All over the station stood little groups of people and in the centre of every group was a soldier or sailor. Mostly they were laughing and joking. One group of men were drinking. The whisky bottles kept rising and pointing their bases upwards and then lowering. This group started singing and shouting.
Donald and Mary walked soberly to the train. Donald searched the length of the train but could find no seat. Every carriage was packed with kit-bags. He left his pack in the corridor and returned to Mary.
‘Looks like this'll be a wet passage,” he said, and smiled.
‘Hauf the fellas are drunk already.’
Mary was shocked. It was like laughing at a funeral, though she didn't have that simile.
‘It's a shame,’ she said. ‘And them goan tae France.’
Donald smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
‘Maybe that’s why.’ ”

Bitter Victory

This novel, published in 1935, is set in the Breton town of Saint-Brieuc in 1917. The central character, François Merlin (nicknamed Cripure), teaches philosophy to schoolboys. The character is based on Georges Palante, one of his own teachers. Cripure's personal descent into despair is set against the backdrop of a highly-demoralising French campaign on the Western Front. The novel was adapted for the stage by Marcel Maréchal in 1977, for television in 2006 and as an opera in 2014.

The author, Louis Guilloux (born 15 January 1899), grew up in Saint-Brieuc. He was educated at the local high school on a bursary. On leaving school in 1916, he began work as an assistant in a boarding school. After the war, he associated with the Paris literary scene and had several works of short fiction published. His first novel, partly based on his upbringing, was published in 1927. In addition to numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, he was also active as a translator of contemporary English literature into French. Since 1983, a literary award in his honour has been presented annually to Breton writers.

The central character, François Merlin, contrives a personal connection with the war. He makes contact with his estranged son (by a maidservant) Amédée:
“The war having come, Cripure reckoned that the slavey’s offspring must be of an age to go and be killed. And he had desired to find the lad... He wrote to the mayor of the little commune where the boy had grown up. Amédee had been mobilised, at the front for a year already. A correspondence had been struck up and it had been arranged that Amédée should come to see his father on his next leave.”
Amédée has a viciously cynical attitude to the war, corresponding with the increasing despondency in the troops and in society that produced mutinies and street protests. When his father is concerned about him being late to report to his unit, he gives a wilting retort:
“Oh, so far as that goes!.... I'm in no hurry, you know, father, to go and get my head shot off.”