The Honeyed Peace: Stories

by Martha Gellhorn

'Miss Gellhorn reports on human nature with an adult breadth and candour which are rare today. She is tough yet entirely feminine, disillusioned but not hopeless, charitable but discriminating.'-THE TIMES

Genres: Classics, Short Stories

253 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Martha Ellis Gellhorn (1908-1998) was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist. She is considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism is named after her.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My categories don't quite have room for this book of brilliant short stories; and it's really more like 4.5 or 4.78912 stars than 4. Gellhorn was one of the first female war correspondents, covering everything from the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s to the Arab-Israeli conflicts into the 1970s and her first-hand experiences infuse her fictional work with a fascinating, nuanced, deft mix of compassion, cynicism, knowledge, annoyance, pathos, and insight. Given my interests, the stories of civilians in the aftermath of war were the most interesting - she depicts their emotional and practical challenges, their transition from war to peace, the politics and social expectations, the gendered roles and opportunities, with tremendous skill and perception. My favorite chapter is called Weekend at Grimsby and it captures all of this beautifully and sadly. The book concludes with what's almost a novella, a very long story of an ugly seduction involving two awful people surrounded by other awful people. As much as I disliked it, I couldn't put the book down, wanting to know how she would conclude this bitter tale; she brought the characters' weaknesses, cruelties, and obsession to vivid life. Yuck, though. But now I'll go get more of her books because wow - she was an amazing writer and such a deeply interesting person.

[Monica Madaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gellhorn excels at bad date stories, since she presents the thoughts men are thinking that women are unaware of. I imagine being a war correspondent, one would get good at this.

Both "Cafe at Jaffa" and "Venus Ascendent" have this quality.

I don't know how popular bad date stories are.

"Exile" provides an interesting contrast to the Malamud story, "The German Refugee". I don't know if this is an "answer" story, an intentional commentary on someone else's story, or not. It must have been a fairly common situation and theme right after the war.

I liked the way "Miami-New York" was written when I first read it in the Updike anthology of best stories of the century, but I think the point is a bit sexist. The women in these stories always seem to fold up like cardboard at the hint that they are aging. Despite her evident familiarity with the alternative.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters didn't strike me as very sophisticated. Take the last story: a plump unattractive prudish English girl with Daddy issues is seduced by a short adulterous shady Italian. He breaks her heart. She pulls herself together. Yawn.

The title is ironic. The war was honeyed because it was healthy young men looking good in uniforms and seducing nurses, Italian contessas, journalists (Martha!) and passengers on flights from Miami. Peace is not honeyed because the young men have moved to Grimsby and have fat girlfriends. To make matters worse, Paris is now crap because the formerly charming French socialites aren't coping very well with the suicides of their collaborationist husbands.

I liked "About Shorty"; tart-with-a-heart vs the 20th Century. Tart-with-a-heart loses.

I learnt that Martha's favourite Europeans were Poles.



Grimsby station "resembled a mine-shaft, except that it was horizontal."

"She took a difficult tub in a bath apparently designed to be lain in sideways"

"Even the English, in a sly and dishonest way, had a love affair with England; they did not speak of it, though, as if you were not good enough to hear or understand."

[Emily Rueb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful prose.

[aj! · Rating 4 out of 5]

martha gellhorn >>> martha gellhorn's husband

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointment. The Honeyed Peace is a collection of short stories most of whom were written for the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Atlantic Monthly from 1946-1952. Its 10 short stories over 240 pages or about 24 pages per story. Most of them deal with WWII and its aftermath. There's a story about a German exile, a Spanish Civil war "Good time girl", a French collaborator's wife, etc. But the longest, almost 70 pages, "Venus Ascending" deals with an American woman and her "bad Date" story in Italy.

All the stories betray their origins. These are slick magazine "Entertainments". You can see Gellhorn -very subtly pushing her Left-wing views - but the stories make no impact. They're easily read, but completely forgettable. According to her Biography, Gellhorn's publisher only produced the book because they hoped she'd write a novel later on. Summary: For Gellhorn Completists.