SKU: 55958450451

Woman in Battle Dress

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Woman in Battle DressFinalist for the 2016 PEN Center USA Award for Translation In 1809, at the age of eighteen, Henriette Faber enrolled herself in medical school in Paris and since medicine was a profession prohibited to women, she changed her name to Henri in order to matriculate. She would spend the next fifteen years practicing medicine and living as a man. Drafted to serve as a surgeon in Napoleon's army, Faber endured the horrors of the 1812 retreat across Russia.

Finalist for the 2016 PEN Center USA Award for Translation


In 1809, at the age of eighteen, Henriette Faber enrolled herself in medical school in Paris--and since medicine was a profession prohibited to women, she changed her name to Henri in order to matriculate. She would spend the next fifteen years practicing medicine and living as a man.

Drafted to serve as a surgeon in Napoleon's army, Faber endured the horrors of the 1812 retreat across Russia. She later embarked to the Caribbean and set up a medical practice in a remote Cuban village, where she married Juana de Le n, an impoverished local. Three years into their marriage, de Le n turned Faber in to the authorities, demanding that the marriage be annulled. A sensational legal trial ensued, and Faber was stripped of her medical license, forced to dress as a woman, sentenced to prison, and ultimately sent into exile. She was last seen on a boat headed to New Orleans in 1827.

In this, his last published work, Antonio Ben tez Rojo takes the outline provided by historical events and weaves a richly detailed backdrop for Faber, who becomes a vivid and complex figure grappling with the strictures of her time. Woman in Battle Dress is a sweeping, ambitious epic, in which Henriette Faber tells the story of her life, a compelling, entertaining, and ultimately triumphant tale.

Praise for Woman in Battle Dress

"Woman in Battle Dress by Antonio Ben tez-Rojo, which has been beautifully translated from the Spanish by Jessica Ernst Powell, is the extraordinary account of an extraordinary person. Ben tez-Rojo blows great gusts of fascinating fictional wind onto the all but forgotten embers of the actual Henriette Faber, and this blazing tale of her adventures as a military surgeon and a husband and about a hundred other fascinating things is both something we want and need to hear."--Laird Hunt, author of Neverhome

"A picaresque novel starring an adventurous heroine, who caroms from country to country around the expanding Napoleonic empire, hooking up with a dazzling array of men (and women) as she goes. A wild ride "--Carmen Boullosa, author of Texas: The Great Theft

"As detailed as any work of history and as action filled as any swashbuckler, Woman in Battle Dress is not only Antonio Ben tez Rojo's last and most ambitious book, but also his masterpiece. In this graceful English translation of Henriette Faber's autobiography--more than fiction, less than fact--American readers will have access to one of the most engaging novels to come out of Latin America in recent years."--Gustavo P rez-Firmat, Columbia University

Antonio Ben tez-Rojo (1931-2005) was a Cuban novelist, essayist and short-story writer. He was widely regarded as the most significant Cuban author of his generation. His work has been translated into nine languages and collected in more than 50 anthologies. One of his most influential publications, La Isla que se Repite, was published in 1989 by Ediciones del Norte, and published in English as The Repeating Island by Duke University Press in 1997.

Jessica Powell has translated numerous Latin American authors, including works by C sar Vallejo, Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Cardenal, Maria Moreno, Ana Lidia Vega Serova and Edmundo Paz Sold n. Her translation (with Suzanne Jill Levine) of Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo's novel Where There's Love, There's Hate, was published by Melville House in 2013. She is the recipient of a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship in support of her translation of Antonio Ben tez Rojo's novel Woman in Battle Dress.




Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: City Lights Books
Published: 10/13/2015
ISBN: 9780872866768
Pages: 480
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 8.40h x 6.00w x 1.10d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2015
Booklist 08/01/2015 pg. 25
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SKU: 55958450451

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Texas Bob
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 5
Amazing detail and story
Format: Hardcover
We visited Chartwell in June 2023. I sure wish I had read this book prior to that visit. I was still able to scroll through my photographs and compare them with the book photos or comments. All in all the book is excellent. It manages to complete the story of Churchill in Exile and give the reader a glimpse of all the work he accomplished leading up to WWII. It also begs the question if given a leadership role earlier Churchill could have prevented the war in the first place. As someone who lost his uncle over France in 1943 that would have been nice. I highly recommend this book. A great man.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2024
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Nate Hanshaw
Draper, US
★★★★★ 5
10/10 recommend
Format: Hardcover
Great book, especially if you're a fan on WWII or Winston Churchill! I never really dove into Churchill specifically before this book, but I was very impressed with how much influence he had leading up to the war, even when he wasn't a political official. It's also wild to think about how different things could have been if people took his warnings sooner. Overall I love the book and I think it's a very interesting read even if you're not that into history!
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Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2025
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G Stewart
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
Churchill's "wilderness years" at Chartwell were perhaps the "important years" in preparing him.
Format: Hardcover
A brilliant idea for a new perspective on Churchill, and an even better execution. The author literally examines the guestbook over a ten-year period at Chartwell, Churchill's country home. Not only are the names of the guests fascinating, but the subjects of their discussions are eyebrow-raising in multitudes of ways. From Einstein to German spies, from politicians to celebrities, Churchill was not only busy maintaining connections he deemed useful, but his efforts to stay well-informed were Herculean. He did not hold an elected office during these "wilderness years," but he dictated volumes of books (no doubt improving his oratory skill), built brick walls, gardened, painted, and traveled like his life depended on it. It is fascinating to gain these new insights into the man. Depressed by his recent failure to be re-elected, he went to work instead of retiring. He imposed upon himself a strict diet of information protein, personal network building, philosophical expansion, and extraordinary production. All the visitors, discussions, and interactions ultimately resulted in the most fantastic preparation imaginable for a man destined to lead his country as Prime Minister during the greatest war the world has ever known. I found the book extremely well-written yet easy to read, finishing it in just two days.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2025
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Chris
Draper, US
★★★★★ 5
Excellent pre WW2 Churchill primer.
Format: Hardcover
This author has done an excellent job of explaining the role Churchill played in preparing Britain for WW2 despite being out of government for most of the 1930’s. The author is a curator and historian who has managed the collections at Chartwell, Churchill’s home during that time. Very well researched and easy to read. Anyone who studies 20th Century European history needs to read this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2025
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PrairieVillageSteve
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
Book for Churchill fans
Format: Hardcover
Not an introduction to Churchill but fills out a period of his life that is often overlooked. Some fascinating insights into people who visited Chartwell. I really enjoyed this book, but it's not for everyone.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2025

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