
Historical fiction book · Open Library
The general's women
Unknown author · historical fiction
Set during the chaotic years of World War II, tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie knew the gossip: Ike was involved with another woman; his letters home were only tepidly reassuring. The relationship between Eisenhower and his driver/aide Kay Summersby moved from England to North Africa and then throughout Europe before and after the Normandy landing.
About this historical novel
The general's women by Unknown author is historical fiction rooted in Global / multiple. Set during the chaotic years of World War II, tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie knew the gossip: Ike was involved with another woman; his letters home were only tepidly reassuring. The relationship between Eisenhower and his driver/aide Kay Summersby moved from England to North Africa and then throughout Europe before and after the Normandy landing.
On HisFic we tag it under 1. Literary historical fiction so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include world war, 1939-1945, marriage, biographical fiction, historical fiction, and fiction.
Use HisFic’s free journey planner to stay in this era or subgenre, save titles to a want-to-read list in your browser, and open Amazon when you are ready to buy. HisFic is discovery-only—not a bookstore—so pages like this exist to help you choose the next historical novel with intent.
Plot summary
Set during the chaotic years of World War II, tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie knew the gossip: Ike was involved with another woman; his letters home were only tepidly reassuring. The relationship between Eisenhower and his driver/aide Kay Summersby moved from England to North Africa and then throughout Europe before and after the Normandy landing.
Subgenres
Eras
- Not classified yet
More like this on HisFic
Curated titles that share era, story type, or themes.
- Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley takes Netherfield, Mrs. Bennet is determined to marry off a daughter—but it is the proud Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth Bennet’s first impression of him, that turns a Hertfordshire season into the most famous courtship in English fiction. Jane Austen’s 1813 novel is Regency historical romance of manners, money, and a woman who will not marry without respect.
- Hamnet · Maggie O'Farrell
The plague, a marriage, and the death of Shakespeare’s son—told with intimate, luminous focus.
- The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers · Margaret George
Henry VIII’s manuscript, glossed in the margins by his fool Will Somers, runs from a 1491 childhood through six wives, the break with Rome, and the dissolution of the monasteries, with Cromwell, Wolsey, More, and Anne Boleyn on the same pages as the king who signs their fates. Margaret George’s 1986 novel is early-modern biographical historical fiction of Tudor England told from the throne, not from the minister’s rooms.
- Kristin Lavransdatter · Sigrid Undset
In fourteenth-century Norway, headstrong Kristin Lavransdatter defies her father for the charming, reckless Erlend Nikulaussøn, then lives out a marriage, seven sons, and a faith tested by politics, guilt, and the coming of the Black Death. Sigrid Undset’s Nobel-winning trilogy is medieval historical fiction of one woman’s whole life against church, kin, and a frozen northern kingdom.
- The Marriage Portrait · Maggie O'Farrell
Lucrezia de’ Medici is married at fifteen to the Duke of Ferrara, then isolated in a court where a duchess can be painted, praised, and quietly discarded. O’Farrell turns a famous rumor—that Lucrezia was murdered—into close, tense biographical historical fiction of Renaissance Italy.
- Anna Karenina · Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina has a husband, a son, and St. Petersburg society—until a Moscow railway station and the officer Count Vronsky pull her into an affair the salons will not forgive; beside that ruin, landowner Konstantin Levin tries to make a marriage and a farm mean something. Tolstoy’s 1870s novel is Imperial Russian historical fiction of passion, class, and the question of how to live—the tragic counterpart to War and Peace already on the shelf.
Regions & places
Global / multiple
Themes
- world war, 1939-1945
- marriage
- biographical fiction
- historical fiction
- fiction
- fiction, biographical
- fiction, historical
- eisenhower, dwight d. (dwight david), 1890-1969 -- fiction
Tags
open-library