Perspective

This author, like the author of perhaps the most famous war diary in the world, Anne Frank, is personally and intimately positioned to write on the subject from a place of experience. In other words, she is writing about things she has lived, seen, felt, and suffered. What is different about the Marchesa, however, is the fact that unlike Anne Frank, she is the product of relative American privilege and aristocratic Italian privilege in particular. It is important to note that this aspect of her life rarely, if ever, makes itself apparent in the diaries, the commentary on the article published in the Fascist newspaper being the notable exception. Nevertheless, there is the sense that her social and financial position does play a role in her personal perspective, in the thematic perspective of her writings, and above all in her actions. Would she, in fact, have been as...