In 1939 Madeleine Blaess, a languages graduate, left her home in England for Paris to begin doctoral research at the Sorbonne. Unable to escape Paris before the German invasion in spring 1940, she was trapped in France for the duration of the war. The letters she wrote to her parents during the Phoney War, and the diary she began in October 1940 and continued until after the Liberation, are a fascinating account of her life as a postgraduate scholar in wartime. Through these written traces we glimpse women-run social and intellectual communities and businesses to which many women students turned for scholarly and moral support and, occasionally, practical and financial succour. This article draws on Madeleine’s letters and diary to describe and evaluate the importance of these extra-curricular networks in supporting women students during wartime with a particular focus on the bookshop and library Shakespeare and Company, run by Sylvia Beach.

1939年，语言专业毕业生玛德琳·布莱斯（Madeleine Blaess）离开她的家在英格兰巴黎，开始在索邦大学（Sorbonne）进行博士研究。在1940年春天德国入侵之前，她无法逃脱巴黎，在战争期间，她被困在法国。她在电话战期间写给父母的信，以及她于1940年10月开始写日记，一直持续到解放后的日记，是她在战时作为研究生的一生的迷人写照。通过这些书面痕迹，我们可以瞥见妇女经营的社会和知识社区以及企业，许多女学生向她们寻求学术和道义上的支持，有时还寻求实践和财务上的帮助。