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Remembered Today:

Under fire; the story of a squad


Skipman

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Wiki says All Quiet on the Western Front was " partly based " on this book?

Under fire; the story of a squad Henri Barbusse

Original version

Le feu journal d'une escouade

Mike

Mike

Funnily enough it is Junger's 'Storm of Steel' to which it is most often compared yet the structure of the book clearly points the way to 'All's Quiet..'

It's literary reputation is ahead of both with its most recent reprint in English being within the Penguins Modern Classics imprint. Although it is written during the war by someone who had served,it is seen as mainly fictional (or to use that dreadful word 'faction). It is certainly an uncomfortable read and has none of the 'military as a noble calling' stuff in Junger or, to an extent in 'All Quiet'. Barbusse was driven by his pacifism and his strong communist leanings. Grim realism is the order of the day. Lyrical is not the word!

I would say the two strongest links with 'All Quiet' are that it centres on a group of poilus and follows their fortunes and secondly consistently makes the point that unless you have experienced the war first hand you don't understand it.

David

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One of the essay options on this term's MA First World War Studies at Brumuni is to compare Under Fire, Goodbye to All that and Storm of Steel. Under Fire feels in its style of consistent misery more like one of Zola's earlier pre war works.

Under Fire is the only one of the three available as a free download - unless you know different! My copy of GBTAT is actually pre WW2 (as is my Undertones of War) having once belonged to an aunt but I don't think SoS or UF were easily available in translation pre WW2 - not in paperback anyway

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It would appear so, but GBTAT is available on Scribd, ilegally, allegedly.

Mike

Both Graves and Junger lived to ripe old ages so their legatees probably still have copyright

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There's a few other works by Blunden, but no " Undertones of War "?

Mike

Won't be out of copyright until 2044 - I shan't wait.

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While searching for Under Fire on Archive.org I came across three books by a Marcel Berger which have been translated from the French. I have downloaded them for looking at later they are:

https://ia600402.us.archive.org/8/items/cu31924027312531/cu31924027312531.pdf

https://ia700307.us.archive.org/6/items/ordealbyfire00bergiala/ordealbyfire00bergiala.pdf

https://archive.org/details/lifeatstake00berg

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