Worst WW1 books?

[Lindsey]

well, i have just started to read "Birdsong" and from the cover thought it would be about WW1 - i am several pages in and its all romance and heady passionate stuff.  Not the sort of action I had expected. 

I don't know whether to open it to read or leave it closed..-

Also just got "conscripts (forgotton men of the great war).by ilana R. Bet-el

Birdsong is already coming in for some critisism by the author.  (to do with disillusionment, and idealism etc). 

Eeeny meeny miny mo......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Read it, get through the romance bit ( is short and doesnt get worse) and carry on, its not one of the worst books, but a book that may well spur someone on to other things, I would say its a book that may inspire intrest in the ww1 cause, a book that has potential!!, It made me go down the tunnels at Vimy!! after that the book means something different? Truley a wonderful read, if your not a perfectionist!!!!

[Dragon]

well, i have just started to read "Birdsong" and from the cover thought it would be about WW1 - i am several pages in and its all romance and heady passionate stuff.  Not the sort of action I had expected.  

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Rather than cut and paste literary commentary which I have already made about Birdsong (and the Regeneration trilogy), I'll point you in the direction of

this thread in which there was a thoughtful discussion of the novel and of the fundamental differences between fiction and academic texts about the War.

Gwyn

[Dragon]

Birdsong is already coming in for some critisism by the author.  (to do with disillusionment, and idealism etc). 

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Whose disillusion? Sebastian Faulks' or Stephen Wraysford's?

Could you source this, please?

Gwyn

[susanhemmings]

Gwyn,

sorry, the disillusionment was mentioned by Ilana R. Bet-El in his book about "conscripts - forgotton men of the great war".

Initially he (the author of Conscripts) says that he "liked" Birdsong etc etc - well researched etc etc but halfway through he (the author) "realised he was wrong" - he goes on to say "Faulks was telling yet another tale of disillusionment: he had gone to the effort of side-stepping the upper middle-class subaltern heroes, but remained firmly entrenched in class and rank distinctions; he used all his skills to recreate a backdrop for anguish and battle, without realising that for the men who lived through it the backdrop was the anguish".

END OF AUTHOR VIEW.

My own comment:

This, i think is to do with the disillusionment between those who "volunteered" and the conscripts who, the author says made up 50.3% of the army

. because he goes on to say: - MORE AUTHOR VIEWS:

"There is a reason for repeatedly refuting the central role of disillusionment, as also the focus upon the volunteers. And the reason is that while all soldiers experienced the horrors of trench warfare, these images are relevant at best to just under half the soldiers of the first world war - since just over half were conscripts. Such men did their duty due to compulsion and had few illusions to lose.

my own comment:

These, are only his views - I still have yet to carry on reading Birdsong.

So, I am not entirely sure if he is critical of Birdsong or the Volunteer vs. conscript (situation) he (the author) does say he read Birdsong whilst visiting Sarajevo - which for him was "a curious experience" as (he says) "here was a novel that sought to recreate artistically the awfulness of the trenches on the Western Front in 1915, when men were living and fighting in precisely the same conditions just a few miles up the road (in 1995)" -

my own comment:

sounds like his personal comparison.

Still, time and reading will tell. Thanks for your posting Gwyn.

By the way - read the thread link and your comments - very nicely put - I, myself, am always worried to put postings simply because I do not have one iota of the knowlege that you chaps (and ladies) have.

But, (thanks to you all) I am learning and am always willing to help - previous to, and especially since, "joining" this forum I have purchased many books on WW1 - they will take me an age to read. (and decipher and find my way round Regimental Histories etc)

But, I am NOW HOOKED.

regards, Susan

[swizz]

I don't know wether I'd class it as the 'worst book' but the one I had greatest difficulty reading was Samuel Hynes 'A War Imagined:The First World War & English Culture' - I know its an academic book but that doesn't mean it has to be so BORING!!! I've read other academic books which were actually very readable and genuinely interesting, but I only got through the first few chapters of this one and then skipped through the rest...

Swizz

[Jerrymurland]

British Butchers and Bunglers - John Laffin.

Anyone can interpret facts to their advantage, his analysis is sometimes quite insulting to the dead and tempered by emotive criticism.

[Steven Broomfield]

I haven't been paying much attention I'm afraid, but has anyone posted the same book in this thread and the "What's the most you've ever spent" thread?

That might be too much to bear

[Sapper Will]

"3 ) They F and C in every single line . How often have you heard someone born in 1900 use bad language ?"

Actually, from what I've read the British soldier was famous for his love of profanity, in particular the "F" and "C" words. Witness the BEF marching tune in 1914: "We don't give a f--- for old Von Kluck..."

Also war veteran Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune has been described as an expose of Tommy's colorful vocabulary.

The reasons we hardly ever hear someone born in 1900 swear is because (A)we've rarely heard them in person and therefore what they say is filtered through the print and television medium, and ( soldiers and other tight-knit communities have their own style of language which they usually won't use with outsiders.

"4 ) From what I`ve read about the shelling even the hardest British veteran felt sorry for what the Jerries were going through"

Eh...this sounds like the old "united against the common enemy of the war" cliche. The veteran who wrote With a Machine Gun to Cambrai remembered that he and his chums didn't feel any sympathy for the Germans and were always happy to know they were suffering. Kind of makes sense when you think about...it was after all the Germans who invaded France and were killing his pals and countrymen.

[PBI]

Worst load of old Tosh for my part has to be the Regeneration Trilogy,totally implausible in the extreme...followed by Mud Blood and Poppycock...followed by Silent Night..and last but not least 1915 by L.Macdonald due to it many errors.

[PBI]

Also forgot to add to the tosh list,All Quiet On The Western Front,whose writer saw the minimum of Military service and that is subject to Debate..for my money one of THE OUTSTANDING Books to arise from the Great war has to be OF THOSE WE LOVED which covers The writers service in the Leics Regt through Belgium to the Somme,commissioning,and the last Hundred Days..all illustrated with the writers own drawings made at or near the time of the events he was writing about.

[MartinWills]

Also forgot to add to the tosh list,All Quiet On The Western Front,whose writer saw the minimum of Military service and that is subject to Debate..for my money one of THE OUTSTANDING Books to arise from the Great war has to be OF THOSE WE LOVED which covers The writers service in the Leics Regt through Belgium to the Somme,commissioning,and the last Hundred Days..all illustrated with the writers own drawings made at or near the time of the events he was writing about.

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I L Read's book is a super read and a volume I treasure (Of Those We Loved). I believe there are only a handful of copies left for sale and when they are gone, they're gone.

[PBI]

Hi Martin,yes its one of THOSE Books that is a totally absorbing read,i think i must have read it umpteen times albeit with a mixture of sadness when it reaches the Somme Battle Chapters.I would love his book to become a standard read in Schools but i suppose in these PC times it will never Happen,another Good read is Glubbs into Battle,plus E.Parkers into Battle..as you may have gatheredi really read ALL personal Accounts of the Great War,i dont really go for retired Brass Hats Books as they leave me cold,i really feel empathy with the PBI as i also Soldiered for 10 years..thankfully not under the Hellish conditions that our Forbears had to Suffer.Regards PBI.