BooksHer Privates We
Originally published in a censored version, thanks to the realistic level of swearing in the soldiers' dialogue, 'Her Privates We' offers a unique insight into the life of a British infantryman in the trenches in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the Somme. The author was an educated misfit who served alongside ordinary working class men; this gave him both the ability and the motivation to record in honest detail his first-hand experiences: the combination of the day-to-day struggle to survive with some degree of dignity and comfort behind the lines, mixing boredom and army routine with brief moments of pleasure in the cafes of the French towns and villages, followed by their fatalistic preparation for another 'over-the-top' assault on the German lines, with the memory of the recent carnage of the Somme still fresh in their minds. A little-read masterpiece that stands comparison with 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.
Originally published in a censored version, thanks to the realistic level of swearing in the soldiers' dialogue, 'Her Privates We' offers a unique insight into the life of a British infantryman in the trenches in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the Somme. The author was an educated misfit who served alongside ordinary working class men; this gave him both the ability and the motivation to record in honest detail his first-hand experiences: the combination of the day-to-day struggle to survive with some degree of dignity and comfort behind the lines, mixing boredom and army routine with brief moments of pleasure in the cafes of the French towns and villages, followed by their fatalistic preparation for another 'over-the-top' assault on the German lines, with the memory of the recent carnage of the Somme still fresh in their minds. A little-read masterpiece that stands comparison with 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.
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Find Her Privates We Frederic Manning in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Her Privates We Frederic Manning in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
Manning was born in 1882 in Sydney, Australia, and whose father was a one-time mayor. Educated privately, he was thereafter sent to England to complete his studies. In the immediate pre-war years Manning established a reputation as a minor poet and critic among a small circle of intimates. With the outbreak of war in August 1914 Manning enlisted as a Private with the 7th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry, serving in the trenches in France among some of the more bloody battles of the war. In 1929 Manning anonymously published in a private edition his novelised memoirs of the war, The Middle Parts of Fortune, in two volumes. In place of his name he simply listed his army serial number. The following year, 1930, an expurgated edition of the book was commercially published as Her Privates We - without the strong language deemed likely to offend a wider readership. Manning wrote no more fiction, retiring instead into scholarly seclusion. He died in London in 1935; it was a further eleven years before he was finally identified as the author of the war classic hailed by Hemingway as "the finest and noblest book of men in war I have ever read". T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) observed that "no praise could be too sheer for this book ... it justifies every heat of praise. Its virtues will be recognised more and more as time goes on."
1 books in catalog
Manning was born in 1882 in Sydney, Australia, and whose father was a one-time mayor. Educated privately, he was thereafter sent to England to complete his studies. In the immediate pre-war years Manning established a reputation as a minor poet and critic among a small circle of intimates. With the outbreak of war in August 1914 Manning enlisted as a Private with the 7th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry, serving in the trenches in France among some of the more bloody battles of the war. In 1929 Manning anonymously published in a private edition his novelised memoirs of the war, The Middle Parts of Fortune, in two volumes. In place of his name he simply listed his army serial number. The following year, 1930, an expurgated edition of the book was commercially published as Her Privates We - without the strong language deemed likely to offend a wider readership. Manning wrote no more fiction, retiring instead into scholarly seclusion. He died in London in 1935; it was a further eleven years before he was finally identified as the author of the war classic hailed by Hemingway as "the finest and noblest book of men in war I have ever read". T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) observed that "no praise could be too sheer for this book ... it justifies every heat of praise. Its virtues will be recognised more and more as time goes on."
