By the way, the Goodreads’ description of this novel is highly misleading. It is a war memoir, not some dry bit of ranting, and even by the end it is the politicians rather than the generals who are being criticised. The Memoirs of George Sherston (contains Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, and Sherston's Progress), Doubleday, Doran, 1937 (published in England as The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, Faber, 1937 ).

In much the same vein, it is difficult to gain full knowledge of George Sherston without you have read the book by the name of Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. [2] Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Officer emerged as one of the key texts of World War One, admired not merely as the personal record of one of the survivors of the conflict in the trenches but as a prose work of masterly style and subtlety. Exploring to the right I found young Fernby, whose demeanour was a contrast to the apathetic trio in the sand-bagged strong-point. Fernby had only been out from England for a few weeks but he appeared quite at home in his new surroundings. His face showed that he was exulting in the fact that he didn't feel afraid. He told me that no one knew what had happened on our right; the Royal Irish were believed to have failed. More and more, as the Somme campaign drags on, Sherston struggles with a sense of helplessness in the face of interminable war. One evening he takes a stroll, watching the pale orange beams of the sun streaming down on a fading, melancholy landscape. “For me that evening expressed the indeterminate tragedy which was moving, with agony on agony, toward the autumn.” (82) As a solitary observer, he can do nothing to stop the war, he feels, but only observe an Armageddon that surpasses understanding. He doesn’t want to be rescued from his situation, as he is in it by choice. But his friend Cromlech materializes with important news. It turns out Cromlech has spoken with relevant officials and helped to arrange that his case be treated as a medical one. A “big bug” at the War Office has gotten involved, and they will refuse to court-martial him. For Sherston this is a let-down of sorts, but on the other hand, he has made his statement, and he won’t have to go to prison. Waves of relief wash over him.

About Jenny

The Old Century and Seven More Years (autobiography), Faber, 1938, Viking, 1939, reprinted with introduction by Michael Thorpe, Faber, 1968. Siegfried Sassoon is my favourite war poet. I love the man. I've heard he was a bit of a monster to live with, which does come through in his work, but I'm enthralled by the way he writes. This "memoir" is set from 1915-1917 as "George Sherston" navigates the horror and trauma of the trenches. Dunning had been the first to leave our trench; had shouted 'Cheerio' and been killed at once." I can't stop thinking about this line, nor the fact that "Dunning" was a real person named Thomas Conning. (seated in front: http://www.sjp.org.uk/uploads/1/6/5/7...). urn:lcp:memoirsofinfantr00sieg:epub:5166dbc8-fcb4-444d-ab18-e9f0e61c8359 Extramarc University of Toronto Foldoutcount 0 Identifier memoirsofinfantr00sieg Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6155sj6z Isbn 0571064108 Lccn 66069663 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL7855539M Openlibrary_edition

Here we have George Sherston in a nutshell: born into privilege and snobbery, yet impressed and intimidated by more vigorous boys and cut off from people of like mind.Nowadays, many potential readers of Sassoon’s evocation of a pre-1914 rural idyll are put off by its title: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. A hunter of foxes? The book must be full of ignorant bullies and gruesome death! No Thank You. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer is widely recognized as one of the greatest war novels ever written. It is the second in the George Sherston trilogy written by Siegfried Sassoon, a man known as one of the War poets. Largely autobiographical, it covers Sherston’s experience on the front lines as an officer, witnessing the deaths of his comrades, experiencing his own injuries and culminating with a written protest against the war while convalescing. In addition to the beautiful writing, there is a great deal of survivor’s remorse that oozes out of this book.