The Somme, including also The coward / A.D. Gristwood ; preface by H.G. Wells ; new Introduction by Hugh Cecil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gristwood, A. D. (Arthur Donald), 1893-1933.

Series:

Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War series

The Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Somme, 1st Battle of the, France, 1916--Fiction.

Somme, 1st Battle of the, France, 1916.

World War, 1914-1918--Fiction.

World War, 1914-1918.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xxi, 189 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Other Title:

Somme

Place of Publication:

Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, [2006]

Summary:

First published in London in 1927, The Somme and its companion, The Coward, constitute the only published literary achievements of A. D. Gristwood, a reluctant accountant turned even more reluctant infantryman in the London Rifle Brigade who later fell under the tutelage of master storyteller H. G. Wells.

Heavily autobiographical and much influenced by Wells's guidance, Gristwood's tales of World War I combat are rife with acts of unheroic self-preservation and colored with the fear, bitterness, and hopelessness that defined the author's wartime experience.

The Somme centers on a futile attack in 1916 during the Somme campaign on the Western Front. The uncourageous behavior of wounded protagonist Tom Everitt both in and out of combat reflects Gristwood's assessment of the weak mettle of British forces at this stage of the war and also recalls his own actions in the service. In The Coward a soldier commits an act of self-mutilation to escape combat duty, an offense punishable by death, and is haunted first by fear of discovery and later by self-loathing. This is the war as Gristwood experienced it-a dark and desperate theater of pain where only base instincts could get a man out alive. This first reissue of The Somme, Including Also The Coward is the only edition available outside of the United Kingdom and includes a new introduction by Hugh Cecil detailing his recently discovered information about Gristwood and putting the author's work into a broader historical and literary context.

Contents:

The Somme 13

The Coward 117.

Notes:

Cloth edition published by Jonathan Cape, 1927.

Contains:

Gristwood, A. D. (Arthur Donald), 1893-1933.

ISBN:

1570036489

9781570036484

OCLC:

70230583

Publisher Number:

9781570036484