Particularize Books In Favor Of Testament of Youth
| Original Title: | Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Story of the Years 1900-1925 |
| ISBN: | 0143039237 (ISBN13: 9780143039235) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Vera Brittain
Paperback | Pages: 688 pages Rating: 4.18 | 7282 Users | 844 Reviews
Point Appertaining To Books Testament of Youth
| Title | : | Testament of Youth |
| Author | : | Vera Brittain |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 688 pages |
| Published | : | May 31st 2005 by Penguin Classics (first published August 28th 1933) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Autobiography. Memoir. Classics. Biography. War. World War I |
Explanation To Books Testament of Youth
Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera Brittain's elegiac yet unsparing book, which set a standard for memoirists from Martha Gellhorn to Lillian Hellman. Abandoning her studies at Oxford in 1915 to enlist as a nurse in the armed services, Brittain served in London, in Malta, and on the Western Front. By war's end she had lost virtually everyone she loved. Testament of Youth is both a record of what she lived through and an elegy for a vanished generation. Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as a book that helped “both form and define the mood of its time,” it speaks to any generation that has been irrevocably changed by war.Rating Appertaining To Books Testament of Youth
Ratings: 4.18 From 7282 Users | 844 ReviewsComment On Appertaining To Books Testament of Youth
I went into Testament of Youth blind. I knew nearly nothing about the book, up to and including the fact that it was a memoir of WW1. I would not have read the book if it wasn't chosen by my Reading the World group, but I am so glad that it was because the book is phenomenal.My family is a big military family. All of us have served. I am a USAF veteran as is my dad. All of my uncles were in the Army. My brother served in the Marines. I have a nephew who is currently in the Coast Guard, and myIt's another irony of that most ironic of conflicts that the greatest account of how 1914-18 was lived comes not from a male writer out of the trenches, or from some politician familiar with the negotiations, but instead from a middle-class girl from Derbyshire who experienced the war first as a waiting fiancée and later as a volunteer nurse. Vera Brittain grew up in Buxton, where her father owned a couple of paper mills; she was close to her musical brother, had a growing romance with one of
From page 645, while Brittain is touring devastated Central and Eastern Europe to gather material for her occupation as journalist and lecturer in support of the League of NationsIt did not seem, perhaps, as though we, the War generation, would be able to do all that we had once hoped for the actual rebuilding of civilization. I understood now that the results of the War would last longer than ourselves; it was obvious, in central Europe, that its consequences were deeper rooted, and farther
This is a fascinating look at WWI from a woman's perspective. I struggled a bit with some of the characters as they came across as whiny and privileged white people but it was still interesting to see her decisions unfold as she went to Oxford and then went on to become a war nurse. I don't really know a whole lot about WWI so from a history perspective I enjoyed this and felt liked a learn some things. I listened to the audio narrated by Sheila Mitchell who did a great job.
Whenever I think of the War to-day, it is not as summer but always as winter; always as cold and darkness and discomfort, and an intermittent warmth of exhilarating excitement which made us irrationally exult in all three. Its permanent symbol, for me, is a candle stuck in the neck of a bottle, the tiny flame flickering in an ice-cold draught, yet creating a miniature illusion of light against an opaque infinity of blackness.The temptation to exploit our young wartime enthusiasm must have been
This book has been on my to be read list for over thirty years and I really should not have left it this long to read it. It is much better known these days following the recent film and a TV adaptation some years ago. It is the account of Vera Brittains wartime experiences, from a sheltered middle class upbringing to starting at Somerville College Oxford and then to volunteer work as a VAD nurse in Britain, France and Malta. It shows the horrors of war through the eyes of a woman suffering the
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