It was interesting to read about the way civilian life back home altered as a result of WW1 and the attitudes of the older generation to the conflict, but it did not grip me as Graves did.
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Testament of Youth
The Book
Vera Brittain's memoir of the First World War was published in 1933, quite a while after the prolific outpouring of novels, poems and biographies in the late 1920s. She acknowledges Robert Graves' autobiography, Goodbye to All That, early on and having read his harrowing, reportage of life in the trenches, I found Testament of Youth a less powerful read. I think because she is writing of her own experiences, mainly away from the front as a volunteer nurse, and relying on letters and telegrams from her brother and her tragic first love to fill in detail, the book is more personal and concentrates on her feelings and reactions to what is going on around her and out of her control.
It was interesting to read about the way civilian life back home altered as a result of WW1 and the attitudes of the older generation to the conflict, but it did not grip me as Graves did.
It was interesting to read about the way civilian life back home altered as a result of WW1 and the attitudes of the older generation to the conflict, but it did not grip me as Graves did.
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