It's been a while since I shared a thursday thirteen, and while I know I have put together lists of books that deal with WWI and WWII before, this one has a little twist. Now I'm not saying that I plan on reading all these next year (because I still want to try and not make any definite reading plans), but I would very much like to get back into reading about this era. However, the books I want to read are all written by people who saw it all first hand. So I've created a list of primary resources, since you can't beat reading about something by the people who actually lived it. I own many of these (and often look longingly at them hoping to read them soon), but some are fairly new to me that simply look interesting. I'd also like to read a variety of perspectives. So here are thirteen books I've come up with about WWI. Unsurprisingly the list is heavy on male authors, but I have a few women sprinkled in as well. In no particular order:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque -- Classic story of two young German soldiers.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway -- This story is based on Hemingway's experiences as an ambulance driver on the Italian front.
The Penguin Book of WWI War Stories -- A collection of short stories by such famous authors as as Joseph Conrad, W. Somerset Maugham, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Buchan, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, John Galsworthy, Radclyffe Hall, Katherine Mansfield, Robert Graves, Muriel Spark, and Julian Barnes.
We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone - A fictionalized account of Rathbone's experiences as a VAD nurse in France and London. Rathbone was a suffragette and like a number of others who are in this list became a devout Pacifist.
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves -- "In this autobiography, first published in 1929, poet Robert Graves traces the monumental and universal loss of innocence that occurred as a result of the First World War. Written after the war and as he was leaving his birthplace, he thought, forever, Good-Bye to All That bids farewell not only to England and his English family and friends, but also to a way of life. Tracing his upbringing from his solidly middle-class Victorian childhood through his entry into the war at age twenty-one as a patriotic captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, this dramatic, poignant, often wry autobiography goes on to depict the horrors and disillusionment of the Great War, from life in the trenches and the loss of dear friends, to the stupidity of government bureaucracy and the absurdity of English class stratification."
One Man's Initiation: 1917 by John Dos Passos -- This was his first book and like Hemingway he also drove an ambulance in WWI.
William: An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton -- Hamilton, another suffragette, here writes about the futility of war.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain -- "In 1914, just as war was declared, 20 year-old Vera Brittain was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life—and that of her whole generation—had been irrevocably changed in a way that no one could have imagined in the tranquil pre-war era. Testament of Youth is Brittain’s account of how she lost the man she loved, nursed the wounded, survived those agonizing years, and emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time."
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse -- Life in the trenches from the French perspective.
The Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu -- I've never read anything about the war from the Italian perspective and it sounds as though not many memoirs have been written (or translated in any case), so this sounded interesting. This is a fictionalized account of Lussu's experiences as an officer in the war.
The Forbidden Zone by Mary Borden -- Borden was a wealthy American living in England when the war broke out. She set up a hospital in France and worked as a nurse during the war.
Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith -- Another story of ambulance drivers, but this time from the female perspective. It is also semi-autobiographical.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger -- This sounds like it offers a slightly different perspective than those of Remarque or Hemingway in that Junger (if I understand correctly) did not end up a Pacifist by the end of the war. It sounds as though this doesn't glorify the war but it doesn't denounce it either.
I'm sure there are many, many more books written during or shortly after the war, both novels and memoirs, that offer interesting points of view. I'd be very interested in other suggestions, though in this case I am looking for first hand accounts. I'm not sure how many of these books I might get to, but I do think I will be picking up one of them early in the new year!