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The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen
The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen
Sep 29, 2024 5:30 AM

Author:Wilfred Owen,Jon Stallworthy

The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen

'Orpheus, the pagan saint of poets, went through hell and came back singing. In twentieth-century mythology, the singer wears a steel helmet and makes his descent "down some profound dull tunnel" in the stinking mud of the Western Front. For most readers of English poetry, the face under that helmet is that of Wilfred Owen.' Professor Jon Stallworthy, from his Introduction.

When Wilfred Owen was killed in the days before the Armistice in 1918, he left behind a shattering, truthful and indelible record of a soldier's experience of the First World War. His greatest war poetry has been collected, edited and introduced here by Professor Jon Stallworthy. This special edition is published to commemorate the end of the hellish war that Owen, though the hard-won truth and terrible beauty of his poetry, has taught us never to forget.

Reviews

Others have shown the disenchantment of war, have unlegended the roselight and romance of it, but none with such compassion for the disenchanted or such sternly just and justly stern judgment on the idyllisers.

—— Guardian, 1920

For me, he is the greatest of all the war poets.... it is Owen's intense respect for the soldier that makes his poetry so powerful. Those who did not return have their meticulously maintained stone memorials on the fields of Flanders. But their memorial in our minds is largely built by Wilfred Owen

—— Jeremy Paxman , Spectator

The greatest of all the War Poets… This edition…is a must for every poetry lover

—— Emma Lee-Potter , Independent

This book, like the city it discusses, oscillates satisfyingly between blunt history and roistering gossip

—— Frank Delaney , Sunday Express

To understand France today you should read this book about France yesterday . . . a wonderfully enjoyable picture. It is compulsive reading

—— Mark Bonham-Carter , Evening Standard

There is hardly any aspect of French life during that period which the authors do not explore, always with compelling liveliness and omniverous zeal. . . I shall return gratefully to it again and again

—— Alistair Horne , The European

A rich and intriguing story which the authors disentangle with great skill

—— Piers Paul Read , Sunday Telegraph

A perceptive portrait of Paris in its heyday

—— J. G. Ballard , The Times

A beautifully written book about a vast tapestry of military, political and social upheaval. Remarkably well-researched, wise, balanced, very funny at times . . . I was a witness to events in Paris in the first desperate, glorious, mad weeks, and this is just how it was

—— Dirk Bogarde

A dashing, multi-dimensional story. This book covers all aspects of life - diplomacy, strategy, rationing, politics and politicking (from Churchill, Pétain's and de Gaulle's point of view), the international theatricals and the tourist invasion, blitzkrieg and Ritzkrieg - to create a lovely tapestry, threaded with facts and figures

—— Olivier Todd , Sunday Times

Absorbing . . . a rich, many-layered account, selecting from official documents, private archives, memoirs and histories with a wonderful lightness of touch, so that the most complex events become clear

—— Jenny Uglow , Independent on Sunday

Amazing fresh and immediate . . . absolutely honest, it is an extraordinarily gripping and powerful story

—— Evening Standard

Weimar Germany… was arty, tolerant, and forward-looking. But other forces lurked. Hett explains these forces, and their devastating effects, superbly well.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Chilling reading … Serves as a warning to the West’s imperilled democracies … Faced with jingoist politicians who resort to poisonous lies, [Hett’s] book fairly proclaims, the forces of democracy can prevail only if they muster courage, resolve and cooperative spirit.

—— Roger Lowenstein , Washington Post

Histories of Nazi Germany can be overwhelming. The Death of Democracy is carefully focused on the conditions and cynical choices that enabled Nazism, in just a few years turning one of the world’s most advanced and liberal societies into a monstrosity. Its author is also that rarity, a specialist who writes lucidly and engagingly. In this post-truth, alternative-facts American moment, The Death of Democracy is essential reading.

—— Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland

The story of how Germany turned from democracy to dictatorship in the fifteen years following World War I is not a simple one. But the moral lessons are exceptionally clear. Benjamin Carter Hett honours that complexity in this account while never straying from the path of moral clarity. An outstanding accomplishment.

—— Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge

Hett’s brisk and lucid study offers compelling new perspectives inspired by current threats to free societies around the world… It is both eerie and enlightening how much of Hett’s account rings true in our time. The larger story he tells resonates, too.

—— E. J. Dionne , Washington Post

A first-rate history lesson with a surprisingly prescient message for the world of today... Hett's sharp prose and careful use of newfound material not only sets the work apart from that of his peers, but also effectively draws significant (and particularly scary) parallels with current socio-political climates.

—— Essential Journalism

Inspirational

—— Express

Powerful ... hard to put down.

—— Choice Magazine

Comparisons to Man's Search for Meaning are natural but this work has the potential to be even more bold.

—— Michael Berenbaum, Former Project Director, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The distressed fabric of the author's traumatic past becomes a beautiful backdrop for a memoir written with integrity and conviction...A searing, astute study of intensive healing and self-acceptance through the absolution of suffering and atrocity.

—— Kirkus Reviews

A splendidly colourful read ... an enthralling and resonant story of populist politicians, and religious war, and the reshaping of nations

—— Bookseller

This book’s fascination is as a joint portrait of the royal couple, the most human of historical actors in England’s greatest political drama.

—— Rebecca Fraser , The Tablet

A highly intelligent, fair and sympathetic biography.

—— Allan Massie , The Catholic Herald

[ An] absorbing biography of Charles I

—— The Telegraph

This is a striking insight into both developing contemporary thought and religious controversies

—— Terry Philpot , The Tablet, **Books of the Year**

White King is a lively attempt to make him [Charles I] flesh and blood

—— Robbie Millen , The Times, **Books of the Year**
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