Memoirs of an Infantry Officer
Encyclopedia
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
, first published in 1930. It is a fictionalised account of Sassoon's own life during and immediately after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Soon after its release, it was heralded as a classic and was even more successful than its predecessor, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...
.
Synopsis
Sassoon's account of his experiences in the trenches during World War I, between the spring of 1916 and the summer of 1917, creates a picture of a physically brave but self-effacing and highly insecure individual. The narrative moves from the trenches to the Fourth Army School, to Morlancourt and a raid, then to and through the Somme. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571203183The book finishes as George Sherston prepares to attend 'Slateford War Hospital' (Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh) after a medical board had decided he was suffering from shell-shock.
Reviews
'A book of deep beauty and abiding significance. A book which will, I hope and believe, be read by millions.' - Harold Nicholson'Those who in future really want to understand the atmosphere of the years 1916 and 1917, and the conditions of life, will turn back to this book.' - Daily Telegraph