The events set in motion by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 changed many lives irrevocably. For Vera Brittain, an Oxford undergraduate who left her studies to volunteer as a nurse in military hospitals in England and France, the war was a shattering experience; she not only witnessed the horrors inflicted by combat through her work, but she lost the four men closest to her at that time--her fiancé Roland Leighton, brother Edward, and two close friends, Geoffrey Thurlow and Victor Nicholson, who all died on the battlefields.
Letters from a Lost Generation, a collection of previously unpublished correspondence between Brittain and these young men--all public schoolboys at the start of the war--chronicles her relationship with them, and reveals "the old lie"--the idealised glory of patriotic duty which was soon overtaken by the grim reality of the Flanders trenches. The letters are lively, dramatic, immediate and, despite the awfulness of war, curiously optimistic: "..somehow I feel the end is not destined to be here and now. We have not fulfilled ourselves--and someday we shall live our roseate poem through" wrote Vera to in one of her last letters to Roland in December 1915, just days before he was killed by a sniper's bullet. Following his death, and later those of their mutual friends Victor and Geoffrey, Vera's letters take on a new, raw intensity as she concentrates all her emotions on her brother--a hero awarded the Military Cross--until his death on the Italian Front in June 1918.
These letters formed the basis of Vera Brittain's remarkable autobiography, Testament of Youth and vividly bring to life the voices of the "lost generation" whose words threaten to be lost forever as the First World War recedes even further from living memory. --Catherine Taylor
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Useful for readers of 'Testament of Youth' The letter writers concerned are four young men, friends from public school who were all to die in the Great War: Roland Leighton, ( 1915) Geoffrey Thurlow, (1917), Victor Richardson (1917) , and Edward Brittain (1918). Their story has been told in Vera Brittain's war time memoir from 1933, `Testament of Youth', and the whole project seems to be a spin-off from the revival of the book's popularity as from the late 1970's: Though 'Testament of Youth' was virtually forgotten by the time of Brittain's death in... more info
Heartbreaking If you've read Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain's classic war memoir/autobiography you will already know the story, but hearing the actual voices of her and the young men raise this book to another level. In their late teens when the first world war breaks out, we see their innocent nineteenth century ideals of the glory and honour of war shattered by the reality they face and the death of everyone they know.
A poignant, shattering, heartbreaking reminder of the death of innocence and the true birth... more info
Too,too sad. One of the saddest books I have ever read. Four boys from the same year in their school are commissioned in the army and all die in the First World War. First to die is Vera Brittain's fiancee. Between them there was but one kiss and many letters. Last to die was her brother. Trench warfare and the horrors of nursing the wounded are described in detail. The pain of losing a generation is all too apparent. Read and weep.
Moving These are some of the most enthralling and interesting letters I have ever read and I was hooked from beginning to end.
The letters are always so personal and emotionally filled, that you can't help but to question why so many young people had to die.
The letters are brilliant for both historical content and a real and human account of what war is actually like.
This book raises so many questions, some of which still don't have answers. A brilliant must read!
