Under Fire: The Story of a Squad

Henri Barbusse

Sep 2009 · Fireship Press

About this ebook

Under Fire: The Story of a Squad The most powerful, brutal, and vivid novel to come out of WW-I To the men of the French Sixth Battalion, war is not about bands playing and flags waving. It is about mud, lice, and death. It is about survival under the worst possible conditions, where a wound that put you in the hospital made you a lucky man. Under Fire was one of the first novels to come out of WW-I, being published even before the war was over. It's realism and intensity set the standard for the war novels to come, including Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. It's realism, however, is not manufactured. It was born out of the experiences of the author who began work on the novel literally while he was still in the trenches. The book has no plot in the traditional sense. It is a series of incidents woven together to present the reality of the war. It's power lies in the incredibly vivid pictures it presents. In 1916 it won the prestigious Goncourt Prize, given by the Académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year" and is, even today, considered one of the great war novels of all time.

Ratings and reviews

This was a bit of a hard thing to slog through as there was lots of French words and WWI French army terms in it. Still, in points there was plenty of honest realism and you could tell that Henri had truly been there/done that to write this. I give this a "3 and a half" as I didn't find it as entertaining as I'd hoped. However, maybe that was the point? War is no entertainment.

Presents a true picture of the waste of human and material for the benefit of ego of leaders.

War is 99% boredom and misery, so is this book