Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew - Softcover

Egremont

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447242009 ISBN 13: 9781447242000

Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK, 2015

Synopsis

While the First World War devastated Europe, it inspired profound poetry – words in which the atmosphere and landscape of battle are evoked perhaps more vividly than anywhere else.

The poets – many of whom were killed – show not only the war’s tragedy but the hopes and disappointments of a generation of men. In Some Desperate Glory, historian and biographer Max Egremont gives us a transfiguring look at the life and work of this assemblage of poets. Wilfred Owen with his flaring genius; the intense, compassionate Siegfried Sassoon; the composer Ivor Gurney; Robert Graves who would later spurn his war poems; the nature-loving Edward Thomas; the glamorous Fabian Socialist Rupert Brooke; and the shell-shocked Robert Nichols all fought in the war, and their poetry is a bold act of creativity in the face of unprecedented destruction.

Some Desperate Glory includes a chronological anthology of their poems, with linking commentary, telling the story of the war through their art. This unique volume unites the poetry and the history of the war, so often treated separately, granting readers the pride, strife, and sorrow of the individual soldier’s experience coupled with a panoramic view of the war’s toll on an entire nation.

About this title

About the Author

Max Egremont studied history at Oxford University. As well as four novels, he has written biographies of Arthur Balfour, Major-General Sir Edward Spears and Siegfried Sassoon, and Some Desperate Glory: the First World War the Poets Knew. His Forgotten Land: Journeys among the Ghosts of East Prussia (2011) has been described as ‘a work of consummate artistry’ (the Spectator), ‘a story for our time’ (the New Statesman), ‘remarkable, fascinating reading’ (the Sunday Times), ‘beautifully written’ (the Wall Street Journal), and ‘the very best form of travel writing’ (the Mail on Sunday).

Edition details

• Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1447242009
• ISBN 13: 9781447242000
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 353