Under fire

Description

Henri Barbusse's Under Fire: The Story of a Squad (in the original French Le Feu: journal d'une escouade) was one of the first novels about World War I. Published at the end of 1916, it was based on Barbusse's experiences as a French soldier on the Western Front. The novel, written primarily as the episodic journal entries of an unknown narrator, follows a French squad in the brutal face of the German Invasion. Compared to the many war stories before it, Under Fire is marked by a gritty realism that squares firmly with the death and squalor of trench warfare.

Description

Under Fire follows the fortunes of the French Sixth Battalion during the First World War. For this group of ordinary men, thrown together from various regions of France and all longing for home, war is simply a matter of survival: the arrival of their rations, a glimpse of a pretty girl, or a brief reprieve in the hospital is all they can hope for. Based on his own experience of the Great War, Henri Barbusse's novel is a powerful account of one of the greatest horrors mankind has inflicted on itself. For the group of ordinary men in the French Sixth Battalion, thrown together from all over France and longing for home, war is simply a matter of survival, lightened only by the arrival of their rations or a glimpse of a pretty girl or a brief reprieve in the hospital. Reminiscent of classics like Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" and Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Under Fire" (originally published in French as "La Feu") vividly evokes life in the trenches -- the mud, stench, and monotony of waiting while constantly fearing for one's life in an infernal and seemingly eternal battlefield.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Under fire: the story of a squad (Le feu).E.P. Dutton1917-01-01
• Under fireDutton1917-01-01
• Under fireDent1926-01-01
• Under FireeBookThe Floating Press2009-01-01
• Under fire