Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918
"Corporal Barthas saw four years of near-constant fighting in some of the largest and deadliest actions of the war (and of all time). The fact of his survival is unlikely enough, but he also set down everything that he saw and experienced in a series of notebooks, with no  deficit of insight, opinion, or literary flair. His description of the meat-grinder of trench warfare is visceral, but he saves most of his venom for those in command. One of the most readable and indispensable accounts of the death of the glory of war." (The Daily Beast, "Hot Reads")"With the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI, these reports from the trenches -- translated to English for the first time -- should relieve readers of any notion of the glory of war. Drafted at 35, the French soldier spent four years in near constant combat at Flanders, Verdun, the Argonne and other deadly battlefronts. An example of what went on: 'Lapeyre was badly wounded in the leg. A shell fragment had sliced off, as neatly as a pastry slicer, a piece of his calf as big as a chestnut, and the blood poured out like a fountain.' " (New York Post, "Must Reads")."Barthas was an ordinary working man, a barrel maker of socialist inclinations, and there was nothing about him to suggest he harbored literary gifts or genius. But his notebooks, assembled under the title Poilu", are among the great works of the war, deserving a place of mention with memoirs like Guy Chapman's "A Passionate Prodigality" and Ernst Junger's "Storm of Steel"."--Geoffrey Norman, "The Wall Street Journal"--Geoffrey Norman "The Wall Street Journal "