Men in War (Mifflin Edition)

"Sometimes I thought Truth had vanished from the earth," he cried bitterly. "Like everything else, it was rationed by the governments. I taught myself to disbelieve half of what I read in the papers. I saw the world clawing itself to shreds in blind rage. I saw hardly any one brave enough to face the brutalizing absurdity as it really was, and describe it. I saw the glutton, the idler, and the fool applauding, while brave and simple men walked in the horrors of hell. The stay-at-home poets turned it to pretty lyrics of glory and sacrifice. Perhaps half a dozen of them have told the truth. Have you read Sassoon? Or Latzko's Men in War, which was so damned true that the government suppressed it? Humph! Putting Truth on rations!"

He knocked out his pipe against his heel, and his blue eyes shone with a kind of desperate earnestness.

"But I tell you, the world is going to have the truth about War. We're going to put an end to this madness. It's not going to be easy. Just now, in the intoxication of the German collapse, we're all rejoicing in our new happiness. I tell you, the real Peace will be a long time coming. When you tear up all the fibres of civilization it's a slow job to knit things together again. You see those children going down the street to school? Peace lies in their hands. When they are taught in school that war is the most loathsome scourge humanity is subject to, that it smirches and fouls every lovely occupation of the mortal spirit, then there may be some hope for the future. But I'd like to bet they are having it drilled into them that war is a glorious and noble sacrifice."

from The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley

Andreas Latzko was hospitalized for malaria and severe shock after serving on the warfront on the Isonzo River during the war between Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1916. While he was recuperating he poured out his anguish over what he had seen and experienced in these six harrowing chapters. The book was published in 1917 as the war still raged, and Roger Mifflin was not exaggerating when he said the government suppressed it. Never mind which government he was talking about; every one of the warring countries tried to censor it.

You'll understand why when you read this forgotten classic of The Great War, second in the Roger Mifflin Collection of brilliant books recommended by the proprietor of The Haunted Bookshop.

Dettagli