Books with author Henri Barbusse

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Among the earliest realistic depictions of trench warfare, this novel is based on author Henri Barbusse's World War I combat experiences. The journal-like anecdotes portray daily life amid a squad of French volunteers after their country's invasion by Germany. The soldiers are workers, farmers, and tradesmen from different regions of France. They emerge as individuals, with families, good traits and bad, hopes, and fears. Their tedious days in fetid trenches are punctuated by terrifying battles and the threats of poison gas, artillery bombardment, sniper attacks, and machine-gun fire.Under Fire received French literature's prestigious Prix Goncourt for fiction in 1916 and drew both acclaim and criticism for its harsh realism. A century later, it remains a compelling and psychologically revealing work that exposes the horror, the loss, and the incomprehensible nature of war, even to its participants. Barbusse's wartime ordeals led to his lifelong pacifism, and his novel ranks among the first and most insightful indictments of imperialist warfare.

The classic "All Quiet on the Western Front" gave a clear picture of the life of German Infantrymen in WWI. Similarly, Henri Barbusse's "Under Fire: The Story of a Squad" follows a group of French soldiers in the early days of WWI. The book was one of the first novels about World War I to be published. Although it is fiction, the novel was based directly on Barbusse's experiences as a French soldier on the Western Front. In contrast to many war novels which came before it, Under Fire describes war in gritty and brutal realism. It is noted for its realistic descriptions of death in war and the squalid trench conditions. Like "All Quiet on the Western Front." "Under Fire" is unforgettable. Henri Barbusse (May 17, 1873, — August 30, 1935) was a soldier in WWI, a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party.

This book follows a squad of French volunteer soldiers on the front in France after the German invasion. The book opens and ends with broad visions shared by multiple characters. The anecdotes are episodic in nature, each with an individual chapter title. In contrast to many war novels which came before it, Under Fire describes war in gritty and brutal realism.

In introducing M. Barbusse's most important book to a public already familiar with "Under Fire," it seems well to point out the relation of the author's philosophy to his own time, and the kinship of his art to that of certain other contemporary French and English novelists. "L'Enfer" has been more widely read and discussed in France than any other realistic study since the days of Zola. The French sales of the volume, in 1917 alone, exceeded a hundred thousand copies, a popularity all the more remarkable from the fact that its appeal is based as much on its philosophical substance as on the story which it tells. Although M. Barbusse is one of the most distinguished contemporary French writers of short stories, he has found in the novel form the most fitting literary medium for the expression of his philosophy, and it is to realism rather than romanticism that he turns for the exposition of his special imaginative point of view. And yet this statement seems to need some qualification. In his introduction to "Pointed Roofs," by Dorothy Richardson, Mr. J.D. Beresford points out that a new objective literary method is becoming general in which the writer's strict detachment from his objective subject matter is united to a tendency, impersonal, to be sure, to immerse himself in the life surrounding his characters. Miss May Sinclair points out that writers are beginning to take the complete plunge for the first time, and instances as examples, not only the novels of Dorothy Richardson, but those of James Joyce.

Hell (French: L'Enfer) is a 1908 novel by Henri Barbusse, in which the unnamed narrator peers into a hole in the wall of his hotel room. From the other side, he witnesses lesbianism, adultery, incest, and death. It is only when he feels he has uncovered all the secrets of life that he decides to leave the room for good. But, as he attempts to leave, he is overcome with a backache and blindness. Colin Wilson gave considerable attention to Barbusse's novel in his influential work The Outsider.

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Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse (December 1916), was one of the first novels about the Great War to be published. Although it is a piece of fiction, the novel was based on Barbusse's own war experiences as a French soldier on the Western Front. It follows a squad of French volunteer soldiers on the front in France after the German invasion. The anecdotes are episodic in nature, each with an individual chapter title. The best-known chapter, "The Fire" (Le feu) shares the French-language title of the book. It describes a trench assault from the Allied (French) trench across No-Man's Land into the German trench. In contrast to many war novels which came before it, Under Fire described war in gritty and brutal realism. It is noted for its realistic descriptions of death in war and the squalid trench conditions.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - In introducing M. Barbusse's most important book to a public already familiar with "Under Fire," it seems well to point out the relation of the author's philosophy to his own time, and the kinship of his art to that of certain other contemporary French and English novelists. "L'Enfer" has been more widely read and discussed in France than any other realistic study since the days of Zola. The French sales of the volume, in 1917 alone, exceeded a hundred thousand copies, a popularity all the more remarkable from the fact that its appeal is based as much on its philosophical substance as on the story which it tells.