Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108728 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
First published in 1929, this is a classic novel of World War I, and a lasting tribute to all who participated in it. The shocking language of the trenches gave rise to a expurgated edition for the public. This is reissue is unexpurgated, giving rise to an authentic voice from the Great War.

From the Publisher
The class novel of the first world war
First published in 1929, Her Privates We is an extraordianry novel of World War 1. When it first came out, the novel was censored and its language which was considered too crude was cleaned up and the swear words removed - the privates could die but not swear! This edition marks the first time the book has been published in its original version. The informative introduction by William Boyd narrates the history of the book and its author - an Australian who fought as a private in the War. The book is a powerful indictment of the callous attitudes of the officer class - it is as essential reading today as when it was first published. Ernest Hemingway wrote of Her Privates We 'the finest and noblest book of men in war'.

Customer Reviews

A Real Insight Into A Private's WWI
An excellent book, very insightful and feeling true to life and surprisingly modern. It probably does more than any other book to convey the comradeship, boredom, vices, unease and terror of war. There is also a dark humour running through it - stories away from the front and regarding the work and systems the army operated at the time. The officer class is seen from a private's eyes - and it seems quite fair.
Fate, superstition and traditions play their part, but fatalism overrides everything.
Armies make war, people die and this book brings them to life brilliantly

Classic
Well. I wanted to know what it was like in the trenches that my grandfathers, as ordinary rank and file, fought. And so, this is it. Boredom, comradeship, bad language, and occasional harsh brutality. If you want to know what they experienced, then I'm pretty sure this is the book. Indeed, I can truly say that whilst reading this I felt physically sick at times, because it was so graphic and well told.

Deserves to be back in print!
I first read this book when it was published as 'Middles Parts of Fortune', one of the few unexpurgated versions to appear with Manning named as author.

This novel fictionalises Manning's own war experiences. Although highly literate, he served throughout as a private. The book thus offers us a very rare insight into the Great War through the eyes of one of the otherwise silent but multitudinous 'other ranks'. Other contemporary accounts of the war were written by junior officers, but their experiences would have necessarily been very different from those of their men. Indeed, part of Manning's gift is that he offers us a view of these officers as seen by those who served under them.

What makes Manning's book so very memorable is that he deals with companionship rather than battles. The book starts with the protagonists coming back down the line from battle, and ends with them going back over the top. In between, he recreates the comradeship experienced by a group of men who were having to survive in a surreal world where the reason for their being there was beyond their comprehension.

In my view, this is the best book to have come out of the Great War. Now it's back in print, there is no excuse for anyone not to read it!