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Letters from a Lost Generation

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448 Seiten
16 Lesestunden

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The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 irrevocably altered many lives, including that of Vera Brittain, an Oxford undergraduate who left her studies to serve as a nurse in military hospitals in England and France. The war was a shattering experience for her; she witnessed the horrors of combat and lost the four men closest to her—her fiancé, Roland Leighton, brother Edward, and friends Geoffrey Thurlow and Victor Nicholson—who all perished on the battlefield. A collection of previously unpublished letters between Brittain and these young men chronicles her relationships with them, revealing the disillusionment with the idealized glory of patriotic duty that quickly gave way to the grim reality of trench warfare. The letters are lively and dramatic, infused with a curious optimism despite the war's awfulness. In one poignant letter to Roland in December 1915, just days before his death, Vera expressed hope for the future, stating, "Somehow I feel the end is not destined to be here and now." Following Roland's death, and later those of Victor and Geoffrey, her letters take on a raw intensity as she focuses on her brother, a Military Cross recipient, until his death on the Italian Front in June 1918. These letters formed the basis of Brittain's remarkable autobiography, bringing to life the voices of a lost generation whose words risk being forgotten as the war recedes from memory.