Alan Bishop, Mark Bostridge, eds.. Letters from a Lost Generation: First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999. x + 427 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-55553-379-3.
Reviewed by Nancy Nygaard Gaynor
Published on H-War (November, 1999)
Hinc illae lacrimae: Hence those tears Vera Brittain: A Life (London: Chatto & Windus , Editors Alan Bishop and Mark Bostridge have 1995), and Alan Bishop is the editor of three vol‐ brought together a thoughtful collection of the umes of her diaries. This knowledge of their sub‐ World War One letters of Vera Brittain, her broth‐ ject is evident in their careful notes, chronology, er, Edward, her fance, Roland Leighton, and their and helpful introduction. friends, Victor Richardson and Geofrey Thurlow. Letters From a Lost Generation is divided Spanning almost fve years, from September 1913 into eight chronological sections, each prefaced to June 1918, these letters ofer a poignant and by excerpts from Vera Brittain and Roland valuable glimpse into the cataclysmic personal Leighton's poetry. The frst section (September toll of the Great War on the lives of so many. 1913-July 1914) is made up of pre-war correspon‐ Of the fve major correspondents included in dence between the Brittains and Roland Leighton this volume, Vera Brittain is certainly the best and includes their impressions of Uppingham known. Brittain, a novelist and social activist, has School, where Edward, Roland, and Victor been the subject of several recent biographies and Richardson were classmates. The second chapter much critical study on her feminist and pacifst corresponds with the outbreak of war (August writings. The memoir of her war years as a Volun‐ 1914-April 1915); the correspondence included is tary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, Testament of primarily between Vera and Roland and traces Youth was made into a television production in their early romance. The third section (April-Au‐ the late 1970s, and she has, in many respects, be‐ gust, 1915) again focuses on Vera and Roland. By come the token voice of British womanhood in this time Roland, Edward Brittain, Victor Richard‐ many First World War collections. Both editors of son, and Geofrey Thurlow had all enlisted in the Letters From a Lost Generation have done exten‐ British Army. Unable to concentrate on her stud‐ sive work on Vera Brittain. Bostridge collaborated ies at Oxford, Vera also volunteered for service as with Brittain's literary executor, Paul Berry on H-Net Reviews a VAD nurse. This chapter ends with Roland's his wounds (p. 212). The letters here narrate the leave and his engagement to Vera in August 1915. ongoing battle of the four surviving friends to The particularly moving fourth section, (Au‐ make sense of Roland's death and to try to fnd a gust-December 1915) again mostly devoted to way to commemorate his life while their own Roland and Vera, features letters from the twenty lives were in jeopardy. Here readers see evidence year-old Second Lieutenant as he attempts to of Paul Fussell's argument that British iconogra‐ come to terms with the horrors of trench warfare. phy of the Great War frequently likened the death To alert Vera of his movement to the front line, of soldiers to Christ's sacrifce on the cross. In‐ Roland agreed to quote the Roman playwright deed, almost immediately after Roland's death, Terence in his letters to her, using their chosen Vera begins to elevate his memory to a quasi-reli‐ phrase, "Hinc illae lacrimae" or "Hence those gious dimension as indicated in her capitalization tears," before the battle of Loos in September of every pronoun that refers to him. 1915. Roland survived Loos, but his letters reveal Yet despite their grief, lives went on and the his startling transformation from an idealistic war continued. In February 1916 Edward was or‐ school boy to a man torn by disillusionment, yet dered to France, not far from where Geofrey praying for the strength to die with "a strong Thurlow was stationed. Victor Richardson and man's agony" (p. 147). In England, Vera, also strug‐ Vera remained in England, Victor on medical gling to cope with the war's casualties in her nurs‐ leave and Vera nursing in London. On the frst ing work, awaited Roland's leave, scheduled for day of the battle of the Somme, Edward Brittain Christmas Day. Answering the phone on the was twice wounded and sent, by coincidence, to morning of 26 December, Vera learned not that the First London General Hospital where his sister Roland had arrived home on leave, but instead worked. Brittain received the Military Cross for that he had been shot several days earlier while his actions on the Somme. repairing barbed wire around British trenches, The sixth section (September-December 1916) and had died of those wounds. details Vera's decision to volunteer for foreign ser‐ Geofrey Thurlow and Victor Richardson's let‐ vice and her reassignment to a hospital in Malta. ters frst appear in the ffth chapter (January-Sep‐ Correspondence among the four continued, and tember 1916) as messages of condolence to Vera, again the editors have selected letters that convey and the four remaining friends grow closer. Here, more than the merely personal. These daily com‐ as elsewhere, Bostridge and Bishop have chosen munications echo the feelings of a nation and il‐ letters that reveal deeply personal moments that lustrate, as little else can, widespread war weari‐ also demonstrate the experiences shared by so ness and the apprehension that accompanied ev‐ many of those afected by the war such as the re‐ ery scanning of a newspaper column of casualties turn of a dead soldier's belongings. As Vera writes or receipt of a letter. Reports of relatives and ac‐ to Edward, "I had no idea before of the after-re‐ quaintances killed or wounded became horribly sults of an ofcer's death or what the returned kit, commonplace. As Chapter Seven (December 1916- of which so much has been written in the papers, June 1917) opens, Geofrey Thurlow and Victor really meant. It was terrible" (p. 211). Piece by Richardson were still in France, Vera Vera Brittain piece, together Vera and the rest of Roland's fami‐ in Malta, and her brother, Edward at Sunderland ly sifted through his possessions: packets of let‐ on light duty recuperating from his wounds and ters, his writing journals, books, pens, photo‐ awaiting another posting nearer the fghting. The graphs, and even his mud-caked uniform, and the spring 1917 ofensives on the Western Front trousers and vest, "dark and stif with blood" from brought heartbreaking loss to the Brittains; Victor
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Richardson was blinded at Arras, and less than and to some extent, they have succeeded. From three weeks later, Geofrey Thurlow was killed at this collection, readers discover Roland Leighton, Monchy-le-Preux. Knowing that her brother Edward Brittain, Geofrey Thurlow, and Victor would be overwhelmed by grief, Vera broke her Richardson in their own words, not merely nursing contract and returned to England to con‐ through Vera Brittain's narration, thus this vol‐ sole him and to help Victor deal with his blind‐ ume supplements the story that had begun to be ness. Within two weeks of her arrival however, told in Brittain's memoirs, diaries, and much of Richardson died of a cerebral abscess from his the recent biographical and critical work on her. head wounds. The editors should also be commended for assem‐ In the fnal chapter (June 1917-June 1918), bling a work that is both attractive and well both Edward and Vera returned to France--Ed‐ thought out. The biographical notes, chronology, ward to the front, Vera to nurse in Etaples. Ed‐ maps, photos, and excerpted poems add richness ward was later sent to Italy, and Vera again re‐ to the volume, while their editorial interjections turned home to care for her family after her add to, rather than disrupt, the letters' narrative mother sufered a breakdown. On 15 June 1918, fow. Edward Brittain was shot by a sniper during a counter ofensive on the Asiago Plateau and died immediately. The volume ends with letters of con‐ dolence from Roland Leighton's parents to the Brittains. In their introduction, Bishop and Bostridge stress the special character of this letter collec‐ tion. Any one familiar with much World War One correspondence must agree. The sheer volume of letters aside, certainly all fve of this correspon‐ dents came from privileged backgrounds. Both Roland Leighton's parents were well-known writ‐ ers, and Thomas Brittain was the director of a pa‐ per mill frm. All fve were headed for Oxbridge educations before the war intervened. Their back‐ ground and the education it ofered helps explain why this collection is indeed unusual. Both Ed‐ ward and Vera Brittain, and certainly Roland Leighton as well were steeped in an atmosphere of language and literature, and this contributes to the erudite and insightful nature of their letters. As the only survivor amongst these fve, Vera Brittain felt compelled to tell their stories in her memoir, and she carefully constructed herself over the years as the voice of her generation. Yet Bishop and Bostridge maintain that their inten‐ tion was to turn the focus of this volume away from Vera Brittain toward the four young men,
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Citation: Nancy Nygaard Gaynor. Review of Bishop, Alan; Bostridge, Mark, eds. Letters from a Lost Generation: First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends. H-War, H-Net Reviews. November, 1999.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3616
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