The Penguin Book of First World War Stories

Description

An anthology of Great War short stories by British writers, both famous and lesser-known authors, men and women, during the war and after its end

These stories are able to illustrate the impact of the Great War on British society and culture and the many modes in which short fiction contributed to the war’s literature. The selection covers different periods: the war years themselves, the famous boom years of the late 1920s to the more recent past in which the First World War has received new cultural interest.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.The Penguin Book of First World War StoriesIntroduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts

1. Front

Arthur Machen, ‘The Bowmen’
‘Sapper’ (Herman Cyril McNeile), ‘Private Meyrick—Company Idiot’
C. E. Montague, ‘A Trade Report Only’
Richard Aldington, ‘Victory’
Anne Perry, ‘Heroes’
Mary Borden, ‘Blind’
Katherine Mansfield, ‘An Indiscreet Journey’
Joseph Conrad, ‘The Tale’
A. W. Wells, ‘Chanson Triste’

2. Spies and Intelligence

Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘His Last Bow’
W. Somerset Maugham, ‘Giulia Lazzari’
John Buchan, ‘The Loathly Opposite’

3. At Home

Rudyard Kipling, ‘Mary Postgate’
Stacy Aumonier, ‘Them Others’
John Galsworthy, ‘Told by the Schoolmaster’
D. H. Lawrence, ‘Tickets, Please’
Radclyffe Hall, ‘Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself’
Hugh Walpole, ‘Nobody’

4. In Retrospect

Harold Brighouse, ‘Once a Hero’
Katherine Mansfield, ‘The Fly’
Winifred Holtby, ‘The Casualty List’
Robert Graves, ‘Christmas Truce’
Muriel Spark, ‘The First Year of My Life’
Robert Grossmith, ‘Company’
Julian Barnes, ‘Evermore’

Maps
Places of the Western Front
Glossary
Military Abbreviations
Notes
Biographies
Acknowledgements

Barbara Korte has published on the literature of World War I and the British short story. A project commencing in January 2006 is devoted to the impact of the short story on the British perception of the Great War.

Ann-Marie Einhaus is working on a PhD thesis on the British short story of World War I in the light of British cultural memory, and has previously treated the First World War for her MA thesis on women’s Great War poetry.GB