Penguin Classics Under Fire, (Paperback)

from

Under Fire is considered the best WWI novel by a French author. It was also the first major novel of the war, published in 1916 just two years into the conflict, making it very influential with later authors. It's a grotesque and graphic portrayal of life in the trenches. It is devoid of contempo...

from ursula

Semi-autobiographical and written from the notes Barbusse took while he was fighting in World War I, Under Fire is a boots-on-the-ground view of the war. And as even a glancing knowledge of war, and this war in particular, will tell you: it's not pretty. That doesn't mean that the writing can't b...

from marcLeroux84

I found it to be a hard book to get through, but it is as vivid a depiction of life in the trenches as you can find. He accurately depicts the difference in perspectives that people had, depending to their proximity to the front. For anyone who is interested in life in the trenches during the Gre...

from lriley

In my opinion the best World War I book I've read. Barbusse puts the reader right in the trenches along with his squad of poilus--all of whom are ordinary human beings from a wide variety of occupations--urbanites mixed in with rural folk, bank tellers with farmers, miners and factory workers. Ba...

from arubabookwoman

Read 11/11 This book, which is included on the 1001 list, is one of the most influential of all war novels. It contains powerful and graphic descriptions of war's horror, insanity, and, sometimes, boredom and drudgery. The descriptions of life in the trenches, and the saturation shelling that res...