testament of youth, vera brittain

Vera Brittain’s Testament Of Youth is a compelling portrayal of Great War Memoir tells how slaughter stole Vera's fiance, best friends and finally, her younger brother Edward I don't read many non-fiction books or biographies/autobiographies so this was something different for me. When war broke out in August 1914, 21-year-old Vera Brittain was planning on enrolling at Somerville College, Oxford. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain is a book whose deep significance can hardly be overestimated. Jan 16, 2015 Why is rated so high.? Please try your request again later. I started reading Testament of Youth mainly for the information on WW1, not knowing that apart from suffering heartbreaking losses and being a VAD nurse, Vera Brittain also was a feminist of the first hour and a writer of great astuteness. As the men she knows and loves go to fight and die in the trenches, she volunteers with the Red Cross to serve in military hospitals. Then, when she was 20, came the world war. If you ha. She survives in a future she did not want or make. This book has been on my to be read list for over thirty years and I really should not have left it this long to read it. Davies RE(1). I did find the political parts after the war rather hard to get through but it was also interesting. Definitely a “must-read” book, with lessons for today. She was married to George … In 1933, Vera Brittain’s honest and compelling account of her young adult experiences during World War I appeared in the form of an autobiography titled Testament of Youth. As the men she knows and loves go to fight and die in the trenches, she volunteers with the Red Cross to serve in military hospitals. Davies RE(1). Testament of Friendship by Vera Brittain jigarpatel: Testament of Youth is almost required reading for Testament of Friendship.The former a memoir of Vera Brittain, the latter a biography of her closest friend Winifred Holtby. It gets you emotionally involved in it so deep that you keep thinking about it even when you're not reading it. Her elder brother Edward was then also one or two years younger than my son today. Learn more about the program. Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a … Brittain was just beginning her studies at Oxford when WWI broke out. There is far too much of the mundane endlessly narrated without any new insights. I took to the story so that at the conclusion I went on-line to purchase my Kindle edition. An entire generation lost their youth and their lives. She worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse after dropping out … It really brought the culture of the time to life for me. A memoir of great loss but also of resilience and fortitude. Positively scandalous in her time, although she does speak of some who share her views (even if she implies, or I infered, or both, that those were mostly lesbians.) Testament of Youth (excerpts) Vera Brittain . It reads more like a novel than a memoir. Vera Brittain was a convinced pacifist, a prolific speaker, lecturer, journalist and writer, she devoted much of her energy to the causes of peace and feminism. Extraordinary journeying along side of the mind of a young woman living , loving, and working as a nurse during one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. Although at times a bit tedious to read (lots of direct quotes from letters, for example), Vera moves from a rather pampered, sheltered, middle-class girl to an articulate, understanding, educated, caring woman through war, loss, deprivation, work, awareness and thought. I listened to the audio narrated by Sheila Mitchell who did a great job. This book is great and painful, a memoir by Vera Brittain, the English writer, mostly a wartime memoir based on her experiences during the First World War. Her brother is dead her fiancé is dead all her contemporaries are dead. The human cost of WWI as experienced by a young English girl, Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2017. Her edges are softening and she's beginning to give up some control. Born to upper middle class, Vera Brittain threw up her relatively privileged life and student days in Oxford to become a WW1 nurse, first in the UK and later shipped in submarine infested waters to foreign soils. Testament of Youth is Vera Brittain’s memoir of her years just prior to, during, and shortly after World War I. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Testament of Youth is the first installment, covering 1900–1925, in the autobiography of Vera Brittain (1893-1970). Recognising the signs of burnout. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. Vera Brittain’s blazing wartime memoir, Testament of Youth, is coming to the big screen. Vera Brittain comes across as an arrogant pretentious snob, who regards other people as attendant satellites to be be patronized or treated with contempt as the case may be. This is Vera Brittain 's account of her childhood in Buxton, England. Electronic address: [email protected]. If you haven't heard of record-smashing singer and songwriter Mariah Carey, is there any hope for you? Stunning. Such interest is set to expand even more in this centenary year of the war's outbreak. It was one of those books I intended to keep forever, but I'd forgotten why. I've long heard of this book and presumed that it was such a classic because Brittain was (unfortunately) in the right position to write such a book ie working in the nursing service during WWI and secondly losing all the major males in her life except her father. It’s a necessary book for anyone interested in the history of the Great War, the central cataclysmic event of the period 1910 to 1925 covered in this first installment of her autobiography. Sarah Crompton joins Shirley Williams, Brittain's daughter, and the film's stars on … It is as if nothing was real. This book was very popular in the 1930s-1940s but kind of forgotten now. If you haven't read it and are a Downton Abbey fan, I highly recommend it and the BBC version if it can still be found. It is the account of Vera Brittain’s wartime experiences, from a sheltered middle class upbringing to starting at Somerville College Oxford and then to volunteer work as a VAD nurse in Britain, France and Malta. Vera Brittain lost her fiance, brother and two closest male friends in the first world war. It is very detailed including many letters and poems written by the author and her loved ones. Overview. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. The author as with many others lost those nearest and dearest during the conflict. The social history it conveys is fascinating, as well as the insight into the feelings of those young men and women of the time who had never experienced anything like such a war, either as a soldier or a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, which is what she became, putting her university studies on hold. Now, on re-reading it, I know why, and I'm not even half-way through yet. It is tragic her generation lost so much of their youth, but her anger at her conventional parents who had no books in their home seemed misplaced. The new film version of Vera Brittain’s classic First World War memoir Testament Of Youth arrives in UK cinemas on January 16th. by Penguin Classics, Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Story of the Years 1900-1925. Hollis: An autobiographical story of the war generation of England — moving, beautiful, and tragic. A very unpleasant book. Her treatment of social changes in her country is indirect and somewhat scant. How do you trust? This revealing correspondence between the legendary French chef Julia Child and her dear friend is “a delicious read” (People). A British woman recalls coming of age during World War I - a story of young love, the futility of war, and how to make sense of the darkest times. Now that Downton Abbey Season 2 has premiered with so much of revolving around cataclysmic tragedy and change caused by WWI, my thoughts turn back to this book. I found out about it through BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and was inspired to read it in part because of my esteem for Vera Brittain's daughter Shirley Williams. I appreciated the author's sincerity and dedication and this personal view of WWI history. Brittain takes her story to 1925 covering her time at Oxford, the post-traumatic stress resulting from her wartime service, her growth as a journalist and writer, her friendship with Winifred Holtby, her work for the League of Nations and ending with her marriage. It was published in 1933. Her most notable work was the ‘Testament of Youth,’ a memoir, which she wrote on account of her experiences during World War I. Her provincial childhood was characteristic of a rather staid but untroubled Edwardian society which offered few opportunities for intelligent women. It is as if she is an eighty year old woman and she is the last one standing instead of 20. Please try again. Forgiveness we forget, we march to war hoping for honor. Welcome back. There's a problem loading this menu right now. The end of the war was not the end for most, but a continuation of massive changes and dark days. A Native American woman’s struggles and the life she found in activism: “courageous, impassioned, poetic and inspirational” (Publishers Weekly). There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. When the war years had passed, she was alone and bereft and struggling to think what life. This book is without a doubt one of the best I've read on the subject of the First World War and it's devastating effects, this time from the perspective of those women who experienced an equal amount of conflict and emotional turmoil after signing up as VAD's. Testament of youth: an autobiographical study of the years 1900-1925. Still, even allowing for that, the book is well worth the buy if you have any interest at all in how life was and how it changed for a young women in the early 1900s England. Now that Downton Abbey Season 2 has premiered with so much of revolving around cataclysmic tragedy and change caused by WWI, my thoughts turn back to this book. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain is a book whose deep significance can hardly be overestimated. P.S: English is not my first language, See all 8 questions about Testament of Youth…, Mariah Carey Is Telling Her Own Story (and Recommending Books). We need to put a stop on this endless cycle of revenge. Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain's memoir of life, love, and loss during WWI first came to my attention because of Masterpiece Theater which serialized it at least 20 years ago. Little told or expressed points of view about a whole generation of youth wasted for the nebulous "nobility" that is "God and country. " Be the most you can be after reading this book. When she and Winifred head to Germany, Austria, France to observe postwar conditions, their attitudes feel almost callous in describing the conditions of occupied areas and the friction between oppressor and oppressed. I have this movie tie-in edition. But I would caution any potential reader that this very English. Am I the only one? The majority of the work covers her educational, personal, and early professional experiences, accompanied by much rumination. I found this book incredibly interesting as it made me really understand what it was like to be living through WW1 as a young adult woman. This is her memoir of a young woman maturing in those turbulent and painful years. This is not just a first person account this is a primer on humanity in inhuman times. A charged biography of Bruno Lohse, a key figure in Nazi looting of European art during World War II, as well as in the postwar art world. The writing is excellent and of course the book contains much more detail than the movie which is what I'd hope for. Having said that I found that from about 75-80% in the story was becoming repetitious and somehow no longer held me. With Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton, Dominic West. Vera Brittain was born on December 29, 1893 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England as Vera Mary Brittain. At the beginning of the book I grew weary of all the anger expressed by Ms Brittain. Telling us it's the right thing to do. Vera Brittain's world falls to pieces around her as, one by one, the young … Her speech given to the gathering made an impression on me due to her remembrance of her mother who had made a great stance for the emancipation of women during the early 20th century. ... My father, however, did inquire from my mother with well assumed indignation " why on earth Vera was making all this fuss of that youth without a farthing to his name ? There was a problem loading your book clubs. "Janice P. Nimura has resurrected Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell in all their feisty, thrilling, trailblazing splendor." Every scene is vividly described and every character seems alive. If that there can be little doubt. In Vera Brittain's memoir Testament of Youth, the negative aspects of early- to mid-twentieth-century Western society are examined in depth. FREE Delivery on orders over $39.00. But it was not until Vera Britain that I felt and understood the true horror and reality of everything lost. Vera Brittain and the First World War tells the remarkable story of the author behind Testament of Youth while charting the book's ascent to become one of the most loved memoirs of the First World War period. She wrote Testament of Youth as a cry of outrage and agony, so … We, humans, have this tendency to forget the horrors we've brought upon ourselves in the past, and a tendency to forget how terrible war can be. Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth is published by Virago. This is about Vera and this is her pouring her soul out onto these pages in the fervent hope that by doing. She becomes a nurse and travels to Malta. Testament of youth: an autobiographical study of the years 1900-1925. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Much more than a book about a person's experience in a war. It wasn't published until Vera Brittain was about 33, so she is looking back to her teenage years and the young woman she was in her first year year at Oxford as the First World War broke out. It is a unique look at the war from the perspective of a woman who gave up her studies at Oxford to serve as a nurse in France and Malta. I gave it up when her pen-pal fiance, Roland, was killed in WW1. This book changed how I saw everything and this is not hyperbole. It is much better known these days following the recent film and a TV adaptation some years ago. Testament of Youth, the new film adaptation of Vera Brittain’s memoir about her experiences as a nurse in the first world war, is now on general release. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.

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