|
|
FARRER (Reginald)
The Void of War: Letters from Three Fronts.
1st Ed., xiv+271pp. Constable.
1918
#65898
|
![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/65898.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
In between plant hunting expeditions in far flung places the botanist Reginald John Farrer worked for the Ministry of Information under John Buchan (to whom this book is dedicated) & was commissioned to record his impressions at the front. The result contains descriptions of the Western Front from Ypres & Kemmel down to Vimy & Arras, the Somme &c., then a tour of the Italian Front. Records many interesting sights & the author's observations on scenes & aspects of the battlefields. Falls thought the section on Flanders was the best part: "the view of 'a whole huge people methodically at work on a job it hates' quite good." But "Paris seems to be looked on mainly from the Ritz, not the best standpoint from which to study its more serious side" - to which I would add that the section on Paris occupies about two pages & Farrer himself says "Ritzes are not places to give proper perspectives. Here you only see the luxuriousness of life: & the contrast is much more of a jar" i.e. he uses the Ritz as a device to emphasise the vast gap between Paris & life at the Front. Orig. brown cloth, blocked black, nice copy of 1st Ed. See illustration on our website.
£75
|
|
|