Siegfried Sassoon [Hardcover]

In the aftermath of WWI, Siegfried Sassoon became known as a "soldier-poet", a fighter who recorded his experiences in verse. What made Sassoon's experience unique was that those who fought in the trenches saw a new brand of warfare and the horrors that went with it: they recorded these atrocities and their sense of betrayal at being told that war was a glorious and noble enterprise. And Siegfried Sassoon, one of the more famous soldier poets to survive, became a voice for that generation, but was ultimately trapped by his war time world.

Born half-Jewish, but raised away from the faith, Siegfried Sassoon lived a somewhat sheltered life, the middle of three boys whose father had abandoned them when they were young. Growing up, he wished for a more wealthy and aristocratic upbringing, thinking that many things had been denied him by his father's deseration and susequent death. He knew almost immediately that he was not like other boys, for he was shy and introspective, cocooned in a shroud of creativity and writing. Knowing that he had to break away from the oppressiveness of his mother's slightly overprotective love, he enlisted in the service, and his life fianlly began on the battlefield.

Much has been documented about Sassoon's war time heroics, which earned him a Military Cross and the nickname 'Mad Jack' for his danger-seeking ways. Perhaps more than the poetry he wrote during the war, which showcased the true horrors of modern warfare and satirized those in charge, Sassoon is famous for his anti-war declaration - a statement that caused him not to be court-martialed, but to be sent to Craiglockhart, a supposed sufferer of shellshock. It was there that he met the ill-fated fellow soldier poet, Wilfred Owen, who looked upon Sassoon as a mentor. But usually, that is where the story ends: most people do not know much about Sassoon beyond that point.

Max Egremont does a remarkable job in documenting Sassoon's life. One definitely needs a familiarity with Sassoon's poetry, especially to enjoy Egremont's critiques of his poems, from the famous war poems, to the ones he struggled with later in life that are not so well known. Egremont explores all facets of Sassoon's life, from his time in the trenches, to his homosexual affairs (and most famous partner), to his sudden marriage and eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism. Max Egremont allows readers to see the physical and psychological strains Sassoon experienced as a homosexual in a less accepting and more persecuting time: he doesn't shy away from details that may prove unseemly, but lays bare the entire man. Readers can experience fully this almost paradoxical being, described as shy and bumbling, aloof and haughty, always craving more recognition than he was given, always drawing others to him as if he were an idol to worship.

In his writing life after the war, Sassoon became more famous for his prose than his poetry, with his three attempts to document his life through fictionalized autobiograhies. What he achieved with all three, but especially the first, "Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man", was to create an idyllic picture of England, a time lost forever encapsulated by the author's innocence. But these accounts leave out much from his life and do not give a full picture of this enigmatic man. Whether he realized it or not, Sassoon did receive a fair amount of recognition in his time, much more than he receives now. While his best poems are arguably those written during WWI, his other writings offer a glimpse at a world that changed before his eyes at the turn of the century, and the role that WWI played in that. His is a voice not just for his generation, but for all generations, and Max Egremont demonstrates that in this intelligent and thorough biography.

Siegfried Sassoon has much more to say about the world, indeed about our times, then some much more contemporary writers.

While many people focus on his 'war poetry,' his relationship with Stephen Tennant, and his family's wealth and fame, what I find most striking is his ability to document a time of change, the first decades of the 20th century. The changes in England at that time: a time of the lowering importance of an aristocratic class; the demise of agrarian values; the changes in mores and manners, are they really that different then America in the first few years of this century with its shift of importance to the blue states; diminishing value of science; a nation where someone thinks up the idea to protest at a soldier's funeral. These changes are as puzzling to me as mustard gas, and a diminishing of un-earned income was to Sassoon.

Do yourself a favor. Read all you can by and about this brilliant man. I would suggest you start with "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man."

The horrors of World War I are usually set forth by historians, but the poets paint a seriously moving portrait. Sasson is one of the best. I do become tired of the author constant reference to Sasson's sexual preference.