- Hardcover: 792 pages
- Publisher: Harcourt Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (April 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0151836000
- ISBN-13: 978-0151836000
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.8 x 5.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 137,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Intense, memorable ... magnificent ... a massive, soaring novel of ideas and ordeals."--"Entertainment weekly""A rousing tale ... riotous energy and sustainedbrilliance ... Helprin lights his own way, in his ownsingular direction."--"Time"Extraordinary... a vast, ambitious, spiritually lusty, all-guzzling, all-encompassing novel"--"The New York Times Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
On his, last long walk, septuagenarian war hero, deserter, and professor Alessandro Giuliani shares his past with an illiterate young factory worker -- spinning a remarkable tale of heart-stopping escapes, of loves unrequited and won, of madmen, dwarfs, and mafiosi. But overshadowing all is hismost miraculous and terrible adventure, the Great War -- a surreal parade of horrors that devastated and defined Alessandro, yet enabled him to experience fully the magic and beauty of the absurd human comedy called life.
From Mark Helprin bestselling author of Winter's Tale and Memoir from Antproof Case, comes a magnificent epic adventure in which the hero reckons with love, loss, beauty, honor; and mortality. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I picked this book up mistaking it for another. I am very pleased I did. It is not often that a book engages one from first to last, it was a captivating expereince. There were complaints through-out my household as to "what the heck is he doing with that book". It made me quite anti-social.
Some books rely on the scene setting to drag you along "ever hopeful" , some seem to perk up in the mid-riff and others entice one with the closing chapters and the "resolution". Here, I was picked up and carried along, constantly both satisfied and wanting more. I am unable to imagine a better conclusion to the story and have been left wondering what the heck I am going to read now.
Mark, you have given me great pleasure and now, untold grief!
This is a book who's time will come as people who have read it, recover and start to tell others. And all because a boy was late for a bus......
Some books rely on the scene setting to drag you along "ever hopeful" , some seem to perk up in the mid-riff and others entice one with the closing chapters and the "resolution". Here, I was picked up and carried along, constantly both satisfied and wanting more. I am unable to imagine a better conclusion to the story and have been left wondering what the heck I am going to read now.
Mark, you have given me great pleasure and now, untold grief!
This is a book who's time will come as people who have read it, recover and start to tell others. And all because a boy was late for a bus......
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An extraordinary book, quite unlike anything else.
It covers the various adventures of a dashing young Italian around the time of WW1, including foolhardy student capers, colourful romantic entanglements, shocking combat scenes, dramatic mountaineering experiences, terrifying brushes with death and an epic love story, all told by an ageing man walking along a road having missed his bus. Some of the characters and episodes are a bit too surreal and uneven for some tastes, but the overall effect takes the breath away.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had never read any of Mark Helprin's work before I picked up "A Soldier of the Great War." After finishing this wonderful book, all I can say is that apparently I've been missing out. Helprin has created a book that will move you to joy and sadness, and that will remind you of why you love to read. It is a truly great novel.
What will stick in your mind each time you put the book down are the compelling characters. Helprin has concoted a wonderful cast to populate the world of his protagonist, Alessandro Giuliani. From the mad dwarf Orfeo, to the Austrian princess hidden from sight, even the smallest characters in the book will leave an indelible imprint on your memory. They seem like real people, and that's hard for any writer to bring off consistently. Helprin manages it effortlessly.
If you've come this far in the amazon.com site, you're obviously considering reading this book. Do it. You won't be disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A DREADFUL BOOK MAKES FOR EXCRUCIATING READING
Never was I MORE RELIEVED to be done with reading a book as I was with this one. This tale, in which Alessandro Giuliani, an aging First World War veteran in his dotage, speaks... Read more
Published 7 months ago by MONTGOMERY
BEST BOOK BY FAR
This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read, the story has many layers and opens up like a flower petal after petal. Read more
Published 15 months ago by CORIN MEYER
Splendid
On a par with Birdsong (from seb faulks), loved every minute could not put it down, and now need to find something similar to carry on
Published 19 months ago by P. Yates
`He liked to know where he was in the world and what was around him.'
This book tells the story of Alessandro Giuliani: both of his early life and his experiences in the Great War (World War I). Alessandro's story is framed within a long walk. Read more
Published 19 months ago by J. Cameron-Smith
Helprin's richest work. Immerse yourself in its beauties.
Mark Helprin once offered this advice to an aspiring writer on how best to construct a work, to grab the attention of the reader (and here I can only paraphrase, as I have... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2004 by Bob Zeidler
Excellent Heminwayesque WWI Drama
Helprin is a first-rate author, as has been attested to many times. This is his masterwork, in my opinion. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2002 by Bruce Kendall
A facinating slice of history and life - very well delivered
This is one of the most beautifully composed and gripping tales I have read in a long long time. A thrilling journey through the life of an Italian Solider in the First World war... Read more
Published on 27 April 1999
It is the best book I have ever read
Mark Helprin's Soldier of the Great War is one of the most entertaining yet evocative books I have ever read. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 1999
A book that will stay with me always...
I had this book for a few years and never read it until I discovered this site and decided to give it a go. What a grand treat! Read more
Published on 12 Jan 1999
Life itself is the "Great War" and each of us a...
Helprin's engrosing novel is an elegant dissertation on the meaning of life. This is no a War novel - this is a fairy tale we can all relate to!
Published on 8 Jan 1999
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