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Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction)
 
 
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Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction) (Paperback)

by Shirley Williams (Foreword), Vera Brittain (Author), Mark Bostridge (Introduction) "When the Great War broke out, it came to me not as a superlative tragedy, but as an interruption of the most exasperating kind to..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
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Customers buy this book with Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams by Shirley Williams

Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction) + Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams
Price For Both: £20.30

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Product details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Edition with new cover edition (1 Jan 1933)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0860680355
  • ISBN-13: 978-0860680352
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Biography > War & Espionage > World War I
    #9 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > 1901 Onwards
    #14 in  Books > Biography > Women

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

In 1914 Vera Brittain was 21 years old, and an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford. When war broke out in August of that year, Brittain "temporarily" disrupted her studies to enrol as a volunteer nurse, nursing casualties both in England and on the Western Front. The next four years were to cause a deep rupture in Brittain's life, as she witnessed not only the horrors of war first hand, but also experienced the quadruple loss of her fiancé, her brother, and two close friends. Testament of Youth is a powerfully written, unsentimental memoir which has continued to move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933. Brittain, a pacifist since her First World War experiences, prefaces the book with a fairy tale, in which Catherine, the heroine, encounters a fairy godmother and is given the choice of having either a happy youth or a happy old age. She selects the latter and so her fate is determined: "Now this woman," warns the tale, "was the destiny of poor Catherine." And we find as we delve deeper into the book that she was the destiny of poor Vera too.


Review

'A unique record of one woman's experience of twenty-five of the most cataclysmic years in modern history.' - T.L.S. 'A haunting elegy for a lost generation.' - THE TIMES "Nothing else in the literature of the first world war charts so clearly the path leading from erosion of innocence, with the destruction of the public school boy's heroic illusions, to the survivors' final disillusionment that the sacrifice of the dead had been in vain." - MARK BOSTERIDGE, GUARDIAN 'In 1914 Vera Brittain was 21 years old, and an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford. When war broke out in August of that year, Brittain "temporarily" disrupted her studies to enrol as a volunteer nurse, nursing casualties both in England and on the Western Front. The next four years were to cause a deep rupture in Brittain's life, as she witnessed not only the horrors of war first hand, but also experienced the quadruple loss of her fiance, her brother, and two close friends. Testament of Youth is a powerfully written, unsentimental memoir which has continued to move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933. Brittain, a pacifist since her First World War experiences, prefaces the book with a fairy tale, in which Catherine, the heroine, encounters a fairy godmother and is given the choice of having either a happy youth or a happy old age. She selects the latter and so her fate is determined: "Now this woman," warns the tale, "was the destiny of poor Catherine." And we find as we delve deeper into the book that she was the destiny of poor Vera too.' - AMAZON.CO.UK 'Miss Brittain has written a book which stands alone among books written by women about the war.' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Desperately heartrending personal account of a generation of young men being killed on the Western Front in the First World War.' - SIR BERNARD INGHAM, SUNDAY EXPRESS
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When the Great War broke out, it came to me not as a superlative tragedy, but as an interruption of the most exasperating kind to my personal plans. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book, 1 Nov 2001
By A Customer
If you only read one book about the First World War, read this one. The true horror of the war is detailed, and it really makes you think about the loss and sacrifice.
I read this book first of all studying for my History degree,and I have re-read it many times since then.
Vera's life and what happened to her, and her friends has stayed with me always, and I have now encouraged other people to read it too.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A 'must read'., 4 April 2001
By A Customer
Vera Brittain effectively conveys the anguish, pain, grief and helplessness of a civilian in times of war in a manner that I have not witnessed in any other account.

Having read this book twice I am not ashamed to admit that I wept on both occasions. I defy anyone to read Vera's biography with dry eyes.

By todays standards her prose may appear old-fashioned but it is extremely elegant and most effective considering her subject matter. The prosaic descriptions of her mental turmoil and sense of hopelessness contrast vividly with her determination and resolve to help alleviate the suffering of the soldiers by joining the nursing establishment at the front. Her inclusion of poems and letters within the text considerably aids the readers understanding of both her personal relationships and state of mind during this period.

Being well versed in the history, and statistics, of the Great War, I found 'Testament of Youth' extremely enlightening in terms of the personal suffering that was endured by individuals like Vera who were forever changed by the experience.

Perhaps, were it a prerequisite for aspiring politicions to read this book, our nations leaders may well find it a lot more difficult to commit a country to war.

This is an important book.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An essential book, 28 Aug 2000
By A Customer
I have just finished reading 'Testament of Youth' and thought you could hardly better the sense of experience, personal and national, that comes out of it. I come to the book from an 'autobiography' background, rather than of 'interest in the war' as such, and therefore to my mind the first two thirds of the book are best where Vera Brittain is conveying her personal experience and responses; I think she is less good in conveying her work for the League of Nations etc. But then, perhaps that is the point of it. As she says a couple of times in the text, these are experiences which I will never be able to overcome. Her courage in picking herself up after the war is fantastic, but you know in your heart that something has been lost in her forever. It was also very nice to read about a Buxton lass. I like Derbyshire & the Dales and I enjoyed the presentation of 'genteel' Buxton and her family and friends.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking Memoirs
I first read this book when studying for my A levels 25 years ago -it totally overpowered me then and now it still does. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rhiannon

4.0 out of 5 stars Very moving
To be honest, I purchased the 'Testament of Youth' book as a study book for my A level English Literature exam, expecting it to be (well lets put it nicely) not really my type of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mavi S

5.0 out of 5 stars this is a "must read" book
I would recommend this book to young and old,if everyone read this including politicians we may see the end of wars, as it exposes the tragedy and futility of war
Published 9 months ago by Kathleen Catherall

4.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up the Hard Way
Vera Brittain was a privileged, yet restricted young woman. She was very of her time in that she had to fight for everything that today's women tend to take for granted. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Graceann Macleod

1.0 out of 5 stars Heavy Going
I dont think I have ever found a book so difficult to read as this one, and I still have not finished it, although I skip page after page of what is real dribble, she seems off in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Daniel Rampton

5.0 out of 5 stars utterly heartbreaking; one woman's war
My mother having pressed me to read this book, I finally got round to it early this year. Thank God I did. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ms. A. E. C. Ferris

4.0 out of 5 stars An important memoir of the Great War and its aftermath
In 1929 Vera Brittain ( 1893- 1970) began using her extensive diaries and correspondence to start writing her auto-biographical epic from 1913-1925, which was published in... Read more
Published 22 months ago by M. Shankland

5.0 out of 5 stars The book that changed my life
I first read this book when I was about 15 and it had such a remarkable effect on my life that 25 years later I still return to it again and again. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2007 by Dee

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic: shattering at times, always enlightening
Vera Brittain's account was written in the early 1930s, as she tried to make sense of the extraordinary bereavement that affected those of her generation who survived the First... Read more
Published on 23 May 2004 by R. S. Stanier

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story of love
I read this book for my A Levels, last year, as we were studying Worl War One Literature. Such a hefty tome looked completely imtimidating, but I decided to start anyway. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2003 by Eleanor O

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