World War I Fiction

I posted this on Book Talk, but maybe I'll get a better response here.

I'm looking for historical fiction about WWI, but books that encompass the history that brought it to that point, not the death of the Archduke whatever. I'm also not interested in reading stories about or by soldiers, nor Hemingway. I really want a historica perspective, sort of like a GWTW or any of a gazillion books written about WWII.

What I find interesting is that WWII is so often considered the second part of the First Great War, but so little is written about how we got there, aside from the many nonfiction books I could probably read. I've read Nicholas & Alexandra and loved it. So I'm looking for more like that.

Any thoughts?

I suggest Herman Wouk, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

There is an old thread with many recommendations---find it here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/6926

#3 Thank you. I checked out the link. Many of the books were either about the experiences of soliders or nonfiction. I don't really want books about the fighting itself, although the war and its brutality is integral, but rather about the societies before the war and what led up to it. It's quite encompassing, I know, surely these books exist. It seems that there are so many books and still coming about WWII. Where is the WWI fiction?

#2 Thanks for your suggestions. Both these books appear to be about WWII.

I read quite a bit of Great War fiction, non-fiction and poetry -- even so, I've had a hard time thinking of titles that might fit the bill! This is the best I could do:

Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man by Siegried Sassoon (1928) -- Yes, Sassoon was a soldier, and yes, war does break out by the end, but this fictionalized autobiography gives a sense of what it was like growing up in upper-middle class, pre-war England.

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (1922) -- Jacob's life story is told by those who knew him growing up in Edwardian England. The war, while playing a decisive role, is just background for Woolf's character study.

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (1932) -- traces the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire through three generations of one family, from the 1850s right up to the outbreak of war.

This is indirect, but the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear provides an interesting perspective on the social changes caused by WWI ... it's a set of cozy mysteries set after the war, but Maisie's experiences as an aid-station nurse are a key element of every story. Very good reads.

Spy's Honour looks to be a novel about Britain setting up a secret service in the run up to WWI.

Funny, I have made the same comment about the dearth of good WWI historical fiction since I read:

To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War
by Jeff Shaara

Shaara and his father have written excellent historical fiction about Civil War, American Revolution, and WWI and WWII. I believe you will like "To the Last Man". He and his father do/did a tremendous amount of research and you will find among his characters several military and political individuals of note.

#8 Thank you. I actually have the civil war Shaara (title escaping me right now) on library reserve. I will definitely check out To the Last Man.

Fallen Skies by Phillipa Gregory is about the aftermath of the Great War in England. A main character is a lawyer and former officer in the war and is utterly damaged by what happened to him in France. Reviews are mixed on this one, but I like what it revealed about the effects of the war.

Another author that noone seems to know about these days is Howard Spring. He wrote about England, post WWI mostly. A favorite is These Lovers Fled Away. These books, too, focus on after the war, however.

There was a trilogy published by John Masters in the late '70s. The first was titled "Now God Be Thanked", can't remember the names of the second and third titles. These cover every aspect of how the WWI changed the lives of the British people: aristocrates, farmers, etc. These books have MANY characters, it can be hard to differentiate them at first, but stick with it! I enjoyed these books very much. Two problems: 1)these books have cheesy cover art that make them look like romances, and
2) only the most well-stocked libraries would be likely to still have them on their shelves. That said, they are well worth seeking out.

I'm not sure how this fits in with what you're looking for, but I have a book titled 1901, which is an alternate history of WWI. The basic premise is what if Germany invaded America? The reason behind it is that Kaiser Wilhelm wanted Germany to be a colonial power, and was jealous over the upstart United State's recent aquisitions of Samoa and the Phillipenes. Mind you, this is from the introduction of the book and I haven't independantly researched what the real potential was for a flashpoint. It makes for a fun read nevertheless.

you might take a look at John Biggins's books about the Habsburg Empire... I've read the first one, and enjoyed it immensely.

May I ask why the emphasis on, or prescription of, fiction?

If you want excellent, narrative, easy to read and digest books on the First World War, may I respectfully recommend The Guns of August and The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman. The first title deals with the first month of the way, whilst the second with the state of the world (primarily Europe) in the preceding twenty years. I also heartily recommend Dreadnought by Massie, an absolutely riveting account of the naval arms race that preceded the war.

You may also like The Lions of July and The Arming of Europe. These are both slightly more "traditional" history books though.

The trilogy starting with Regeneration by Pat Barker.

I'd second Regeneration but want to suggest Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks as an amazing, moving depiction of the tunnelers and so much more. Highly recommended.

Also, if you like mysteries, Charles Todd actually a mother/son team have a series starting with the award winning A Test of Wills about a shell-shocked officer returning to his job at Scotland Yard but haunted by a fellow soldier who lives in his mind as a result of actions in the Somme.

#15,16

I would second Birdsong which I preferred to Regeneration (I never bothered with the rest of the latter trilogy).

One of the Casca series by Barry Sadler is set in the First World War, Casca 21: The Trench Soldier.

I understand that you are looking for historical fiction that brought the word to WW I. If that is correct, you might look at Reilly, Ace of Spies, by Robin B. Lockhart, or Ken Follett's The Man from St. Petersburg. The Reilly book also appeared as a TV series that is available on DVD. Both Lockhart and Follett deal with the spy activities that occurred before the war.

I can't believe I'm still getting responses to my original request for WWI historical fiction. It just illustrates what a wonderful site this is.

I am reading the first of the Pat Barker series, although it is not quite what I had in mind. I'm not opposed to nonfiction, as I am a big fan of the genre. My interest in historical fiction is one of curiosity, as it seems that there are countless fiction books written about WWII, (as there is also an endless stream of books and novels about the Civil War.) I just wonder why the first world war is too often told through soldier narratives with not enough general history to educate the uninitiated like me. It seems that a good novel could do that through threads of several stories. These books must be there, and I will gladly take some of your recommendations to heart. I still do want to know more about "How We Got There..." I will give it up however, and read Guns of August as it seems to be on everyone's top ten list.

Thanks again for your interest and help.

I have Bury Him Among Kings on my keeper shelf. Really enjoyed that book.

Closed Circle by Robert Goddard is fiction that posits a cause for WWI.

I loved "Gifts of War" by Mackenzie Ford. It is a real page-turner and kept me thinking about the story for days after I finished reading it.

You might be interested in A. S. Byatt The Children's Book. It's a novel set from about 1895 to 1919 about a several fictional familys in the Arts and Crafts world at the time. The social, political and literary world is a big part of developed story, more the general ideas current in the British and German literary intellectual world than specific events that moved toward the war. You wrote you were looking for something like Gone With The Wind for WWI. This might fill the bill.

BEFORE you read "Guns of August" you should get the book that explains what led up to August 1914. Robett K. Massie does a FANTASTIC job of bringing these events and the people to life in "Dreadnought." Don't assume Dreadnought is all about the navy, that's only the smallest part. Dreadnought is about the personalities of the players who set these events in motion. After reading it you feel like you know "Willie", the Kaiser of Germany and grandson of Queen Victoria, as well as "Georgie", the Kind of England and also the grandson of Queen Victoria! It's a page turner, much like you expect with fiction, but even better because it's true! Enjoy!

I have a similar interest in historical fiction surrounding war one, but from the angle of having loved WEB Griffin's approach to WWII. I wish he had written a few war one series and saved me the effort all this searching.
I too am less interested in straight history or soldier's memoirs, and more in a rollicking tale wrapped in an overview with the key movers and shakers present but not necessarily central characters.
any ideas?

A Very Long Engagement is about WW1. It's French and it's about a young French girl who seeks to find out what happened to her fiance in the war as it was recorded he died in action but after the war a soldier who survived tells her that her fiance may have survived. She then sets out to solve the mystery of what actually happened.

I second the recommendation for the mystery series by Charles Todd. One thing I like about it is that it deals with how people coped with PTSD a century ago -- and we've been dealing with it throughout recorded history. I've met Charles and his mother (they're a writing team) and served on author panels with him. If you're going to the "Killer Nashville" mystery conference 20-22 August, he'll be there. So will I (Suzanne Adair).

I wasn't favorably impressed with Maisie Dobbs. The big problem I had with the latter was something I'm seeing in more books recently: a huge lump of backstory in the middle of the book. For me, it slowed down the pacing, didn't contribute to the plot, and wasn't needed for the characterization. I found myself skimming through it to return to the story in the present. Whenever I see this backstory lump in the middle of a book, I wonder whether the manuscript was originally novella-length, and an editor made the author pad the book out to the word count of a novel.

I've read Now God be Thanked of John Masters WWI Trilogy and I'm starting the second installment which starts in January 1916 Heart of War

Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War is an excellent book. Maybe his best.

I'm currently reading Timothy Findley's The Wars, and can see why it was an award winner.

I have no trouble finding WWI fiction that is written from the British or Canadian point of view. I'd like to expand a little and read something from a non-English-speaking perspective. I've read All Quiet on the Western Front, but that's about it. I already have Storm of Steel on my wishlist (although I don't think that quite fits anyway), but I'm looking for something else. Surely there must be books from a French POV? Belgian?

>32 Nickelini:
I haven't read it yet, but the one everyone keeps recommending is Under fire (Le feu) by Henri Barbusse, which sounds as though it must be rather similar in tone to Remarque, but French.

ETA: ...and of course The good soldier Svejk for the Czech point of view!

I think Company Parade by Storm Jameson is more or less about a group of friends living through the war years at home, with one of their number off fighting. I liked it a lot.

I second the recommendation of B.Tuchman's "The Guns of August", and Massie's "Dreadnought", both are excellent books. Recently, I had a conversation with a Yale history teacher at a New Years Eve party, and he recommended "The Great War in Modern Memory" by Paul Fussell and "Rememberance of War" by Jay Winter.

Perhaps the grand-daddy of all writers of WW 1 fiction would be Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939), who served in the war (1915). His most famous book is, The Good Soldier (1915), but an equally interesting view of England before and during the war comes from his tetralogy, Parade's End (1924-28), with its central character, Christopher Tietjens. The first two volumes of the tetralogy: "Some Do Not . . ." and "No More Parades," have just been re-issued (Carcanet: Manchester), with excellent introductions and notes (for Parade's End) by Ford's definitive biographer, Max Sanders.

I read Joseph Boyden's "Through Black Spruce". It's about a unit in the war that had a lot of Canadians including aboriginal soldiers, and it's totally awesome. it won the prestigious Giller prize in 2008 and it was well-deserved. I think it was the best book that I read last year, and I highly recommend it.

I have read all these posts (although they are not new), but I am supposed to find a book about WW1 for a book club composed of boys ages 8-13. We have been studying the different wars, currently The Perilous Road about the civil War. I have no idea where to look or what would even be some good recommendations. Any help? I do not know if any of the previously mentioned books would be applicable to this age group.

#38 - Conrad's War by Andrew Davies would be perfect for that age group - except it's WWII :(

>38 lirwin: This is probably too late, but I just finished War Horse by Michael Morpurgo which might be appropriate for your group. Written from the horse's POV, but gets at the futility of war. The stage play is fantastic. Didn't see the movie which came out during the holidays.

Ken Follett's Fall of Giants

Kingdoms Fall - The Laxenburg Message by Edward Parr here: http://www.librarything.com/work/14416216/book/103355156
A fictional British spy story set in the midst of WW1. Fun, interesting book.

Passport to Hell and Nor the Years Condemn by Robin Hyde are two novels based on first-person accounts of Gallipoli and the trench warfare in France, from the viewpoint of a New Zealander with the ANZAC forces, who ended up in prison on his return to New Zealand.

I'd also second Pat Barker's trilogy mentioned above. Goshawk Squadron, War Story, and Hornet's Sting by Derek Robinson are novels on the Royal Flying Corps.

Soon after the fact, John Buchan wrote History of the Great War in four volumes. Don't think it's in print: I got it in a rare book shop.

Given your interest in the literary traces of the war, I'd strongly recommend The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell. Chapters 20-22 in The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund DeWaal is a recollection of his family's experience in Vienna before, during, and after the Great War: marvelous book.

I've got a collection of books on the ANZACs and the NZ Maori Battalion, and also on NZ nurses and VADs in the Great War: a specialised interest.

(Just noticed the date on the original post.)

#44, bitser is right about Paul Fussell's book. It's very good. Johnny got his gun deals with the aftermath of WWI.

#44 - Hi bitser, and welcome to LT! I'd like to second your recommendation for Derek Robinson's War Story, which I read a couple of years ago and really liked.

Have also got Paul Fussell's book on my wishlist.

A bit late to this discussion, but as I happened across the Maise Dobbs series this year (with the shadow of WWI looming over the early books), I was struck by how many things I have read lately, by coincidence, have that WWI presence. Examples include My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing, Remember Ben Clayton by Stephen Harrigan, and The Absolutist by John Boyne. Those last two, in particular, I loved.

On my Great War list is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. I'm presently reading his Charlotte Gray, which is set in WWII in England and France, and enjoying it.

I don't know if this thread is still active, but for a really good read which touches upon life before and after WWI, which is non-fiction but reads like a novel, I recommend The Secret Rooms.

Another interesting non-fiction read for background is Bertie: a fascinating biography of the man who briefly became Edward VII but spent most of his life as the Prince Of Wales. Bertie married a Danish princess, but of course his father was German and most of the family sympathies were German. Most families have the potential for some pretty sticky dynamics, but when one's relations are the heads of opposing nations it can be particularly tense. The author looks at the difference between Victoria, who was at heart still an autocrat, and Bertie, who was much more in tune with the populace and more careful about the relationship between the monarchy and Parliament.

Both good reads and full of endless talking points.

A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway

Reviving this thread . . . I started a list using the tag "World War I Fiction" . . .
http://www.librarything.com/list/9754/all/World-War-I-Fiction
which pulls up about 70 books.
I've seen several articles lately containing book lists related to WWI (as we are in the Centenary Year) and will try to relocate those and compare to the above.

The first one I thought of was Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf . . . which takes place after the war, but contains a moving portrayal of what we used to call "shell shock" and would now be known as PTSD. But that book isn't on most of the lists . . .

Will check later to see if the books mentioned above made it onto my tag-created list.

And if anyone knows how to create a list from the COMBINATION of tags . . . please let me know. I'm guessing we would have better luck with "WWI"/"World War I" AND "Fiction"/"Historical Fiction" or some combination of those, but I can't figure out how to make that work in lists, so I used the single tag "World War I Fiction".

Just remembered about tagmash:
http://www.librarything.com/tag/WWI,+historical+fiction
pulls 814 works

I just finished reading The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. Written in 1918 about a shell-shocked soldier with amnesia and three women who love him. Short and very moving.

I don't think anyone's mentioned The Wars by Timothy Findley. Award-winning Canadian novel.

Duel of Eagles by Peter Townsend focuses on the aircraft industry but portrays events leading from the end of WWI to the Battle of Britain in WWII. it's a great overview of attitudes during the intervening years, also.

The member of Club Read have kept a thread about WWI reads:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185007

It is August 1917, Charles Randall is a temp First Lieutenant in the British Army at the age of 19. The book opens with him dodging a bomb blast in a trench position because another officer beat him in a race to a plum post. The fates decided that the Germans would attack the post killing all. He has returned to London, casually mentions an improvement to a flare system, meets a married woman who becomes a widow while on leave in London in the CS Forester in the book Randall and the River of Time. It is an amazing book about the growth of a strong young man. The book is typical of CS Forester, well developed characters, excellent plot and he places you in the center of the action.

Just finished Randall and the River of Time. It is a very good war time drama but very little of it occurs on the battle front. The story morphs into a tale of a young boy, who stumbles into a relationship with a less than honest woman who uses him, is unfaithful and the drama that falls out from that when he discovers the truth. The war is just the back drop. The setting is WWI but really the book would stand up no matter what war it was. I would imagine this story is played out in real life over and over again throughout time.

To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara

Elswyth Thane wrote a series of seven novels, generally referred to as the Williamsburg series, starting before the American Revolutionary War and ending just before Pearl Harbor. The books are mostly based in North America and England, with parts of the later books in France, Germany and other European countries. The first two novels are about the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, but if you start with the third you get the Spanish American War, the years leading up to WWI, WWI, the years between the two WWs, and the first years of WWII before the U.S. came in. She did an excellent job of portraying social attitudes toward the issues leading to war, within the race and class limits of the families she wrote about. I would love to some day see a counterpoint story of other social groups in the same times and places.