Civilisation 1914-1918

With the exception of, perhaps, “Le Feu” by Henri Barbusse, no book made such a stir in the France of 1914-1918 as Georges Duhamel’s[1] “Civilisation.” Its success was as immedi...

When I got above Chipilly, I beheld an extraordinary scene. An immense plain undulated there, covered with so many men, things and beasts, that over vast stretches the ground wa...

Sometimes, unutterably wearied by so much suffering, I asked for work outside the camp, in order to sort out my ideas and renew the theme of my reflections. It was always with a...

“Excuse me, sir, for having made you consider things which must seem strange to a man with your point of view. I do not regret having taken this opportunity to speak to you abou...

“I am a dealer in _objets d’art_,” he told me. “It’s a profitable business when one understands it. I trade mostly in candelabras and chandeliers. I work with Cohen and Co., wit...

The extraordinary thing was that his overcoat remained whole: it concealed from view the hideous annihilation of the body. Lifting it slightly, I saw his discipline book, on whi...

“Oh, Doctor!” protested the priest, and he raised his hands, the palms outwards, with an unction that was surprising in a soldier who arranged his putties so dapperly in corkscr...

“It doesn’t follow that because you are not a conscript you’re going to be cock of the walk here. Besides, men of education like yourself ought to be an example to the others. F...

I was enveloped in the shadows of the stairs, and before my bewildered eyes interrogation marks began to dance multicoloured. They vanished, and I then imagined a theatre where...

But the work was not going on at all well. My absurd stretcher-bearers, unable to fall in with each other’s movements, stumbled like broken-kneed, miserable nags, causing the wo...