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spazmatikdingo's review against another edition
Became a drag. This book took me around 5 years to almost finish, there are better books out there to spend time on than this. If this book taught me anything it was to not waste time on a book you find dragged out and redundant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
perjacxis's review against another edition
I really struggle with rating this and have to admit that don't feel comfortable rating a memoir. There definitely were some parts which interested me more than others but all in all, it was an interesting view into the lives and horrors of the war generation.
middleone95's review against another edition
5.0
The first three quarters of The Testament of Youth is really a spectacular journey through Vera Brittain’s young adulthood. You feel like you’re growing with her and there’s a notable difference in the tone of voice between the beginning chapters and where she ends the books despite Vera being much older at the time of writing. What was particularly astonishing and enjoyable was the level of detail she managed to cram into the pages, from eating omelettes with her fellow nurses at Etaples to walking by the drained lakes in St James’ Park and her frustration at conversation topics on her return to England. Her record keeping and memory alone are worth reading this for. She writes well and self-consciously of her life and relationships as well as her wider role within the world and as the reader you’re forced to face some quite stark realities of the First World War from a woman’s point of view. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind a deep dive into a larger life.
jessicamusch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This is a beautiful book about the plight of women in the early 20th century and a story of the unimaginable pain of a generation.
Why is it that men get all the glory and excitement of war and women get all the dreary parts?
I loved the prose and the perspective of a woman looking back over her younger immature self like an older sister.
I know this seems to be a point that other reviews have complained about, but I loved spending time reading about the world at the turn of the century and how much life changed after WW1, especially for women.
I also loved the exploration of men returning from war and the women who worked for the war effort being displaced and their efforts unrecognised, and the feeling that the only person who cared about her 4 years with the army was herself.
This really put into perspective the struggles of finding one’s place in the world in your 20s.
donnaadouglas's review against another edition
3.0
It took me quite an age to get through this book - it's pretty hard-going - not unenjoyable, just heavy at times, perhaps due to its subject matter.
QUOTATIONS I LIKED:
"Why, I wonder, do people who at one time or another have all been young themselves, and who ought therefore to know better, generalise so suavely and so mendaciously about the golden hours of youth - that period of life when every sorrow seems permanent, and every setback insuperable?"
"'I can scarcely bear to think of him,' I wrote, 'and yet I cannot bear to think of anything else. For the time being all people, all ideas, all interests have set, and sunk below the horizon of my mind; he alone I can contemplate, whom of all things in heaven and earth it hurts to think about most.'"
QUOTATIONS I LIKED:
"Why, I wonder, do people who at one time or another have all been young themselves, and who ought therefore to know better, generalise so suavely and so mendaciously about the golden hours of youth - that period of life when every sorrow seems permanent, and every setback insuperable?"
"'I can scarcely bear to think of him,' I wrote, 'and yet I cannot bear to think of anything else. For the time being all people, all ideas, all interests have set, and sunk below the horizon of my mind; he alone I can contemplate, whom of all things in heaven and earth it hurts to think about most.'"
nerissassippi's review against another edition
5.0
Her memoir of WWI is a deeply personal look into the trauma of the war for the young generation. I really enjoyed her insight and raw despair in the section set during the war. However, I found the section set before and after the war to be dry and academic, and in need of tighter editing.
beebeewin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.75
This was an interesting book to read that while it wasn't my favorite, I will be thinking about it for a long time. Often war memoirs are from the perspective of men so I found it super refreshing to hear it from the point of view of a woman. Vera Brittain writes a book that feels super relevant even now, especially after the pandemic and the large conservative push back on women's rights. She talks unflinchingly of the loss she experiences and seems to have utilized it to pull thought-provoking and heart-breaking nuggets of wisdoms out. If you weren't already a pacificist this book really pushes you to consider it. As someone who learned about WW1 from a distant, historical perspective to read this novel from a first hand position is heart wrenching.
These were humans fighting each other for what, as Roland her fiancé wrote from the trenches "'Here lies two gallant German officers.' The men who put the cross congratulated themselves a little on their British magnanimity, but when, later they pushed the enemy off of the trenches in front of the wood, they found another grave as carefully tended, and inscribed: 'Here le five brave English officers.'" Indeed, Brittain uses the letters of those she loved and loss to show how they themselves once in the trenches saw the pointlessness of this war. "Let him who thinks War is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation invoking Honour... and Love of Country with thoughtless and fervid a faith... let him look at a little pile of sodden grey rags that cover half a skull and a shin-bone and what might have been Its ribs... and let them realize how grand and glorious a thing it is to have distilled all Youth and Joy and Life into a fetid heap of hideous putrescence."
Reading history from this vulnerable and disastrously sad position I could not help but relate. Those lost were children, men in their teens and early twenties, who were convinced by those more powerful that war was honorable and their duty to protect those they love. Brittain notes that later generations saw them as "poor boobs" letting themselves believe in patriotism and the war, but as she nots it was "a heavy price to pay for making the mistake." It is even more disheartening to realize that only ~10 years later another war occurred that took more young lives, and her hope that "the new generation be taught to perceive logic before the hatreds and passions generated by the last war led a tired and tormented world into another", was more prophetic then I think she anticipated.
Her feminism was interesting as that movement has evolved so much since 1933, but many of the problems that she faced still persist (which is nightmarish). One quote that stuck with me and really applies in this day and again, about 100 years later, "In those dates we were still naive enough to believe that suggestions need only be bright in order to be enthusiastically accepted, and had still to learn.... the one thing that that really terrifies officials is the prospect of any alteration to the status quo." Relevant to my experiences of growing up and watching the pandemic, 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter movement, and many more.
The later part of the book did honestly drag and I wish we could have almost condensed the last 200 pages of the book, thus the lower rating. Despite that I would still recommend this book to everyone just to give better context to the history we have all learned. It definitely opened my eyes to how history can be so distorted when we are not hearing the first hand perspectives and how we need to listen to those who lived these experiences if we don't want to repeat our errors and mistakes over an over. Lastly, I do think I left this book with even more passion for activism, pacifism, and live. "If the living are to be of any use in this world, them must always break faith with the dead," and use our survivorship to fight for change!
These were humans fighting each other for what, as Roland her fiancé wrote from the trenches "'Here lies two gallant German officers.' The men who put the cross congratulated themselves a little on their British magnanimity, but when, later they pushed the enemy off of the trenches in front of the wood, they found another grave as carefully tended, and inscribed: 'Here le five brave English officers.'" Indeed, Brittain uses the letters of those she loved and loss to show how they themselves once in the trenches saw the pointlessness of this war. "Let him who thinks War is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation invoking Honour... and Love of Country with thoughtless and fervid a faith... let him look at a little pile of sodden grey rags that cover half a skull and a shin-bone and what might have been Its ribs... and let them realize how grand and glorious a thing it is to have distilled all Youth and Joy and Life into a fetid heap of hideous putrescence."
Reading history from this vulnerable and disastrously sad position I could not help but relate. Those lost were children, men in their teens and early twenties, who were convinced by those more powerful that war was honorable and their duty to protect those they love. Brittain notes that later generations saw them as "poor boobs" letting themselves believe in patriotism and the war, but as she nots it was "a heavy price to pay for making the mistake." It is even more disheartening to realize that only ~10 years later another war occurred that took more young lives, and her hope that "the new generation be taught to perceive logic before the hatreds and passions generated by the last war led a tired and tormented world into another", was more prophetic then I think she anticipated.
Her feminism was interesting as that movement has evolved so much since 1933, but many of the problems that she faced still persist (which is nightmarish). One quote that stuck with me and really applies in this day and again, about 100 years later, "In those dates we were still naive enough to believe that suggestions need only be bright in order to be enthusiastically accepted, and had still to learn.... the one thing that that really terrifies officials is the prospect of any alteration to the status quo." Relevant to my experiences of growing up and watching the pandemic, 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter movement, and many more.
The later part of the book did honestly drag and I wish we could have almost condensed the last 200 pages of the book, thus the lower rating. Despite that I would still recommend this book to everyone just to give better context to the history we have all learned. It definitely opened my eyes to how history can be so distorted when we are not hearing the first hand perspectives and how we need to listen to those who lived these experiences if we don't want to repeat our errors and mistakes over an over. Lastly, I do think I left this book with even more passion for activism, pacifism, and live. "If the living are to be of any use in this world, them must always break faith with the dead," and use our survivorship to fight for change!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Ableism, Gun violence, Grief, Medical content, and Death
steve1213's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
5.0
louloup_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0