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paola_mobileread's review against another edition
4.0
I always thought of Testament of Youth as a war book, but this book is in fact much more than that - yes, the central part of the book (which consists of three parts) does recount Vera Brittain's first hand experience of the Western Front, where she served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, but this is also in fact the watershed between the society that was before, and the society to come after.
Surely Vera Brittain wasn't the only girl brought up in a wealthy upper middle class by Victorian parents whose wishes to see their daughters married well clashed with an inquisitive young mind's desire to do something other than fulfill their supporting role of mothers and wives in a male dominated society. But hers was the first generation of young women who could fill the vacuum created by the mass conscription of males to seize opportunities never before available.
The first two parts of the book are heartwrenching, her description of the war and of its consequences, of the shattering of the dreams and the lives, of the hopes, the portrat of the realization of the futility of it all are described incisively and beautifully. But besides the emotions stirred by this book, to me it is unashamedly feminist - though an uncommon sort of feminism, as class seeps through it. For instance a not yet 22 years old Vera returning home after seeing her fiance going off to the front complains that
I have to agree with Mark Bostridge who in the introduction to the Penguin Classic edition writes
But I disagree with the scolding tone implied in this judgment: it must have been a Herculean task to go so much against the tide in those days. She was on a mission, with her future husband also recognising and accepting that her work was more important to her than marriage. We don't see much of "G.", but that little we see is rather impressive, and one can't discount the importance of his support (and, I suspect, that of several maids!) in helping her carry out her project.
Surely Vera Brittain wasn't the only girl brought up in a wealthy upper middle class by Victorian parents whose wishes to see their daughters married well clashed with an inquisitive young mind's desire to do something other than fulfill their supporting role of mothers and wives in a male dominated society. But hers was the first generation of young women who could fill the vacuum created by the mass conscription of males to seize opportunities never before available.
The first two parts of the book are heartwrenching, her description of the war and of its consequences, of the shattering of the dreams and the lives, of the hopes, the portrat of the realization of the futility of it all are described incisively and beautifully. But besides the emotions stirred by this book, to me it is unashamedly feminist - though an uncommon sort of feminism, as class seeps through it. For instance a not yet 22 years old Vera returning home after seeing her fiance going off to the front complains that
Though the three maids had been unoccupied all evening, not one of them offered to help me unpack or to get me a cup of tea, and I was far too much absorbed in my misery to ask them for anything. It is 1915, but considering the book was written much later and this is not an excerpt from her diary at the time, it does sound an off note.
I have to agree with Mark Bostridge who in the introduction to the Penguin Classic edition writes
though she proposes a form of egalitarian marriage and other radical reforms, and despite the fact that she envisages herself as a modern woman, she remains at heart a product of her Victorian bourgeois background, and though to a lesser degree to his consideration that
much of the confidence and assurance of her autobiographical voice emanates from her passionate identification with her young male contemporaries and her experience of living vicariously through them.
But I disagree with the scolding tone implied in this judgment: it must have been a Herculean task to go so much against the tide in those days. She was on a mission, with her future husband also recognising and accepting that her work was more important to her than marriage. We don't see much of "G.", but that little we see is rather impressive, and one can't discount the importance of his support (and, I suspect, that of several maids!) in helping her carry out her project.
dnandrews797's review against another edition
4.0
While I read this in fits and starts, putting it down for a time when the plot would slow down, I think it’s a excellent novel about World War I from a perspective not often covered in war novels: that of women. Brittan’s struggle in her role as a nurse and her loss of most close friends, fiancée, and her brother is written about in beautifully tragic prose that really conveyed the magnitude of her loss and disillusionment characteristic of this time period. Though it slowed down towards the beginning and a bit at the end, overall it was a lovely experience and oddly relatable in these trying times.
leahreadsstuff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
A fiercely feminist and quietly riveting depiction of the horrors and costs of war, and a moving memorial to an entire generation that never got to grow up.
artistmaybe's review against another edition
3.0
At the point where WW1 ended tuned out and lost interest. In parts of this book I felt that things jumped around within timelines too much and interfered with the flow of reading. I am going to admit I don't normally read biographies so my issues may be that it just was not a book for me.
widderwille's review against another edition
4.0
saw the film first with my dear friend and we were literally traumatized afterwards. it was so beautiful and touching so i had to read the book. but i didn't know how many pages it had before it was delivered. #shook. although it is not as long as "les misérables" or "gone with the wind" at that time it was a big one for me just as the harry potter books were. still i stuck through it. during reading it was kind of hard to understand most of it because it is written in an older english and me as a not-native reader already had a disadvantage. actually read it while i was in the north of france in which most of this true story is talking about (not primarily) so that made the whole thing even more emotional. i finished the book on the "Pont de Normandie", the bridge that (in my case) leads from the Bretagne to the Normandie (i'm writing in french on purpose). i cried. my parents even drove me to the cemetary where Roland is burried and that was jUST THE CHERRY ON TOP! it truly was an reading experience of a life time. will never forget it. war stories (and this one happened) are just so... unimaginable because it all lies in the past but it is important to understand what our ancestors lived through. it makes me even more sad that someday none of these people will be alive to tell. it will only live on books like this one.
megancortez's review against another edition
5.0
This is a simple story of a young girl who continues to live, even as so many (so, so many) of those around her die; a young girl who grows into a modern woman. She works to endure a horrible war as a nurse and is made to feel, viscerally, the impacts of this new violence, and grapple with a life so different than the one her upbringing had promised her.
This memoir evaluates the lacking solidity of reason of "heroism in the abstract" and the dissolution of chivalric values at the slaughter and cannibalism of the old world which was the First, the Great World War. It posits that this "modern war['s] only result must be the long reaping in sorrow of that which was sown in pride."
(Goodreads refreshed while I was typing up a really lovely, poignant review, and I hate my life because I lost it. I'll try and remember what I wrote and come back to edit this.)
This memoir evaluates the lacking solidity of reason of "heroism in the abstract" and the dissolution of chivalric values at the slaughter and cannibalism of the old world which was the First, the Great World War. It posits that this "modern war['s] only result must be the long reaping in sorrow of that which was sown in pride."
(Goodreads refreshed while I was typing up a really lovely, poignant review, and I hate my life because I lost it. I'll try and remember what I wrote and come back to edit this.)
dilchh's review
3.0
This was definitely a roller coaster ride for me, and I have never actually came to that conclusion when it comes to reading a biography/memoir; it’s hard to think that these events were anything but a real-life events, not because it seems like a fabricated truth, but because Vera Brittain wrote it in words that were weaved with love, pain, and struggle that you can’t help but feel those emotions streaming through the words. At times the story can feel like it’s moving in an alarming speed but then at times, Vera seems to stall something as if she herself feels like the longer she holds the climax, the lesser the pain it brings.
I think it was a good decision for me to read this book at 27, because everything that seems to be the struggle of Vera and her contemporaries were still relevant to this day, even though this was something that people went through years ago. Without trying to sound pretentious or obnoxious, there are more than one time that I actually feels like that whatever it is that Vera seems to go through in her life, I felt it too.
One thing that made this book seems hard to enjoyed in the beginning was the language and the structure of the sentences; as this book was written sometime ago, it was hard to grasp the nature of Vera’s voice when you are a millennial, but after a few chapters it became easier and next thing you know, you’re accustomed to it already. Other things that caught my attention was that it was hard for me to sympathise with Vera in the first part of the book, as she seems to value herself too high that at times it seems like she’s an arrogant woman; I remember thinking to myself that had this book was written and published today, she would have been labeled as a first world problem complainer. Thankfully, this changed as she met Roland; I don’t like to think that she changed merely because she met a man in his life, but Roland definitely had a huge impact on her in seeing the current life in the UK at the time.
What is so beautiful with this book, more than anything, was Vera and Edward’s relationship. How a sibling relationship grew stronger during the war and how badly it affects Vera as Edward part away with the world that Vera was left behind in. It was also thanks to Vera’s words that you felt like you knew all her contemporaries personally; how, along with Vera, I wished that Edward would have survived the war because you felt a close kinship with his persona throughout the book.
This would definitely be a good book for those who consider themselves as going through a quarter life crisis, or anyone who is going through a big major change in life. Imagine, one day you are about to embark to school only to have a war breaking out before your eyes and it seems like the war would never end and all it does is taking away all the raging fire of youths along with its destruction; surely it would put your life in a brighter perspective.
I think it was a good decision for me to read this book at 27, because everything that seems to be the struggle of Vera and her contemporaries were still relevant to this day, even though this was something that people went through years ago. Without trying to sound pretentious or obnoxious, there are more than one time that I actually feels like that whatever it is that Vera seems to go through in her life, I felt it too.
One thing that made this book seems hard to enjoyed in the beginning was the language and the structure of the sentences; as this book was written sometime ago, it was hard to grasp the nature of Vera’s voice when you are a millennial, but after a few chapters it became easier and next thing you know, you’re accustomed to it already. Other things that caught my attention was that it was hard for me to sympathise with Vera in the first part of the book, as she seems to value herself too high that at times it seems like she’s an arrogant woman; I remember thinking to myself that had this book was written and published today, she would have been labeled as a first world problem complainer. Thankfully, this changed as she met Roland; I don’t like to think that she changed merely because she met a man in his life, but Roland definitely had a huge impact on her in seeing the current life in the UK at the time.
What is so beautiful with this book, more than anything, was Vera and Edward’s relationship. How a sibling relationship grew stronger during the war and how badly it affects Vera as Edward part away with the world that Vera was left behind in. It was also thanks to Vera’s words that you felt like you knew all her contemporaries personally; how, along with Vera, I wished that Edward would have survived the war because you felt a close kinship with his persona throughout the book.
This would definitely be a good book for those who consider themselves as going through a quarter life crisis, or anyone who is going through a big major change in life. Imagine, one day you are about to embark to school only to have a war breaking out before your eyes and it seems like the war would never end and all it does is taking away all the raging fire of youths along with its destruction; surely it would put your life in a brighter perspective.
katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
Powerful and effecting memoir, a timely feminist read
My mum has been persuading me to read this for at least twenty years. For some reason, I never did. I knew the story, and saw the recent film last year, and decided it was time, with the commemorations for the 100 years since the end of the First World War, to pick this up.
Though I decided that the style of this would suit an audio-read, and downloaded the Audible (24 hour) version. Though this did take me nearly a fortnight to listen to, I was engrossed in the early 1900s world of Brittain's youth.
It's just heart-breaking, listening to Vera as a mature adult look back at the world of 1914, at her own diaries, letters and poems from the time the world changed forever.
Knowing what was going to happen, it didn't lessen the pain I felt for Vera as each death occurs, seeing her continue to live, seeing her as typifying the experience of so many others.
Testament of Youth takes us from Vera's middle class adolescence as she grew up amidst the years of Women's Suffrage and struggled to earn a place at Oxford to the years of the War and beyond.
The experiences are so vivid, Vera's time nursing, with honest appraisals of the systems, people and behaviours. Quite eye-opening, seeing as Florence Nightingale had revolutionised nursing not too long before.
I cried a few times, there are such moving letters between brother and sister, an incredible relationship kept up even in a war. And I really felt for the young Vera and the naïve outlook that her older counterpart looks back on with a world-weary air. This is very-well conveyed as an audiobook with the narrator giving the Vera of 1914-18 a different voice and air to that of the older woman. The style of writing suits an audiobook perfectly as well, as the writer is addressing her reader directly making it very easy to follow aurally.
Enjoyed the 'post' war parts slightly less than Vera's WWI experiences, but I did like seeing her views on the suffrage movement and how women's rights and treatment in society altered after 1918.
A very important book, written for the ages, will not fail to impress itself upon you.
My mum has been persuading me to read this for at least twenty years. For some reason, I never did. I knew the story, and saw the recent film last year, and decided it was time, with the commemorations for the 100 years since the end of the First World War, to pick this up.
Though I decided that the style of this would suit an audio-read, and downloaded the Audible (24 hour) version. Though this did take me nearly a fortnight to listen to, I was engrossed in the early 1900s world of Brittain's youth.
It's just heart-breaking, listening to Vera as a mature adult look back at the world of 1914, at her own diaries, letters and poems from the time the world changed forever.
Knowing what was going to happen, it didn't lessen the pain I felt for Vera as each death occurs, seeing her continue to live, seeing her as typifying the experience of so many others.
Testament of Youth takes us from Vera's middle class adolescence as she grew up amidst the years of Women's Suffrage and struggled to earn a place at Oxford to the years of the War and beyond.
The experiences are so vivid, Vera's time nursing, with honest appraisals of the systems, people and behaviours. Quite eye-opening, seeing as Florence Nightingale had revolutionised nursing not too long before.
I cried a few times, there are such moving letters between brother and sister, an incredible relationship kept up even in a war. And I really felt for the young Vera and the naïve outlook that her older counterpart looks back on with a world-weary air. This is very-well conveyed as an audiobook with the narrator giving the Vera of 1914-18 a different voice and air to that of the older woman. The style of writing suits an audiobook perfectly as well, as the writer is addressing her reader directly making it very easy to follow aurally.
Enjoyed the 'post' war parts slightly less than Vera's WWI experiences, but I did like seeing her views on the suffrage movement and how women's rights and treatment in society altered after 1918.
A very important book, written for the ages, will not fail to impress itself upon you.