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A review by lanternheart
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
5.0
“To look forward, I concluded, and to have courage—the courage of adventure, of challenge, of initiation, as well as the courage of endurance—that was surely part of fidelity. The lover, the brother, the friends whom I had lost, had all in their different ways possessed this courage, and it would not be utterly wasted if only, through those who were left, it could influence the generation, still to be, and convince them that, so long as the spirit of man remained undefeatable, life was worth living and worth giving.”
Simply put, Brittain’s book is a triumph. Though perhaps I didn’t recognize it for such at first — my knowledge of the First World War was rusty, though became well-oiled over time — the author’s prose, poetry, narration and diary entries combine to give a powerful, truly moving and inspiring story of a war that marked a generation. While the war itself was plenty of the book, what I found truly informative and remarkable was that Brittain’s story continued afterward — watching her movement to pacifism and work with the League of Nations in the wake of war.
The reader, like Vera acknowledges of herself, grows from naïve belief in “heroism in the abstract” to the hopelessness of a war and lives lost in vain, to belief in the power of peace for the future, and that humanity need only remember the horrors of their past to want to strive for a world with less war, horror, and senseless death. While Brittain explains this herself in the prose of hindsight, it’s plain, too, in the moments which she does nothing but recount her story — her despair at losing the bright brother and lover close to her, and the changing, increasingly war-torn world she found herself in. It’s these personal touches, along with the inspirational speeches (nearly, reading Brittain’s prose it’s clear why she became a speaker!) that effected me as a reader of this book.
I’ve always been described as an “old soul,” and while never a war history nut, I felt close to every action Brittain described, saw the horrors with my own eyes, and feel that I have come away from this book with my soul much older than it already was. I have a feeling I’ll return to this book — though perhaps when current events don’t make me wonder too much whether a senseless war, like the one Brittain catalogues here, will happen to my own generation. If it does, may a few of us keep this book and it’s incredible persevering, emotional, passionate spirit, in mind and heart.
Simply put, Brittain’s book is a triumph. Though perhaps I didn’t recognize it for such at first — my knowledge of the First World War was rusty, though became well-oiled over time — the author’s prose, poetry, narration and diary entries combine to give a powerful, truly moving and inspiring story of a war that marked a generation. While the war itself was plenty of the book, what I found truly informative and remarkable was that Brittain’s story continued afterward — watching her movement to pacifism and work with the League of Nations in the wake of war.
The reader, like Vera acknowledges of herself, grows from naïve belief in “heroism in the abstract” to the hopelessness of a war and lives lost in vain, to belief in the power of peace for the future, and that humanity need only remember the horrors of their past to want to strive for a world with less war, horror, and senseless death. While Brittain explains this herself in the prose of hindsight, it’s plain, too, in the moments which she does nothing but recount her story — her despair at losing the bright brother and lover close to her, and the changing, increasingly war-torn world she found herself in. It’s these personal touches, along with the inspirational speeches (nearly, reading Brittain’s prose it’s clear why she became a speaker!) that effected me as a reader of this book.
I’ve always been described as an “old soul,” and while never a war history nut, I felt close to every action Brittain described, saw the horrors with my own eyes, and feel that I have come away from this book with my soul much older than it already was. I have a feeling I’ll return to this book — though perhaps when current events don’t make me wonder too much whether a senseless war, like the one Brittain catalogues here, will happen to my own generation. If it does, may a few of us keep this book and it’s incredible persevering, emotional, passionate spirit, in mind and heart.