Siegfried Sassoon : The Journey from the Trenches 1918-1967

Siegfried Sassoon #2

by Jean Moorcroft Wilson

Some wrinkling to tanned page edges. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jean Moorcroft Wilson is a lecturer in English at Birkbeck, University of London.

Reviews

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought this book out after watching the Terence Davies biopic Benediction, which I enjoyed despite its unevenness and occasionally cringily unsubtle script (the scenes with Tom Blyth as Glen Byam Shaw and Kate Phillips as Hester Gatty are the best). Reading this made me judge Benediction differently, rendering me not only more aware of the creative liberties the film takes in terms of what it chooses to emphasize and what to omit, but also more aware of how cinematic Sassoon's real life was, such that certain movie scenes I thought for sure were invented for "Hollywood reasons" turned out to actually be copied faithfully from fact. This book also makes a great companion read to the Forster biography I finished last month, which dwells on many of the same themes. The level of fine-grained detail here is staggering: it's astounding, in a well-nigh existentially unsettling way, to see what a thorough portrait of a person's life can be reconstructed after their death from their diaries, their letters, the lines they chose to underscore in the books they owned, etc., such that we as voyeuristic readers become privy to everything down to, say, the vintage of the wine Sassoon drank at such-and-such an hour on such-and-such a day (and this was well before our data-driven digital era). This biography doesn't shy away from portraying Sassoon's character flaws as well as his virtues: it's particularly uncomfortable to read the part about the collapse of his marriage (which, I was surprised to learn, failed not principally for the reasons that one might guess, but largely because he churlishly refused to lift a finger to help with housework). The Stephen Tennant parts are also painful and make me want to pick up Brideshead Revisited again now.

[lu read · Rating 4 out of 5]

eh. written well and definitely very interesting but too dense. first half of this dragged - while an overview of his childhood was important, the long and winding explanation of his family history did little. moorcroft-wilson’s consistent reminders that a) sassoon saw rivers as a father figure and b) he did not have homosexual relationships until after the war are annoying. we know dude was gay!!! me too!!! but enjoyable for sure. 3.5 if i could do that

[Eduardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sassoon is one of my heroes and this bio presents all the complexities of an artistic brilliant poet although not an intellectual per se but a man who felt intensely and was many things. His bravery in WWI and anti-war stance alone make him a legend as well as his friendship with Wilfred Owen and others, his poetry developed greatly and also failed in other ways, Dr. Wilson presents a picture of a man in all his brilliance and failings...well written!