We That Were Young

by Irene Rathbone, Lynn Knight (Introduction)

This fierce anti-war novel by Irene Rathbone (1892-1980) is told from the perspective of a cultured former suffragist and several of her friends—young women who work at rest camps just behind the lines in France and as nurses of the severely wounded in hospitals in London. When Joan loses both her brother and lover to the war, in anger at the enemy she volunteers for work in a munitions plant, but by the end, she is a confirmed pacifist.

Genres: Historical Fiction, War, Fiction, World War I, British Literature, Classics

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

IRENE RATHBONE (1892-1980) is the author of [We That Were Young and] seven other novels.

(from http://www.feministpress.org/books/ir...)

Reviews

[Cphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated this more highly if I hadn't already read the brilliant WW1 novel by Helen Zenna Smith. Found it difficult to engage with these characters, particularly the lead character Joan Sneddon.
The novel reads smoothly but lacks the depth and grit that I was expecting. For this reader the most interesting part of the novel was the nursing aspect.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent novel of women-war workers in WW1 based very much on the author's experience. Honest and unsentimental.

Full review: http://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/0...

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most often re-read books about the First World War. Superb, and a fitting companion to Helen Zennor Smith's 'Not So Quiet'

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm marking as memoir, even though it's fiction, because it feels like it has more truth than most books under that label. (Does that make sense?)

I didn't always keep all of the characters straight--is it Betty or Babs who's attached to that soldier? After I finished the book, the critique I read made me believe the book's power is in the individual experiences melding into a portrayal of the masses.

Spoiler(ish). It's WWI. If he's a guy, he dies. Probably.

[Gabriele Wills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using her own experiences and those of her friends, Rathbone evokes the era of the Great War through the eyes of women who are as determined to do their bit as their brothers and sweethearts. Rich with details about the tasks these women undertook, from nursing to munitions work, the novel reads like a fascinating biography.

[Homerun2]

I thought this sounded interesting, but you have to be in exactly the right frame of mind to read a book like this, written about events of 100 years ago. It is no judgment on the book's merits to say the timing wasn't right for me to plunge in. It could very well be that I will pick it up sometime in the future...

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this book sometimes. Loved the introduction line "Throughout the literature of World War I the keening of a devastated generation insists on being heard." Hated some of the dudes, loved the character Thrush.