Siegfried Sassoon - The First Complete Biography of One of Our Greatest War Poets

by John Stuart Roberts

'A FINE ENGROSSING, SYMPATHETIC STUDY OF SASSOON' - THE TIMESWith two collections of his verse written during the First World War, Siegfried Sassoon established himself as among the greatest of the war poets. Beyond that, the accounts he left of his service with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Western Front, beginning with Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man in 1928, rank perhaps as highly as his poetry, and have done much to shape our modern perception of that war. His is, and remains, one of the most significant voices of his generation - and arguably the most eloquent.As an infantry officer, Sassoon's courage won him the Military Cross (and a recommendation for the VC) for rescuing men under fire, while his boldness in action earned him the nickname 'Mad Jack'; he was also wounded several times, once seriously. As the war dragged on, however, he came to see it as a cynical exercise, leading him to write an anti-war letter to The Times, and to tear the ribbon of his MC from his tunic and throw it into the River Mersey. Alarmed, the authorities sent him to a hospital for shell-shocked officers in Scotland, where he came under the care of the leading psychoanalyst Dr W. H. R. Rivers, and met and befriended a young officer of the Manchester Regiment named Wilfred Owen. Although Sassoon returned to active service, his hatred for the war remained, and by the time of the Armistice in 1918 he had declared himself a pacifist.John Stuart Roberts's widely praised biography is a gripping account of a complex man who was at once a product of the establishment and one of its most passionate critics; a war hero and a pacifist who, although a towering literary figure, refused to align himself with any particular movement.Written with a clarity and directness that would have pleased the poet himself, this is a biography that looks beyond the common perception of Sassoon as only a war poet to reveal the man in full. It is a book that any admirer of Siegfried Sassoon, or anyone who wishes to know more about this enigmatic yet brilliant figure, will cherish.'A MAGNIFICENT BOOK… IT'S FIRST RATE IN EVERY DIRECTION AND I CAN'T IMAGINE A BETTER BIOGRAPHY' - RUPERT HART-DAVIS'FULLY RESEARCHED, INTELLIGENT, DETAILED AND READABLE ...LOOKS SEARCHINGLY AT ALL ASPECTS OF THIS HIGHLY COMPLEX, MULTI-TALENTED AND DEEPLY MIXED-UP MAN' - LITERARY REVIEW 'AN IMMENSELY READABLE BIOGRAPHY WHICH IS MADE EVEN MORE MOVING BY HAVING A TRULY TRAGIC SUBJECT' - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'ONE OF OUR GREATEST WAR POETS… STUART ROBERTS GIVES A THOUGHTFUL, CONVINCING ACCOUNT' - SUNDAY TIMES'A BENCHMARK BIOGRAPHY - SPLENDID AND SENSITIVE' - COUNTRY LIFE'A MASTERLY ACCOUNT OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON'S LIFE' - THE TABLET

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, World War I

593 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Stuart Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this wonderful biography of Sassoon. Found him both an intriguing and a very sympathetic character. Very much the Virgoan hermit who needed absolute isolation in which to produce his work. I will shortly be playing Sassoon in a West End Show so this biography offered much-needed information. Great stuff.

[Helen Rishoi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want to read a better/different biography - pre-ordered a new one on Amazon for May. Wish I were a better poetry-reader . . . but Sassoon is "readable."

I felt Roberts skipped too quickly over Sassoon's World War I experiences, but I did appreciate frequent references to Dr. Rivers and Sassoon's attachment to and appreciation for him (see Pat Barker's brilliant "Regeneration").

Next: a Rivers biography (if I can find one).

[Randy Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very entertaining and informative biography, a combination that is difficult to achieve. Roberts was greatly aided by the fact that Sassoon had been an avid journal and letter writer for almost his entire life. Roberts is able to compassionately reveal SS's difficulty in finding personal happiness after the war that turned him into an internationally known figure. We find that Sassoon is aware of his homosexuality from a remarkably early point in his life, but he can never find fulfilling and lasting relationships due to both conservative societal norms and his own complex personality. I give Roberts credit for not falling into the trap of nostalgia and sentimentality while writing the life story of a poet and author who himself was unwaveringly nostalgic and sentimental in his postwar writing.

[Jane Scadding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this sympathetic and well researched biography of the much loved poet, to be both moving and intelligently written. In many ways a tragic figure who was profoundly damaged by his experiences and losses in the trenches of WWI, Sassoon was one of the most renowned and feted War Poets, who tragically went out of fashion with the emergence of more intellectual modern poets and writers such as MacNeice, Eliot, Huxley and many more. Despite his very popular and successful Sherston trilogy, Sassoon is largely associated with his war poetry and a bygone and irretrievable era.

[Stephen Robert Kuta · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible and interesting read, Sassoon was definitely a multilayered character, with a good heart but also deeply affected by his own tribulations.
I see some reflection in Siegfried as I do myself, In the way he can read and perceive other people. He was definitely a private man, more so in older age and if the last paragraph is correct, he seems to have passed away in good humour, one last joke from a friend that made him smile.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in college I studied Sassoon's poetry as part of a unit on war. I was really interested to find out more about the man behind the poems. This was a really comprehensive biography charting his entire life. Although it was interesting to find out about his later years I would have liked much more detail on WW 1 and particularly his time spent at Craiglockhart. What this book has made me want to do is revisit Regeneration by Pat Barker to now compare her fictionalized account of that time with the biography. I am also interested in reading some of his works of prose/autobiography.

[Jamie Masq · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very intriguing man with a character that shows more emotion in his journals and to others, than we show others today. A great read and nicely put together by the author, with a nice easy flow to reading. I thought it would be more consistent with modern celebrity biographies where they jump from year to year without much thought, but it wasn't. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the story behind the man whilst loving to read his own snippets of text. I'd love to read his journals!

[Christine Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as detailed as another biography of SS I have read. It was very readable though and some interesting new titbits emerged.

[Nion · Rating 4 out of 5]

果然还是一战那段最好看，后面被一堆狗血恋爱剧和家务事逼得近乎偏执，看得我要摔书(靠着看SS的蛤蟆先生式开车挺过来了!) 支持工人运动似乎也是半吊子= = RG为什么总是如此喜感......感觉SS是个比较被动的人，一战让他脱颖而出成为一颗光彩夺目的彗星，但和平年代仅靠他自己的时候，就会找不到创作方向，迷失在过去的生活里。真遗憾他后来和儿子也不亲近，晚年只能去宗教里寻找安慰太落寞了。