British Literature of World War I

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General Editors: Andrew Maunder and Angela K Smith
Volume Editors: Andrew Maunder, Angela K Smith, Jane Potter and Trudi Tate

Given the popular and scholarly interest in the First World War it is surprising how little contemporary literary work is available. This five-volume reset edition aims to redress this balance, making available an extensive collection of newly-edited short stories, novels and plays from 1914–19.

Many of the iconic WWI texts in the popular canon come from the 1920s and 1930s, when the years separating the writer from the conflict allowed a certain amount of studied reflection. The material presented here reflects public perception of the conflict from the time, showing the early focus on heroism, giving way to the darker sentiments of later works. Significant, too, is the focus on writers often overlooked in Great War literature, with female writers and those of working class origins presented alongside the more familiar officer-class gentlemen.

• Makes available a much greater variety of fictional and dramatic works by male and female authors, from the time of the conflict
• Performs an important contribution to broader historical and cultural research on literary propaganda, pacifism, gender, popular fiction, class and nationhood
• None of the material presented is available in modern editions, and this is the first scholarly edition for the majority of the texts
• Includes a bibliography of over 400 pieces of drama (plays, sketches, musicals, pageants, revues) submitted to the Lord Chamberlain's Office during 1914–18

Sample pages

• Sample pages: Berta Ruck, 'The Shirker' + notes (1915)

Contents

Volume 1: The Short Story and the Novella

Florence Barclay, My Heart’s Right There (1914), ‘In Hoc Vince’ (1914); Flora Annie Steel, ‘Sunrise’ (1914); Berta Ruck, ‘The Shirker’ (1915), ‘The Purple of the Shoulder Strap’ (1915); Arthur Machen, ‘The Soldier’s Rest’ (1915); Richard Bird, ‘A Schoolboy Ranker’ (1915); Evelyn Sharp, ‘Frightfulness’ (1915), ‘The Apple Tree’ (1915), ‘The Patriot’s Day’ (1916); Ford Madox Ford, ‘Fun! – it’s Heaven’ (1915); Frank Richards ‘Coker’s Conscript’ (1916); Stacy Aumonier, ‘The Match: Today and Yesterday’ (1916); Jessie Pope, 'Cornstalks' (1916), ‘The Allotment Bride’ (1917); Gilbert Frankau, 'A Rag-Time Hero' (1916); Ian Hay, ‘Full Chorus’ (1917); John Galsworthy, ‘Defeat’ (1917), ‘The Juryman’ (1917), 'The Bright Side' (1919); Herbert Read, ‘Killed in Action’ (1919); Richard Aldington, ‘Deserter’ (1930); Frank Harris, ‘The Last Kindness’ (1933)

Volumes 2–4: Novels

Ruby M Ayres, Richard Chatterton, V.C. (1915); Marie Belloc Lowndes, Good Old Anna (1915); Rose Allatini, Despised and Rejected (1918)

Volume 5: Drama

Bibliography of World War I Drama

Edmund Goulding, God Save the King (1914); Edward Temple Thurston, The Cost (1914); Frederick Lonsdale, The Patriot (1915); Edward Knoblauch, The Way to Win (1915); John G Brandon, For Those in Peril (1916); Berte Thomas, For My Country (1917); Gwen John, Luck of War (1917); Herbert Tremaine, The Handmaidens of Death (1919)

Reviews

'in essence a library in itself...the orientation is toward the home front, and many of the authors are women, which in itself makes this collection important since much of the literature is out of print or difficult to obtain. Highly recommended.'
– CHOICE

Related titles

• Art and Commerce in the British Short Story, 1880–1950
• Reassessing John Buchan : Beyond The Thirty-Nine Steps

Leaflets

• British Literature of World War I: colour leaflet

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