Showing posts with label Vera Brittain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vera Brittain. Show all posts

Saturday, November 10, 2012

The pacifist clings to hope...


Vera Brittain

Remembrance Day, November 11, 2012


"The pacifist clings to hope." I remember writing that in an essay during my fourth year of university. I took a fascinating course about war in literature. We had 10 books to read, and I just couldn't get them all finished. My favourite was English writer Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. The book jacket describes it as "one woman's unforgettable record of the First World War - a haunting elegy for a lost generation." Haunting is an appropriate word for it. I cried sometimes while I was reading it. Vera Brittain's real life losses were many and painful. But this book is also strikingly beautiful with eloquent, poetic writing.