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Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925
by: Vera Brittain

Used Price: £15.00

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780006357032
ISBN: 0006357032
Label: Fontana
Manufacturer: Fontana
Number Of Pages: 672
Publication Date: October 29, 1979
Publisher: Fontana
Studio: Fontana
Sales Rank: 98338

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
In 1914 Vera Brittain was 21 years old, and an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford. When war broke out in August of that year, Brittain "temporarily" disrupted her studies to enrol as a volunteer nurse, nursing casualties both in England and on the Western Front. The next four years were to cause a deep rupture in Brittain's life, as she witnessed not only the horrors of war first hand, but also experienced the quadruple loss of her fiancé, her brother, and two close friends. Testament of Youth is a powerfully written, unsentimental memoir which has continued to move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933. Brittain, a pacifist since her First World War experiences, prefaces the book with a fairy tale, in which Catherine, the heroine, encounters a fairy godmother and is given the choice of having either a happy youth or a happy old age. She selects the latter and so her fate is determined: "Now this woman," warns the tale, "was the destiny of poor Catherine." And we find as we delve deeper into the book that she was the destiny of poor Vera too.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Heavy Going
I dont think I have ever found a book so difficult to read as this one, and I still have not finished it, although I skip page after page of what is real dribble, she seems off in a world of her own and not really telling the reader anything, until one gets to the war years, and her life as a vad, and she goes on and on about her life but not telling a story which is boring in the extreme.

Rating:

- utterly heartbreaking; one woman's war
My mother having pressed me to read this book, I finally got round to it early this year. Thank God I did.

I cannot begin to put into words how much this book touched me. Vera Brittan must be an inspiration to all women; a strong and determined character who, despite losing almost everything to the War, did not give up. Vera Brittan was a young, ambitious girl growing up pre-war with aspirations to go to University (something uncommon for the day.) She succeeded in getting into Oxford to study English. Then the War came crashing into her life, and Vera's brother and friends get called up to fight. She herself finds her place, working as a nurse first in London, then abroad. Vera Brittan lost so much to this horrific War and yet ... Read More:

Rating:

- An important memoir of the Great War and its aftermath
In 1929 Vera Brittain ( 1893- 1970) began using her extensive diaries and correspondence to start writing her auto-biographical epic from 1913-1925, which was published in 1933. At the time Brittain was a part time lecturer for supporters of the League of Nations, a journalist, and had written two novels which had not been particularly well received. Ambitious and a feminist, Brittain seemed determined to succeed at something, and her greatest achievement has been in autobiography.

The book is well written : Brittain depicts her own life, frustrations, personal losses , near breakdown and subsequent attempts at building new life and friendships after the Great War in an endearing manner. Her humanitarianism, her social observations, ... Read More:

Rating:

- The book that changed my life
I first read this book when I was about 15 and it had such a remarkable effect on my life that 25 years later I still return to it again and again. It encapsulates so much of the period; the desperate need to get into higher education, the horror of war and its aftermath, how to make sense of it all and finally the joy of love and of friendship. Try Chronicles of Youth as well, the diaries on which she based the book.

Rating:

- A classic: shattering at times, always enlightening
Vera Brittain's account was written in the early 1930s, as she tried to make sense of the extraordinary bereavement that affected those of her generation who survived the First World War.
Growing up in provincial Edwardian England, a fascinating piece of writing in itself, she falls in love with one of her brothers's friends in 1914. The romance is going well, until the outbreak of war sweeps in to disrupt her life. Suddenly the love of her life, as well as her brother and some other close friends, are all in the trenches, trying to live out the noble heroic dream on behalf of King and Country.
Unable to support directly, she joins the nursing corps as a volunteer but there is no consolation for her as first her fiance, then her friends and ... Read More:

Books : Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925