The Archive, 1929-1930, Vol. 42

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Archive, 1929-1930, Vol. 42: A Monthly Literary Review, Published by the Students of Trinity College of Duke University, at Durham, North Carolina The conversation of those soldier school boys, Kat, and Tjaden, and Albert, ridiculous, sentimental, lovable, profane as it is in places, is, in other places, a reve lation of the philosophy of the men who fought the war. The romance and gaiety of Beau Geste is there, but these men are alive. They are living before the reader's eyes and when they die in agony and in animal heroism born of desperation, they can be seen falling, distorted, pain - sweated bodies. - So stalwart and powerful in massive boots and steel helmets but see them swimming, naked, slender, scarcely more than adolescent children. War that, even in the process of making heroes, degenerates mankind, stopping the civilized processes of regeneration; war that is futile, useless, mad war that is montrons, inconceivable until one is drawn into the maelstrom of the Front, and there, because of its character, unbelievable; war that is futile, inglorious, hopeless is the tale of the Western Front. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.