The Day of Wrath: A Story of 1914 (WWI Centenary Series)

Book excerpt: This early work by Louis Tracy was originally published in 1916 and we are now republishing it as part of our WWI Centenary Series. 'The Day of Wrath: A Story of 1914' is a novel about the horrors of the first year of the Great War. The New York Times Book Review published this critique of the work: "The Human mind is so constituted that it becomes deadened by the weight of numbers, needing the personal, the individual, to awaken its liveliest sympathies. We read with pity and horror of the sufferings of a nation; but that they may be brought really home to us, become really vivid and forceful, they must be embodied in some person or small group of persons. And it is something of this embodiment which Mr. Tracy has achieved in his latest book, The Day of Wrath. We have all read of burned villages, murdered noncombatants, tortured women-all the horror and agony undergone by heroic Belgium in the cruel days of August and September, 1914. Mr. Tracy takes a little company of six people, two of them English, the others Belgium, and shows us what happens to them during that awful time." This book is part of the World War One Centenary series; creating, collating and reprinting new and old works of poetry, fiction, autobiography and analysis. The series forms a commemorative tribute to mark the passing of one of the world's bloodiest wars, offering new perspectives on this tragic yet fascinating period of human history. Each publication also includes brand new introductory essays and a timeline to help the reader place the work in its historical context.