Good-Bye to All That

Introduction by Paul Fussell. In this soldier's story, first published in 1929 (revised in 1957), the English poet traces the monumental and universal loss of innocence that occurred as a result of the First World War. Tracing his upbringing from his solidly middle-class Victorian childhood through his entry into the war at age 21 as a patriotic captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, this dramatic, poignant, often wry autobiography goes on to depict the horrors and disillusionment of the Great War, from life in the trenches and the loss of dear friends, to the stupidity of government bureaucracy and the absurdity of English class stratification.