The Beauty and the Sorrow : An Intimate History of the First World War

Resumen del libro

Four devastating years told by twenty eyewitnesses showing not just what the First World War was, but what it was like to live through. There are many books on the First World War, but award-winning and bestselling historian Peter Englund takes a daring and stunning new approach. Describing the experiences of twenty ordinary people from around the world, all now unknown, this title explores the everyday aspects of war: not only the tragedy and horror, but also the absurdity, monotony and even beauty.

Two of these twenty will perish, two will become prisoners of war, two will become celebrated heroes and two others end as physical wrecks. One of them goes mad, another will never hear a shot fired. Following soldiers and sailors, nurses and government workers, from Britain, Russia, Germany, Australia and South America - and in theatres of war often neglected by major histories on the period - Englund reconstructs their feelings, impressions, experiences and moods.

This is a piece of anti-history: it brings this epoch-making event back to its smallest component, the individual.

Biografía del autor

Suecia, 1957. Peter Englund nació el 4 de abril de 1957 en Boden. Es historiador y escritor. Fue elegido miembro de la Academia Sueca el 23 de mayo de 2002 y tomó posesión del cargo el 20 de diciembre del mismo año. Desde el 1 de junio de 2009 es el secretario perpetuo de la Academia. Ocupa desde 2001 una cátedra de Narrativa Histórica y Social en la Escuela Universitaria de Cine, Radio, Televisión y Teatro de Estocolmo; es el miembro más joven de la Academia. Entre otros, ha sido galardonado con el Premio August en 1993 y con el Premio de Literatura Selma Lagerlöf en 2002.