Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man: The Memoirs of George Sherston: 1 (George Sherston Trilogy)

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What gives this novel power is you know this to be autobiographical; this book is talking about a period that is going to be shattered and completely replaced with something new. So, we are immersed in rural Kent, with servants and horses and steam trains and a bucolic life of gentle pursuits. Of an England that is hankering for a return to the glory of Victoria, but also a period of stability economically. But European royalty are not experiencing a time of stability & of course, it ultimately explodes into what we know as World War 1.

George is a boy who ought not to be interfered with too much,’ she would say. And I agreed with her opinion unreservedly.” The Memoirs of George Sherston (contains Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, and Sherston's Progress), Doubleday, Doran, 1937 (published in England as The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, Faber, 1937 ). Sassoon writes beautifully, and has an eye for those little quirks that make the most minor characters memorable and amusing. He writes with special fondness for the countryside, and his descriptions of crisp winter mornings and the thrill of being young and galloping through the fields on a horse were just perfect. Sherston's life is gloriously free from worry or responsibility, but there's a dark cloud on the horizon; we can see it getting ever closer as the years advance towards 1914, but Sherston is blissfully unaware. When it comes, he is utterly unprepared.Our narrator's natural Conservatism and patriotism evaporate on exposure to the realities of trench warfare. And the measured judgements of this cheerful innocent are much more powerful than any number of angry denunciations from other quarters.

If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. This is the first of Siegfried Sassoon’s trilogy relating to the First World War; part of my reading for the anniversary this year. Although a novel, this is strongly autobiographical and there is no doubt that the protagonist, George Sherston, is Sassoon. It's a picture of the Edwardian world caught in aspic just before it fades - the troubles of the young George Sherston, standing in for Sassoon, are no more dire than finding good horseflesh, a well-made pair of riding boots, and enough money to hunt each season - something he can only manage by going into debt when he moves to a more toffy part of the country with his local Master of Hunt as a kind of assistant, and must hide the fact that although well educated, his yearly income is smaller than your average well-bred chappie. The first volume in Siegfried Sassoon’s beloved trilogy, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston , with a new introduction by celebrated historian Paul FussellThomas Hardy’s flair for describing English pastoral and village life came through as inspiration for Sassoon (they were friends): Can you recall the novel that took you away from the nursery bookshelves and into the realms of Grown-Up Books – a gateway book, if you like? I happened upon mine after months of resisting efforts both at home and at school to get me to read something more challenging. Until then, as a pony-mad child without a pony, I’d sought refuge in my tattered copies of thrilling stories like Show-Jumping Secret and We Hunted Hounds by the Pullein-Thompson sisters. Then one day, entirely of my own volition, when I was perhaps 12 or 13, I reached for the blue, cloth-bound copy of Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. There are differences between Sassoon and Sherston. Sherston does not write poetry, no mention is made of the author's Jewish ancestry, nor of his parents' divorce. Unsurprisingly, no overt mention is made of Sassoon's homosexuality (which at the time would have meant a prison sentence) but the book does feature 3 "friendships" with other young men. Certainly in the last of these Sherston/Sassoon does little to disguise his own feelings. Many aspects of Sassoon's actual life are missing here - he would have you think Sherston is a bumbler - whereas he was known for being madly brave, a committed post-war socialist, and a closeted gay man.