The Great War and Modern Memory

268 ALLARDYCE NICOLL of his career but also, and more significantly, claiming that here she is providing 'for the first time, a stylistic analysis of one of the American theatre's most fascinating practitioners.' That she has this justification depends, partly at least, on the fact that his plays and productions have commonly been regarded as belonging largely, if not indeed exclusively, to the realm of the popular stage, whereas she seeks to draw them within the orbit of those revolutionary endeavours which in divers European countries sought to establish a new theatrical 'naturalism' both in play composition and in play presentation - the avant-garde activities to be found in the work of the Moscow Art Theatre, the Danish Theatre Royal, the French Theatre Libre, and the German Freie Blihne. That her endeavour is indeed fully warranted is demonstrated by the fact that when, for example, the Russian company and its companion organizations visited the United States various critics stressed their belief that its productions 'had nothing new to teach Broadway.' Still more significant is the fact that Stanislavski himself put the seal of his approval on the activities of the American directorplaywright by actually making him an honorary member of the Moscow troupe. No doubt labels in themselves are oflittle or minor consequence, and no doubt on occasion they can prove misleading: yet it is of importance that we should teach ourselves how properly to interpret and evaluate outstanding achievements such as those manifested by such men as Belasco, and here Mrs Marker's study must be regarded as indeed a most valuable and accomplished textbook, or guidebook, call it which we will (ALLARDYCE NICOLL) THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY* A book of prime critical importance that may do harm to literature; a compendious book with strange omissions; a notably well-written book with curious lapses of taste and tone; a book that has been widely received with unreserved praise and deserves high praise severely tempered: such is Professor Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory. It is about 'the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918 and some of the literary means by which it has been remembered, conventionalized, and mythologized.' Further, it is concerned with the interpenetration ofliterature and life during that period and with the generation thereby of a myth that is still 'part of the fiber of our own lives.' The task of mobilizing the forces for so grand a campaign on so wide a front must have been formidable, and in most sectors - in all but one - the author's generalship is such as to earn for him the ancient Chinese accolade: he 'not only wins but excels at winning, with ease.' The one salient where his attack is ineffective, the morale of his argument falters, and he should shorten his lines and retire to a previously prepared position is the region of David jones's In Parenthesis. Unlike most previous commentators on the literature of the Great War who, between their introductions and conclusions, deal in their central chapters with *Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory. New York and London: Oxford University Press 1975· Pp xiv, 3(j3. $16.25 THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY 269 the chief war writers - Sassoon, Graves, Blunden, Jones, Owen, and a few others - Mr Fussell with admirable economy of means and skill in deployment proceeds instead from topic to topic, drawing freely from many sources at all points but letting each of the leading writers have his own show at an appropriate time. For instance, in the chapter called'Adversary Proceedings,' concerned with the sense of the 'enemy' and the contrast in that regard between fighting men and men behind the lines and people at home, he deals at some length with Siegfried Sassoon, a daring combat officer who wrote fierce anti-war poems during the War and, after it, returned to the subject in both fiction and autobiography. Likewise, the chapter on 'Myth, Ritual and Romance' concludes with a discussion of David Jones; the chapter on 'The Theatre ofWar' gathers in the 'caricature scenes of Robert Graves' and makes a brilliant and apt comparison with Ben Jonson...