Fear, A Novel of World War I by Gabriel Chevallier

I have found in reading memoirs and novels of World War I that they vary in attitude from country to country.  There are few Italian novels/memoirs as most of the army was made up of peasants who were illiterate, while the British are mixed between the officers and enlisted men.  While the British enlisted man is fully capable of discussing the horrors of trench warfare, on the whole they reflect an attitude of respect for their immediate officers (due in large part to the accepted class structure) and a belief that their cause was valid.  On the other side, even the darkest German book reflects the deep bond held between the men during the most trying times.

In this French novel/memoir, Chevallier reflects the morose attitude of other French books (i.e. “Poilu” by Louis Barthas); disgust with the way the poor infantryman was treated (poor food, few leaves, poor clothing, etc.) and their officers who were often poorly educated, pretentious, cowardly, etc.  The average poilu (the name for the French infantryman) saw little opportunity for survival and little point to the war.

This attitude may have been in part due to the strong Socialist party which was active prior to the war and the fact that so much of the manpower came from the farm regions who may have been in the south of France; there was a general view of southerners that the northerners were almost a different country.  A difference of dialects was another factor that led to strong regionalism.

This is an easy book to read, but one which requires frequent breaks as it is one constant bemoaning of his condition and those of his fellow soldiers.  One feels that there were few if any bright moments except when one was wounded and lucky enough to be send to a hospital where a couple of weeks of clean sheets was the one positive highlight of the war.  This does not mean that books of this type should glorify war, but both British and American books for both wars gives one a feeling that there was both a better sense of purpose and a belief that the faster the job was done, the sooner one could go home.  The slaughter of the French infantry along with no clear understanding of the purpose of the war is reflected in this gloomy book.