With Joffre at Verdun: A Story of the Western Front

Frederick Sadleir BreretonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9

Word count: 447K words
Chapters: 45

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.With Joffre at Verdun: A Story of the Western Front by F. S. BreretonAuthor: Brereton, F. S. (Frederick Sadleir), 1872-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Dec 28, 2009

Editor's review

This is an adventure novel by the British children's author Brereton, set on the Western Front in World War I; the title points to the Battle of Verdun and the French general Joffre. It belongs to the tradition of historical adventure stories for young readers, narrating the war through a young protagonist's eyes and emphasizing courage, friendship, and patriotism, with brisk plotting and strong readability. As wartime reading for young people, it carries clear period attitudes and propaganda coloring, and treats the cruelty of war with restraint. Read today, it serves both as a sample of English-language juvenile war literature of the time and as a basis for discussing how historical narrative is shaped. Suitable for readers interested in WWI history who can read with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Young readers of historical fiction interested in the Western Front of World War I
Scholars or reviewers of children's literature and war narrative concerned with period attitudes
Parents and teachers who wish to introduce the WWI background to children through story
Readers of English-language fiction who enjoy adventure novels and accept a more traditional narrative pace

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting serious military history analysis or detailed campaign research
Readers sensitive to period bias and propagandistic tone in war literature
Readers who prefer the complex characters and psychological depth of modern young adult fiction

Reading tips

Learn the basic background of the Battle of Verdun before reading, to understand the historical moment in which the story is set
Note the narrator's wording about friend and foe as you read, record expressions carrying period attitudes, and discuss them
Read alongside contemporary WWI young adult novels to compare how war is written about
Use as a parent-child or classroom shared reading, discussing after each chapter the protagonist's choices and the values of the time

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What age group is this book suitable for?

The original is positioned as a young adult adventure novel; its language and plot difficulty suit middle school readers and above with some English reading ability. Because it involves battle scenes and a propagandistic tone of the period, younger readers are advised to read with a parent or teacher who can explain.

Is the historical content in the book accurate?

The work is set against real campaigns and figures, but it is essentially a fictional adventure story; the plot serves the narrative and the expectations of its original readers and should not be used as a historical source. Read it alongside proper WWI histories and distinguish fiction from fact.

Why is it said to carry propaganda coloring?

The book was written during World War I for young readers; its narrative tends to highlight its own side's courage and righteousness, depicts the enemy in simplified terms, and softens the cruelty of war. This was common in wartime literature of the period; simply read with a critical awareness.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Frederick Sadleir Brereton Author · United Kingdom · 1872–1957

Frederick Sadleir Brereton (1872–1957) was a British Army medical officer who later became a writer of adventure stories for boys. Born in Surrey in 1872, he served in the Second Boer War and the First World War, rising to honorary lieutenant colonel and receiving the CBE. His works, 18 of which are held in this collection, celebrated heroic deeds of the British Empire and drew on colonial wars and expeditions—titles include Jones of the 64th, How Canada Was Won, On the Road to Bagdad, With Rifle and Bayonet, With Wolseley to Kumasi, A Gallant Grenadier, With the Dyaks of Borneo and With Wellington in Spain. These military adventures are tightly plotted and centre on brave, resolute young heroes, bearing a clear mark of their era; full details of his life and writings remain limited in publicly available sources.