The Secret Battle

Herbert, A. P. (Alan Patrick), 1890-1971Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
268K words
Chapters
27

Tags

English Originals War and Military Fiction Military StrategyTrench ExperienceHeroismHuman NaturePsychological InsightWar ReflectionMoral DilemmaDocumentary NarrativeWorld War I LiteratureTurbulent Era

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.The Secret Battle by A. P. HerbertAuthor: Herbert, A. P. (Alan Patrick), 1890-1971,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 4, 2011

Editor's review

The Secret Battle is a novel written in English by A. P. Herbert, classified as English literature. Set against a backdrop of war, it focuses on the individual's situation under military institutions and the pressures of combat, with a restrained narrative that conveys irony and compassion. Herbert combined authorship with experience in public writing, and his narratives often go beyond battlefield scenes to explore the tension between institutions, discipline, and human nature, so the reading offers both plot momentum and room for reflection. As a public-domain e-book, it gives readers low-cost access to one facet of early twentieth-century English war fiction. When reading, pay attention to shifts in narrative perspective and changes in tone in dialogue; these details reveal the work's weight more than a plot summary can. It suits readers interested in English literature and war writing around the First World War, as well as those who wish to understand wartime military psychology through fiction.

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Reading tips

  1. Read through once to grasp the story's direction, then revisit key dialogues to appreciate the irony in the tone.
  2. Note shifts in narrative perspective as you read and observe how the author conveys attitude through perspective.
  3. Supplement with brief background material on British society and the military around the First World War to understand the characters' situation.
  4. After finishing, write a short review comparing the war writing in this book with war narratives you are familiar with.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27

FAQ

Is this book a war memoir or a work of fiction? It is a work of fiction classified as English literature, not the author's personal wartime memoir. Readers should treat it as literature and focus on narrative technique and characterization rather than using it as a historical source to verify specific battle details.
How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers? The book was written in the early twentieth century, so its sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of the period, but overall it is novelistic prose and not overly difficult. Readers with a basic foundation in English can finish it with a dictionary; those seeking a smoother experience may read chapter summaries first before tackling the original.
Do I need to know First World War history before reading? Not in depth, but some knowledge of British society and the military around the First World War helps in understanding the institutional pressures and speech habits of the characters. If the subject is entirely unfamiliar, read a brief background introduction first.

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About the author

Herbert, A. P. (Alan Patrick), 1890-1971 Author · British · 1890–1971

A. P. Herbert (Alan Patrick Herbert, 1890–1971) was a British humorist, lawyer and Member of Parliament, and the author of Misleading Cases. Two of his works are held in this collection, The Secret Battle and The House by the River. He generally wrote in a light, witty style, drawing material from the law and everyday experience so that humour and narrative blend naturally; this manner also extends to his treatment of war and family life, where the apparently brisk writing often carries a calm observation of human nature and circumstance. Public information is limited and details of his life are hard to verify, yet these two works still show his skill in plotting and in the rhythm of language, as well as a more serious side beyond that of a humorist. His works have found readers in the English-speaking world and have influenced later comic writing.