Testament of Youth

This is the only book that upon finishing, I turned back to thefirst page and started reading again. I am currently reading itfor the fifth time. It is a unique story by one who suffered amost unbelievable tragedy. It is also a picture ot the world justprior to the cataclysm of 1914, duirng and after. It is actually a book in three parts. Part 1 deals with the role and status ofEnglish women prior to 1914. Part 2 details the 1st World Wartragedy from a woman's perspective. Vera Brittain lost her fiancee, brother and the only two other male friends she had. Part 3details how she regained a life after the war and how shebecame involved in English political and social issues. She wasa most remarkable woman and in my opinion not given the creditshe truly deserves. "Testament of Youth" is the most incredible,unique masterpiece imaginable.

I first read this book when I was not much younger than Vera Brittain was when she "viewed the outbreak of the First World War as an interruption of her plans", and I was immediately touched by her experiences. I have read (and re-read & re-read) this book many times. While I am not of the same social class that she was, I can relate to her desire to make something of her life, first through a university education (then restricted to many women) and later through finding meaningful work. (This is something that we all seek.) She fell happily in love, only to lose first her fiance, then her two male friends, and finally her beloved only brother in the carnage of the First World War. Her experiences as a V.A.D. (Volunary Aide Detachment) nurse in the war--from describing what the wards were like, to the frenzy she faced during a "push", to watching the Americans arrive in 1917, to her life on the hospital ship "Britannic", that's right, the sister ship to "Titanic"--both went down, are unforgettable. When she writes, she does not spare herself, nor seek to make herself look good--and she takes an unflinching look at her own difficulties (a word which does not even begin to describe it!!) adjusting to a post-war world which did not want the survivors. She tells of the difficulties she had fitting in (again, but this time older & wisher) at Oxford, of her mental near-breakdown, and of the bright light that was Winifred Holtby. I cannot recommend this book enough. It should be required reading in colleges and universities, and not just for history, English, and womens' studies majors. Perhaps those who do not understand what all the fuss over "women's lib." is all about should make this required reading as well (both male and female). She is the first feminist role model for me, and inspired me to learn as much as I could about current events AND history (so much so that I majored in history in college, with a concentration in modern Europe). This book is well worth your time and effort, and will probably send you to the nearest library or bookstore to hunt for more books on this era. It is also rare because most of the books written about the First World War are written by men (Sassoon, Graves, etc.), so this is unique in that it tells of the impact of the war from a woman's perspective. History tends to forget that women as well as men have experienced war. Brittain writes both from the view of those back home in Britain (when she is on leave) and from the view of someone at the front, cleaning up the wreckage (as a volunteer nurse). If you are wondering what happens to her, she wrote a "sequel" of sorts titled "Testament of Experience", which chronicles the years 1933-1950. "Testament of Youth" is a wonderful book, one which you will read again and again, and all the more moving because it is a true story.

Never have I read a better account of current events interupting the normal rituals of young adulthood and changing the destiny of a group of individuals so dramatically. This book so captures the dreams and longings of people coming of age and finding themselves in terms of careers and loves and then having the rug pulled from under them that it could stand as a testimony for all generations shattered by war. In sometimes heartbreaking and often very poetic language the writer takes you along on a journey of discovery under horrific conditions and the reader is made to understand the remarkable transformations that these young people go through. The fact that the book was written by a young woman and is one of the few war memoirs that reflect a feminine sensibility and perspective serves to make this a unique book in the literature of either World War. Required reading for anyone interested in 20th century history.

This book by Vera Brittain is one of the most moving that I have read. Written as an account of the experiences of young men and women at the onset and during the First World War, it gives a particular insight which is different from, but equally absorbing as, those accounts, so often understated, of soldiers who fought in the trenches during the conflict. To be more accurate, while she recounts the feelings and experiences of the men who were closest to her, hers is the only woman's viewpoint which is given in any depth - and, indeed, it is her personal account, given in such depth that it draws in and involves the reader in a way unlike any simple factual account of events. While it recounts in some detail her own work as a nurse in the war theatres, it is a story with as much muted romanticism as those of the Brontes or Jane Austen, and belies to a degree the orthodoxy of Vera Brittain's feminism. This is a book to be recommended without hesitation, for anyone interested in the period, but also as a timeless account of human endeavour, endurance and love.

This book changed my life. I first read it as a young woman, and I have never stopped reading it since. Vera Brittain became one of my first female role models. She made World War I come alive for me; her courage, her unflinching honesty, her integrity and her humor in the face of the horrors of the Great War shine through in her autobiography. Vera Brittain taught me that a woman can lose her faith, her family, her friends and her love and yet not lose herself. Her life was an act of hope and belief in humanity.