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The Literature of War: Studies in Heroic Virtue PDF

206 Pages·1989·10.332 MB·English
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THE LITERATURE OF WAR By the same author Byron: A Critical Study Kipling's Mind and Art (ed.) Byron: The Critical Heritage (ed.) Twentieth-Century Interpretations of 'A Passage to India' (ed.) Rudyard Kipling, 'A Sahibs' War' and Other Stories; 'Friendly Brook' and Other Stories (ed.) Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills (ed.) Early Verse by Rudyard Kipling 1879-1889 (ed.) THE LITERATURE OF WAR Studies in Heroic Virtue ANDREW RUTHERFORD Warden of Goldsmiths' College University of London M MACMILLAN PRESS © Andrew Rutherford 1978, 1989 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First edition 1978 Reprinted 1980, 1981, 1986 Second (revised) edition 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Rutherford, Andrew, 1929- The literature of war: studies in heroic virtue.-2nd rev. ed. 1. English literature-19th century- History and criticism 2. English literature -20th century-History and criticism I. Title 820.9'358 PR469.W/ ISBN 978-0-333-44161-9 ISBN 978-1-349-19659-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19659-3 TO RICHARD, JOHN AND ALISON Contents Preface IX 2 Introduction 1 2 The Subaltern as Hero: Kipling and Frontier War 11 3 The Intellectual as Hero: Lawrence of Arabia 38 4 The Common Man as Hero: Literature of the Western Front 64 5 The Christian as Hero: Waugh's Sword of Honour 113 6 The Spy as Hero: Le Carre and the Cold War 135 7 Epilogue: On Realism and the Heroic 157 Notes 174 Bibliography 186 Index 193 Preface My thanks are due to Stanford University Press and Oliver and Boyd Ltd. for permission to include a revised version of my essay 'Officers and Gentlemen,' first published in Kipling's Mind and Art, ed. Andrew Rutherford; and to Methuen and Co. Ltd. for permission to include a revised version of my essay 'Waugh's Sword of Honour,' first published in Imagined Worlds, ed. Maynard Mack and Ian Gregor. I am grateful also to the editors of The Yearbook of English Studies for permission to include in the second edition a revised version of my essay 'Realism and the Heroic: Some Reflections on War Novels', which first appeared in their Special Number (1982) on 'Heroes and the Heroic'. The publishers and I also wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: Jonathan Cape Limited and The Letters ofT. E. Lawrence Trust for quotations from The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, ed. David Garnett. Jonathan Cape Limited and Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust for quotations from Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence. Chatto and Windu s Limited and The Estate of Wilfred Owen for extracts from the poem 'Apologia Pro Poemate Meo', from Collected Poems, ed. C. Day Lewis. Rosica Colin Limited on behalf of Catherine Guillaume for quotations from Death of a Hero, by Richard Aldington. Peter Davies Limited for quotations from The Middle Parts of Fortune, by Frederic Manning. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity. The works of history, biography and criticism to which I am most consciously indebted are acknowledged in the bibliography, which is, however, of necessity selective. I should also like to record my gratitude to the officers and men of the Seaforth Highlanders and the Somaliland Scouts, from whom I learned much that has proved relevant to war literature and life. '"My dear young friend," said Mustapha Mond, "civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects oflove to be fought for or defended-there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren't any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There's no such thing as a divided allegiance; you're so conditioned that you can't help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren't any temptations to resist. And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts."' Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (London, 1932), pp. 280-1. 'The danger is that those who see the falseness of many outmoded concepts of "glory" may persuade themselves and others to believe that courage is no longer a virtue. In fact courage in the face of adversity remains the supreme human quality. Nothing will ever be built, or last, without it. A society that loses its courage can only fade and crumble away.' John Baynes, Morale: A Study of Men and Courage (London, I 967), p. I 3.

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