The Literature of War: Studies in Heroic Virtue

206 Pages·1989·10.332 MB·English

by  Andrew Rutherford (auth.)

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
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issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place,
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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.