Describe Books Concering A Soldier of the Great War
Original Title: | A Soldier of the Great War |
ISBN: | 0156031132 (ISBN13: 9780156031134) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | Washington State Book Award (1992) |
Mark Helprin
Paperback | Pages: 860 pages Rating: 4.35 | 6405 Users | 717 Reviews
List Regarding Books A Soldier of the Great War
Title | : | A Soldier of the Great War |
Author | : | Mark Helprin |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 860 pages |
Published | : | June 1st 2005 by Mariner Books (first published 1991) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. War. Cultural. Italy. World War I |
Description In Pursuance Of Books A Soldier of the Great War
From acclaimed novelist Mark Helprin, a lush, literary epic about love, beauty, and the world at war.Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love. Then the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man—a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe—tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro's experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it's a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.
Rating Regarding Books A Soldier of the Great War
Ratings: 4.35 From 6405 Users | 717 ReviewsCrit Regarding Books A Soldier of the Great War
A Soldier of the Great War, Mark HelprinA Soldier of the Great War is a novel by American writer Mark Helprin about the Great War. It was published in May 1991 by Harcourt. As a young man, Alessandro Giuliani foresees Italy's entry into the Great War, and joins the navy rather than waiting to be drafted into the more dangerous infantry. This reasoned and logical course of action has no place in a world gone mad, and Alessandro's life, loves, friendships, and fortunes all take bizarre and oftenWhatever I could possibly say cannot do justice to this book. How Helprin uses language is magnificent - the dialogue, the thoughts he evokes, the humor, the beauty he paints for the reader. I have to give this book five stars, although I have only read half. Well now I have completed the book and this makes me so sad - I didn't want it to end.
The book has thought provoking dialogue on the life of a fascinating character as he reflects on his life and his philosophy.
This is a difficult to categorize book, as it swings from serious to farcical and much of it strains credulity, but oh, what a tale! It is fascinating to read about life in Europe around the turn of the century and into the Great War, or what we now called World War I. The world was turned upside down by that war, and it is apparent in the book. The dynasties die, the nobility fade away, and what is left is the modern world. Helprin has a deep awareness to the way the setting of the book allows
The novel probably deserves more than 3 stars. Parts of it are very moving, and Helprin has important things to say and creates a wonderful, deeply humane character in Alessandro Giuliani. But it was a long, looooong slog. It felt like a 40-mile hike. More chore than fun.
When we first meet Alessandro, the soldier from the title, hes an elderly but still vital man who takes a principled stand against a streetcar driver who refused to stop for a would-be rider giving chase. Alessandro ends up getting off as a kind of protest and faces a distant journey on foot with the impressionable young man whod been left behind. Along the way, Alessandro tells him (and us) quite a story. Its filled with events and perspectives prior to the war that hint at the kind of soldier
A friend recommended this epic book to me despite knowing I wasn't fond of Helprin's novels. Well, he certainly perceived my taste fittingly, and I am forever indebted to him for persuading me to read this beautiful, evocative, deeply resonating story of a soldier-scholar living through WW I.This is not like any other war novel I have read, and I've read a number of them. Although you are taken inside the reality of war--in the muddy trenches, in the grasp of grenades, marching with battalions,
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