Her Privates We [Paperback]

Frederic Manning (Author), William Boyd (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1999

A brilliant book that makes it impossible to forget the barbarity of war.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frederic Manning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1882. He moved to England in 1903 where he pursued a literary career, reviewing and writing poetry. He enlisted in 1915 in the Shropshire Light Infantry and went to France in 1916 as 'Private 19022.' The Shropshires saw heavy fighting on the Somme and Manning's four months there provided the background to Her Privates We. He died in 1935.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852427175
• ISBN-13: 978-1852427177
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "War . . . is a peculiarly human activity.", February 12, 2003

By 

B. E. Keown "Macardle42390" (Massachusetts, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Her Privates We (Paperback)

For almost seventy years, this book was only readily found in an 'expurgated' version--that is, an abridged edition published first in 1929. Manning originally published his novel privately, but when it was introduced to the public (anonymously in the first editions), his editors felt that the language was too crude and for the genteel reading public and cut the book down to fit the day's standards. It is only now that we can appreciate the true power and honesty of a book that has been overlooked for too long.
Her Privates We is not a story of war so much as it is the story of men involved in that war--it is only in the final chapters that any real battle scenes take place. For the majority of the book, we are treated to an account of the life of Private Bourne (Manning himself in a literary disguise) during the five months of the Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916), one of the most tragic and deadliest battles of World War One. To really explain the plot would be to give away the true experience of reading the book, but I guarantee, there is no account of World War One that can be compared to this work. It is unique and as relevant today as it was in 1929.
There is no attempt at hero-worship or empty patriotism in Manning's work. He telling the story of a group of men trapped in a world for which they were never prepared, and their humanity shines through it all. Their language is coarse, their opinions of the war, women, their fellow soldiers differ, but ultimately, they are all in the same Hell and are bonded together in a desperate hope of survival. Manning's is one of the few War works that does not follow the Victorian pattern for novels (hence why it is seldom mentioned in reviews of war literature). He is not trying to help his readers escape, but rather forcing them to face the reality they had created.
It is clear, even in his prose, that Manning was a skilled poet. Throughout the novel, there are flashes of beauty in the writing itself:

"She knew nothing of their subterranean, furtive, twilight life, the limbo through which, with their obliterated humanity, they moved as so many unhoused ghosts, or the aching hunger in those hands that reached, groping tentatively out of their emptiness, to seek some hope or stay."

As well as humor. After a paticularily confused conversation with a French woman with whom they have been billeted, Bourne's superior complains to him:

"I wish to God I knew a bit o' French" said the corporal earnestly.
"I wish to God you wouldn't mix the little you do know with Hindustanti," said Bourne.

The incredible humanity in this book has seldom been paralleled, even in modern literature. Manning's genuis has been overlooked for too long and it is time that his masterpiece was rediscovered to teach a new generation what war is really like.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most underrated novel about soldiers in WW1, February 18, 2000

By 

M. J MUIR "J" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Her Privates We (Paperback)

This novel focuses, not so much on moral arguments, as on what the experience of trench warfare did to ordinary men. Much of it also refers to the gap between officers and men in the British army. The men knew they had been drafted into or volunteered for something very different from what they were led to believe, and did not have the luxury of arguing why. At times the prose is beautiful, but the most brilliant thing about the book, way ahead of it's time, is the capturing of the bad language and coarse behaviour of the men. These men, contrary to stereotypes, came from hugely diverse backgrounds and fought, swore, quarelled and indulged themselves just like anybody else would if thrown into such a stressful melting pot. This really brought the subject to life, and made me think how lucky I am. Few of the last survivors of WW1 are under 100 years old, and this is a unique and moving memorial to the few living survivors of the first generation subjected to modern warfare and what they endured.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, true, vivid, and memorable, October 16, 2004

By 

Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Her Privates We (Paperback)

Of course, I say this work is elegant, true, vivid and memorable as a work, not the events it depicts. In parts of the world that used to make up the Commonwealth and serviced by Penguin books, the title may be THE MIDDLE PARTS OF FORTUNE. Having had 25 years in the military I can only say I read this book from cover to cover, and relished every word in it. Artistically, as an artifact, it has a satisfying structure and conventional narrative. Like the characters in it, especially Private Bourne, it manages a superb tone, neither hiding the horror, the detail, but never sentimentalizing the common bravery of the ordinary man whilst despising the shirker. I could go on but I just draw to your attention on P58 the brilliant detail of having to carry an awkward box three miles by hand: - ....he was glad to dump the box he and Lance-Corporal Johnson had carried the three miles from Philosophe on the floor of the Quartermaster's office. It had those handles which hang down when not in use, but turn over and force one's knuckles against the ends of the box when it is lifted. By reversing the grip, one may save one's knuckles, but only at the expense of twisting one's elbow, and the muscles of the forearm. Having tried both ways, they passed their handkerchiefs through the handles, and knotted the corners, so that it was slung between them, but the handkerchief being of different sizes, the weight was not equally distributed. The quartermaster's store was a large shed of galvanized iron, which may have been a garage originally. He was not there, but the carpenter, who was making wooden crosses, of which a pile stood in one corner, thought he might be back at the transport lines; on the other hand he might be back at any moment, so they waited for as long as it took to smoke a cigarette, watching the carpenter, who, having finished putting a cross together, was painting it with a cheap-looking white paint. -That's the motto of the regiment,- said the carpenter, taking up one on which their badge and motto had been painted carefully. - It's in Latin, but it means WHERE GLORY LEADS.
Bourne looked at it with a sardonic grin. - That is just one paragraph of 247 pages of fine prose, and itself could be a study as a sample of quite brilliant writing.
A classic of the 20th century.