Vessel of Sadness [Hardcover]

William Woodruff (Author), Martin Blumenson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1978

The title, which hints at the poetry that breathes life into this true story of the Allied invasion of the beach at Anzio, Italy, in 1944, comes from a passage within the book told by a man assigned burial duty: “Quickly, the mound of earth disappears. A friend has gone. He has drunk his vessel of sadness. His battle is stilled.”

 

Woodruff’s technique is to show that bloody struggle through the eyes of sol­diers, statesmen, and civilians involved. Privileged viewers from afar, we see officers shooting pool before a major conference; we come close, peer into the thoughts of a corporal just before a bul­let takes the top off his head; as if we were walking past, we stop for a mo­ment to watch a poker game among enlisted men; we see an ambassador fretting over artifacts and men riding headlong into a German machine-gun nest.

 

In Woodruff’s war there are no hu­man villains, only madness, an abstract insanity, a waste of such huge propor­tions as to sober even a giddy man. A war.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Here… in unvarnished but riveting truth, is the mixture of panic, danger, dirt, unthinking heroism, comradeship, despair and hope that make up the life of the fighting man in action.”—George Riley, London Evening News

About the Author

William Woodruff served with the First British Infantry Division during World War II and landed with his unit in the initial wave of the Anzio inva­sion. After the war he returned to Ox­ford University and, later, earned his doctorate of philosophy at Nottingham. He is now Graduate Research Professor in Economic History at the University of Florida.

 

Martin Blumenson was formerly Harold Keith Johnson Professor of Mil­itary History at the Army War College. He is the author of two volumes of The Patton Papers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809308754
• ISBN-13: 978-0809308750
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,304,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Woodruff (1916-2008)

A world historian who, in his eighties, wrote two volumes of autobiography: The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood and Beyond Nab End, which became No 1 bestsellers in Britain.

Robert McCrum, writing about The Road to Nab End in the Observer, deemed the work 'A terrific story ... nostalgic, vivid and charming.'

William was born on the floor of a cotton mill in Blackburn, England during the First World War. His mother returned to work two days after his birth. His father was away fighting in France and there were four children to feed. By the time William's father came home to take up his life as a weaver, the Lancashire cotton textile industry was about to collapse. There followed years of hardship, unemployment and social unrest. From the age of six, through the years of the great depression of the early 1930s, William supplemented his family's income by delivering newspapers. He did go to school, but sometimes just to catch up on his sleep. At thirteen his education was considered complete and he became a delivery boy in a grocer's shop. His memoir, The Road to Nab End, is full of the joys of running free in a town full of unforgettable characters, it also conveys the mood of quiet desperation that eventually drove his family to a room in a derelict boarding house at Nab End.

'Once started, it is impossible to put this book down ... the author ... has the historian's gift for bringing to life a particular society at a particular time,' wrote Allan Bullock in the Times Literary Supplement.

At the age of sixteen, when he was a temporary laborer in a brickworks, he ran away to London. For two years he worked as a 'sand rat' in an iron foundry (wet sand was used in the casting process). Discovering a love of learning, he enrolled in night school. In 1936 he went to Oxford University with the aid of a London County Council Scholarship. Beyond Nab End is the totally refreshing and amusing story of the foundry worker's struggles to come to grips with the challenges and opportunities of an Oxford education.

'Hard times had bred resourcefulness and self-reliance. I knew by experience how to take setbacks. I also knew that nobody owed me a living. I was lucky to have been born and reared in Lancashire; doubly lucky to have been born poor,' he wrote.

The Second World War put William's education on hold for six years, he called them the years the locusts ate. He fought in North Africa and the Mediterranean region. His wartime experiences became the basis of his autobiographical novel Vessel of Sadness, a stark, yet poetic account of the battle for Anzio.

'Deceptively simple in language and imagery, frightening and upsetting, frank and unflinching in view, Vessel of Sadness helps us understand the nature of man in a world where there is as yet no alternative to the desolation of war' wrote Martin Blumenson in the preface to the book.

In 1946 William renewed his academic career. His research focused on world history. 'The Balkanization of the social sciences,' he wrote, 'has brought us to a state of ever-growing general ignorance and dehumanized science. Hence, I have stressed the central role, not of methods or theories or systems, but of humanity ... In seeking to understand the totality, complexity and diversity of the past, I shifted my focus from the parts to the whole; from the nation to the world.'

Impact of Western Man: A Study of Europe's Role in the World Economy, 1750-1960 was a seminal work which explored the interrelatedness of continents. In his Concise History of the Modern World: 1500 to the Present he brings together a lifetime's insights into how the present has come to be shaped by the past.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic and Poetic - A Remarkable Story, June 9, 2000

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vessel of Sadness (Brassey's Commemorative Series, Wwii) (Paperback)

I no longer remember where I stumbled across Vessel of Sadness. I recall that I was totally unfamiliar with this book and its author. I was puzzled by the title. But my attention was captured by the literary reviews on the back cover.

"How have you said so much and involved me so deeply with so few words?" Gunnar Myrdahl, Nobel laureate.

"One of the most sensitive and moving books of the war, both authentic and poetic" A.L. Rowse, Elizabethan historian and Shakespearean scholar.

This is a fictional account of the protracted and bloody Allied invasion of Anzio in 1944. The story is told through shifting points of view - an Italian child, a British general, a camp commandant, and Allied and German soldiers. This mosaic is slow to unfold, but a tragic, unrelenting story emerges. Overall the book is subdued and somewhat detached. But its impact is staggering.

This short book is quite remarkable. It has a haunting aspect to it, but it is not a blatant antiwar account. As others have noted, possibly the best comparisons are with The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front. In a poetic style William Woodruff conveys a frightening sense of realism. High level strategic decisions move down through the chain of command and are translated into battle. Confusion, fear, and pain are pervasive. The focus is on survival.

The author participated in the initial invasion landing at Anzio on January 23, 1944 with the First British Infantry and fought for the next four months on the beachhead, trapped by German forces on the high ground. Woodruff tells the story of war with an emotional impact that ensures that this literary work will become a classic. I highly recommend Vessel of Sadness.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poignant and Gripping Story, December 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vessel of Sadness (Brassey's Commemorative Series, Wwii) (Paperback)

This is a brief, powerful story of life on the front lines in WWII. It is a quick read, but it will touch your soul.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb novel, September 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vessel of Sadness (Brassey's Commemorative Series, Wwii) (Paperback)

This is a moving and vivid description of the Allies attempt to take Rome during World War II. The novel is brief and concise but reaches a level of greatness comparable to the best World War II literature. Woodruff has make an understanding effor to convey to all readers the stupidity of war and the suffering of those who were persuaded to fight for the betterness of humankind but were uncertain of their personal destinies. As a reader I was very impressed with the quality of the narrative, the interesting dialogues, the sense of inmediacy that the novel brings and the matter of fact approach to war. Woodruff has brought us a magnificient work that will leave an ever-lasting impression on those who read it.