Journey's End (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Journey's End (Penguin Modern Classics)
- Brand: Unbranded
Description
I don’t normally read plays because they seem to unleash a wave of high school-related memories and trying to think of quotes and line numbers and acts and basically getting myself into a tizzy. The seemingly mundane conversations between the officers worked perfectly to convey the monotony on the front. There’s one scene where several characters are waiting until they must go over the dugout and into no man’s land, and each minute is excruciatingly counted down. They try to fill the space with small talk, but they can’t; they’re about to go on a suicide mission. It’s one of the tensest scenes I’ve read. I'm not going to write more about this book now, because it really is pretty short. But there is a mystery. And these three kids are working on figuring out how to stop this fog. Journey's End was an interesting and somewhat exciting story. I liked the mystery of it all, and I mostly liked the characters. But yeah, I did not love it, and I feel a bit sad about that. Aw. But I'm still happy that I read this book. And I do think that you should be reading it too, as it was a pretty sweet middle grade book. Must now read more by Rachel.
The characters are pretty good too, but they’re not amazing. I appreciate the addition of a little middle grade ship, but you don’t get a lot from that either. They blush at each other some and then Nolie leaves at the end of the summer. The whole book basically just feels like it could have been more, but it’s not.In this private conversation on the subject of Raleigh's idolization of Stanhope, Osborne and Stanhope touch on the theme of heroism. Having looked up to Stanhope at school, Raleigh and Raleigh's sister turned him into a hero. However, Stanhope reveals in this dialogue his concern that Raleigh will see Stanhope for who he is truly is, having been damaged by the effects of war. Osborne sees things differently, and has faith that Raleigh will continue to see him as a hero, despite Stanhope's drinking and temper. And a lot of people may dismiss the scenes and the conversations as slow but I think that is the whole point and what makes the. In the films set around WW1 there is always something happening, shells exploding, machine guns hammering but in reality there was a lot of time where the men were just waiting. Every now and then I want to read a play; as for this one, I don't know how I 'found it.' It was recently made into a movie, but I hadn't watched it, or known of its existence. I might have discovered it here on Goodreads...
The play was adapted for television in 1988, starring Jeremy Northam as Stanhope, Edward Petherbridge as Osborne, and Timothy Spall as Trotter. [20] It held close to the original script although there were changes, the most obvious being the depiction on camera of the raid, which happens off-stage in the theatre production. Private Mason, a servant cook, often forgets about ingredients and key parts of the food that he prepares for the officers. He is really part of the infantry but the company has let him be a part-time cook. All of the action takes place in a British officers dugout during the final year of the First World War. Captain Stanhope, respected and revered by his men, manages to function by drinking copious amounts of whisky to numb the horrors of the trenches. Osbourne, his second in command, finds solace in literature and reads from "Alice in Wonderland", as both a release from reality and a way to understand the absurdity of what is happening. Into the mix comes Raleigh, a young second lieutenant, fresh from home, who pulls strings to get in Stanhope's company, because he hero-worshiped him as the rugger team captain from school days and also because Stanhope is involved with his sister. Tensions arise because of Raleigh's naivety and hero-worship, and Stanhope's fears that he is not worthy of such praise and his worry that news of his drinking and despair might reach the ears of his intended. Stanhope also worries that young Raleigh's eagerness to join him has doomed him with the rest of them.Osborne describes the madness of war when describing how German soldiers allowed the British to rescue a wounded soldier in no man's land, while the next day the two sides shelled each other heavily. He describes the war as "silly".
I loved the book from start to finish. It shows the horrors of war and the rough and tough life spent inside dugouts without glorifying it in any way. And who better for the job than R. C. Sherriff who had first-hand experience of it! Journey's End” (1928), by English playwright Robert Cedric (R.C.) Sherriff, follows a group of British army troops in the days leading to Operation Michael, which was the last offensive operation from Germany that would mark the beginning of the end of WWI. Performed for more than two years in London, the play was one of the most popular productions of the 1920s. The work is based off of his own experience in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during WWI.Other plays of the period dealing with the war tended to be judged by the standard of Journey's End. [21] The play and its characters also influenced other writers. In 1930, Noël Coward briefly played the role of Stanhope while on tour in the Far East. He did not consider his performance successful, writing afterwards that his audience "politely watched me take a fine part in a fine play and throw it into the alley." [22] However, he was "strongly affected by the poignancy of the play itself", and was inspired to write Post-Mortem, his own "angry little vilification of war", shortly afterwards. [23] Purkis, Charlotte (2016). "The mediation of constructions of pacifism in Journey's End and The Searcher, two contrasting dramatic memorials from the late 1920s". Journalism Studies. 17 (4): 502–16. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2015.1135753. Osborne puts a tired and somewhat drunk Stanhope to bed. Stanhope, as well as the other officers, refers to Osborne as "Uncle". I really like reading about Nolie and Bel becoming friends, though. It was sweet. And I enjoyed reading about them hanging out and doing things together. But there was also too little of that. And I didn't like the time jumps, as there had suddenly gone a whole week, then two weeks, and nothing had happened, and I have no idea what happened between those days. Hmph. Oh, I wish this book had been longer, so that I could have loved it. Aw. Well, I think I would have loved it. But even so, I did like it a lot. Just not enough. There's tension here, sights and sounds of a terrible war, mixed with moments of friendship, camaraderie and the routines of normal English life. Still, everyone is on edge - some more than others - as they await the inevitable.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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