Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front Book

Arnold Bennett was a prolific and talented writer whose merits have become better appreciated in the last few decades. His description of the destruction of France's historic towns and countryside in 1915 is vivid and heartbreaking. Bennett, who was British, was unashamedly a Francophile and loathed what Germany had done. (In 1915 he was hardly alone in this view.) This is a gem of a book, captivating from cover to cover. Illustrations are by Walter Hale, who also wrote a book covering the same basic tour of the trenches. (See my review of Hale's excellent book.) Warning: it is not a happy story, but one that should be read for what it says about mankind's capacity to use technology for the obliteration of great art.