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172nd out of 2,624 books
—
9,319 voters
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
Published to international critical and popular acclaim, this intensely romantic yet stunningly realistic novel spans three generations and the unimaginable gulf between the First World War and the present. As the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford passes through a tempestuous love affair with Isabelle Azaire in France and enters the dark, surreal world beneath the trenche...more
Paperback, 483 pages
Published
June 2nd 1997
by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
(first published September 16th 1993)
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It's as if the author is writing from personal experience
The way that the characters and the atmosphere are built by Sebastian Faulks is just amazing! The reader is taken in to that atmosphere, and shares the feelings of the main character, Stephen. You cannot fail to be totally captivated.
Anyone who has served for any significant period in the Armed Forces will instantly relate to the use of black humour to cover the awful reality and horror. Faulks also manages to refle...more
The way that the characters and the atmosphere are built by Sebastian Faulks is just amazing! The reader is taken in to that atmosphere, and shares the feelings of the main character, Stephen. You cannot fail to be totally captivated.
Anyone who has served for any significant period in the Armed Forces will instantly relate to the use of black humour to cover the awful reality and horror. Faulks also manages to refle...more
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One of the Burberry Boys, Eddie Redmayne of the bruised looking lips as Stephen Wraysford in the new BBC film.
Sebastian Faulks’ epic love story set against the First World War, which became a modern classic when it was published in 1993, is adapted for the screen for the first time by Abi Morgan.
The action of the two part serial moves between 1910 and 1916, telling the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who arrives in Amiens in Northern Franc...more
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is a moving, passionate, shocking, thought provoking and heartbreaking novel. A novel that manages to create a passionate and erotic love story combined with the horrors of war.
Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong tells the story of Stephen, starting in pre-war France and taking us right through the war and through a terrible period of history.
Faulks delivers a moving and shocking account of Stephen and his love affair and the trials ...more
Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong tells the story of Stephen, starting in pre-war France and taking us right through the war and through a terrible period of history.
Faulks delivers a moving and shocking account of Stephen and his love affair and the trials ...more
This is one of the most haunting novels I have ever read about World War 1. The title comes from the the practice of coal miners bringing a "canary in the coal mine" to test for bad air. In WW 1 hundreds of British coal miners were drafted into the British Army to help build tunnels under the trenches in France. The main character leaves Britain and enters the War after a failed affair....the descriptions of trench warfare, tunnel making, nerve gas, human carnage and the waste of wa...more
Beautifully written. As the subtitle indicates, this is a "A Novel of Love and War". The part about THE war, I have to admit I had very little knowledge of WWI before I read this book, except for the bare minimum of how it started and how a great many young men died in the war. I also don't normally read books with many battle scenes and with war as the main theme, but I just couldn't seem to put this one down once I started. The tension in the anticipation of the attacks(i.e., Battle ...more
I considered myself a fairly informed person about the 1st World War, until I read this book. It is one of the most disturbing accounts of the effects of atrocities upon the human mind I have ever read. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist, and specialises in the effects of shock on the mind, borrowed this from me and was impressed with the accurate portrayal of the reactions of humans to extreme stress.
The book starts some years before the war when a young english man, Stephen Wra...more
The book starts some years before the war when a young english man, Stephen Wra...more
Finishing this book is something like being dug out of a shell hole, or emerging from sleep still in the grip of one's nightmare. Faulks did a shatteringly good job of conveying the sheer incomprehensible horror of the trenches and mines. He was equally adept at blind, headlong, addictive physical passion. What kept this novel from five stars was the 1978-1979 material about Elizabeth Benson. While the snippet of her at Thiepval is moving, I get no sense of promises kept or the torch being p...more
"It was not his death that mattered; it was the way the world had been dislocated. It was not all the tens of thousands of deaths that mattered; it was the way they had proved that you could be human yet act in a way that was beyond nature."
This ‘review’ might sound like a huge cliché, and for that I apologise. What I don’t apologise for is the sentiments behind it because I mean every word.
I approached this book, the third time I have read it, with extreme caution. I...more
This ‘review’ might sound like a huge cliché, and for that I apologise. What I don’t apologise for is the sentiments behind it because I mean every word.
I approached this book, the third time I have read it, with extreme caution. I...more
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I resisted loving this book for as long as I could, for a variety of reasons--foremost among them my sense of its being a little too neat, a little too dramatically contrived--but in the end I gave in. I loved this book, for all its flaws and for all my lack of real interest in its protagonist.
When I was reading the first section (approximately one hundred pages, prewar), I wrote of it: "Faulks cites a number of nineteenth-century French authors as influences, and Flaubert in part...more
When I was reading the first section (approximately one hundred pages, prewar), I wrote of it: "Faulks cites a number of nineteenth-century French authors as influences, and Flaubert in part...more
Yhis was a hard book to rate for me. The story was captivating and I think Faulks was so descriptive I felt I was actually there in a bunker with the men or racing up a hillside trying not to get shot by the Germans. Despite the great imagery, there were parts of the story that could not make me believe in it and I did not enjoy the end of the book. It goes against what I believe in and I felt kindof sad for all the characters in the end. So I gave it a three because I think the author did a goo...more
Great novel, slow to start but rolls along well. A good book about some harrowing subjects with a nice romance going on.
Like a violent version of love in a time of cholera
Like a violent version of love in a time of cholera
This book is a bit of a mixed bag really. The romance is quickly introduced and proceeds with relative alacrity, but the essence of it left me unconvinced. The standout part of the whole novel is Wraysford's time in the trenches during the Great War. I have never read a book that has ever given me a clearer idea of what this battlefield was like, and the horrors that these men lived through and then carried with them. It is some of the most powerful writing I have seen, and the chilling cold...more
Its a book I felt couldn't be read in one go, there was too much to take in in one sitting. The description Faulks uses is what makes it so breathtaking, it is as if he is writing from experience, and the messages it sends out are pretty deep. It also opens your eyes as to what the trenches were like in a greater depth than you get from a history lesson or films. Its shocking what lengths man has had to go through for, let's face it, not very just causes and I think Faulks illuminates this well ...more
"Sebastian Faulks' heartwrenching and heart soaring novel is an incredible journey and all that is right with the modern novel. With plenty of pathos, humor, love, despair, and harrowing experiences, the story generates emotional heat, sympathetic characters, and memorably images. I highly recommend this novel.
The book follows Englishman Stephen Wraysford who has a passionate and erotic affair with Isabelle Azaire in 1910 France. She leaves her husband, but leaves Stephen wh...more
The book follows Englishman Stephen Wraysford who has a passionate and erotic affair with Isabelle Azaire in 1910 France. She leaves her husband, but leaves Stephen wh...more
I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I expected given its reputation and how much I enjoyed On Green Dolphin Street.
The strongest section of the book for me was that set during WWI. The descriptions were very vivid - from the carnage and confusion of battle, to the miserable trench conditions and perpetual danger faced by the sappers when underground, it was not an easy read. The characters and the way they interacted felt believable.
The first section of the book, cove...more
The strongest section of the book for me was that set during WWI. The descriptions were very vivid - from the carnage and confusion of battle, to the miserable trench conditions and perpetual danger faced by the sappers when underground, it was not an easy read. The characters and the way they interacted felt believable.
The first section of the book, cove...more
BIRDSONG is a tripartite novel: Part I, an affair (I hesitate to call it "romance") between a young man and his landlord's wife; Part II, the saga of several English soldiers in WWI; and Part III, the story of a distant descendant of one of these characters.
Part I, the affair, was the most engaging for me: rich description, torrid melodrama, etc. But the affair ends abruptly, and we never find out quite why. Stephen, the hero, is stoically unreflective; he internalizes littl...more
Part I, the affair, was the most engaging for me: rich description, torrid melodrama, etc. But the affair ends abruptly, and we never find out quite why. Stephen, the hero, is stoically unreflective; he internalizes littl...more
This will be my first review. In fact, it is my second. (I've just deleted a whole passage of what I thought was rapier sharp witted review gold. It had to go.) I'll be frank: I liked this book. What drew me in was the nice settings that starts it off; the quiet French towns by rivers or sea. What kept me reading was the well made main man Stephen with his tragic past and original take on the world. He is really modern in his outlook compared to stuck-up French society men or ordinary soldiers s...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I was not sure about this book. I had high expectations as I had been told 'its a book you MUST read before you die1'. I enjoyed the beginning, but did not know whether I could emphathize with the main character Stephen. He seemed self absorbed and only interested in his own wants and needs. This changed somewhat when he met the lovely Isabel, then proceeded to start an affair, which resulted in her leaving her abusive husband.
This ultimately changed him beyond all recognition, ...more
This ultimately changed him beyond all recognition, ...more
This was my second reading of Birdsong, and I expected to be less stunned, less appalled, and less involved in this masterpiece of a novel. I couldn't have been more wrong. Even on second reading, Birdsong retains huge power as a novel. It serves as a hugely important reminder of the near past, of the sacrifices that were made by our very close ancestors to preserve our way of life. It's full of passion, of the resilience of human nature, and the depths that humanity can dredge in times of w...more
I wish we could do half stars, as I'd lean toward 3 1/2 for this one. The writing is beautiful, and the sections dealing with WWI are pretty astounding. Stephen, who I disliked in the first section, becomes gradually more layered and sympathetic. The characterizations of the other soldiers are very good, particularly Weir.
However, the entire subplot involving Elizabeth should have been cut. I understand that the idea was to demonstrate the connectedness of multiple generations, but ...more
However, the entire subplot involving Elizabeth should have been cut. I understand that the idea was to demonstrate the connectedness of multiple generations, but ...more
This was an amazing novel. I can't remember the last time I read a book so compulsively and was as consumed by it as I was by this work. Reading it, for me, however, was an exhausting experience, and not one I would wish to repeat. I don't know if that means the novel should earn a single star or five, so I compromised with a three-star rating, which is probably low. Faulks puts his reader through every emotion he possibly can in one work - fear, repulsion, shame, pity, deep sadness, even a t...more
This was another novel I found on a 'must read' list. It's the story of a young Englishman who goes to France on business in 1910. He becomes involved in a 'clandestine love affair' and never returns home. When the war breaks out in 1914, he joins the army and is given command of a brigade of miners.
Their assignment is to tunnel beneath German lines and set off bombs under the enemy trenches. This was a new kind of warfare for me to learn about. It was awful! Imagine working undergro...more
Their assignment is to tunnel beneath German lines and set off bombs under the enemy trenches. This was a new kind of warfare for me to learn about. It was awful! Imagine working undergro...more
This book details the experiences of a young Englishman during World War One in a style that totters on a fine line between being intimate and claustrophobic. And all wonderfully effective. Stephen Wraysford is first presented to us in France, 1910, soon after which he embarks upon a disastrous love affair with the wife of his host. The passing of time leads him into the mud and horror of the trenches years later, and this is where the writer's main strengths are evidenced. Though I found the ea...more
Birdsong is one of those few books that haunt you even after you have read the last word. A quote from the first part of the book truly describes its writings. "The function of music is to liberate in the soul those feelings that normally we keep locked up in the heart". This book does the same. It opens up a plethora of emotions experienced by the reader with every passage in the book.
This book focuses on the life of Stephen Wraysford, a World War I vete...more
This book focuses on the life of Stephen Wraysford, a World War I vete...more
Anjali
rated it
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War is exactly that – a book about love and war. I had never heard of either the book or the author before I saw the BBC’s Top 100 list. I would never read this book if not for this book being chosen as the Book of the Month for March by the Ladies’ Literary League on Goodreads. I love these reading groups, lists and challenges – isn’t these how we discover new authors and books? Even though the title had war in it, (I don’t like war books, you see), I still starte...more
I wasn't expecting to, but I LOVED it! I'm not a fan of wartime books, but given that there is an excellent BBC drama currently on, I thought I would give it a go, and it's taught for a-level so that was another reason! No one prepared me for the sheer pornographic content, so I was bit embarrassed reading my Kindle on the train - lol it was very tastefully done but it was very full on and lol I really wasn't expecting it. The description of life in the trenches was harrowing and poignant at the...more
This is another book on so many "best" lists. The book is divided into several parts (and again into chapters) by time periods. I've just entered part two. Part one was a great story of forbidden love. In part two, set a few years later, you're taken into the trenches with the troops in war. So far, I'm liking the story (though I favor part one over part two...but it's early).
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My update: I have less than fifty...more
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My update: I have less than fifty...more
Jack Wegason
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of historical fiction
Recommended to Jack by:
Hannah
Shelves:
historical-fiction
This novel surprised me in two ways, two good ways. I expected it to be heavily focused on the First World War, and it is, to a point. I also expected to know how it was going to end, but I was wrong.
The changing time-frames that are inter-woven, together with the scene setting opening were a joy to read as the story moved along to gradually and ever so sweetly bring it all together into a wholesome end.
I did not race through this book, I am not sure one should, it is somethi...more
The changing time-frames that are inter-woven, together with the scene setting opening were a joy to read as the story moved along to gradually and ever so sweetly bring it all together into a wholesome end.
I did not race through this book, I am not sure one should, it is somethi...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| World Mysteries a...: Birdsong | 1 | 9 | Jan 23, 2012 12:14pm |
Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which h...more
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“Gray stood up and came round the desk. "Think of the words on that memorial, Wraysford. Think of those stinking towns and foul bloody villages whose names will be turned into some bogus glory by fat-arsed historians who have sat in London. We were there. As our punishment for God knows what, we were there, and our men died in each of those disgusting places. I hate their names. I hate the sound of them and the thought of them, which is why I will not bring myself to remind you. But listen." He put his face close to Stephen's. "There are four words they will chisel beneath them at the bottom. Four words that people will look at one day. When they read the other words they will want to vomit. When they read these, they will bow their heads, just a little. 'Final advance and pursuit.' Don't tell me you don't want to put your name to those words.”
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“He looked at Azaire, and his left eyelid slid down over the eyeball, remaining in place long enough for the broken blood vessels beneath the skin and the small wart to be visible before it was rotated smoothly back to its home beneath the skull.”
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