In the Foreign Legion

by Erwin Rosen

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Military Fiction

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1909

Reviews

[Flowww Rian · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, I didn’t know that it is over 100 years old.

Despite this fact was a surprise for me, it also brought some positive effects with it.
It paints a very different picture of the Foreign Legion than we know today. The legionnaire lives poorly, downright serfdom and enters a vicious circle with almost no chance of escape, suffers from arbitrary punishments of its officers, and has an extremely tight, daily repeating and monotonous time table.

Nevertheless, the author is a child of his time. His view of non-Europeans and non-Christians is, from today's perspective, backward and partly discriminatory. Even though I presume, the author belongs to the moderate contemporaries.

What I also noticed negatively is that dialects are written in spoken language in order to reflect the speaker’s pronunciation. This disturbs the reading flow immensely.

All in all, I would recommend the book to people who like to deal with the subject matter, but point out that it is not so much a documentary as a critique of the Legion.

[Sniffel1402 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unterhaltsam, aber auch ein Spiegelbild seiner Zeit was Meinungen und Wertungen angeht.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice and interesting book. Written about 100 years ago, but in a style that sounds contemporary. Full of interesting information about "then and there".

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like I had joined the legion when all I wanted to do was read the book. I wasn't a big fan of his liberal use of the "n word" but it seemed very descriptive of what life was like.