{"product_id":"2940014043588","title":"The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916","description":"While the following pages are a record of experience on the Somme\u003cbr\u003eand Ancre fronts, with an interval behind the lines, during the\u003cbr\u003elatter half of the year 1916; and the events described in it\u003cbr\u003eactually happened; the characters are fictitious.  It is true\u003cbr\u003ethat in recording the conversations of the men I seemed at times\u003cbr\u003eto hear the voices of ghosts.  Their judgments were necessarily\u003cbr\u003epartial and prejudiced; but prejudices and partialities provide\u003cbr\u003emost of the driving power of life.  It is better to allow them to\u003cbr\u003ecancel each other, than attempt to strike an average between them.\u003cbr\u003eAverages are too colourless, indeed too abstract in every way, to\u003cbr\u003erepresent concrete experience.  I have drawn no portraits; and my\u003cbr\u003econcern has been mainly with the anonymous ranks, whose opinion,\u003cbr\u003eoften mere surmise and ill-informed, but real and true for them,\u003cbr\u003eI have tried to represent faithfully.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWar is waged by men; not by beasts, or by gods.  It is a peculiarly\u003cbr\u003ehuman activity.  To call it a crime against mankind is to miss at\u003cbr\u003eleast half its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime.\u003cbr\u003eThat raises a moral question, the kind of problem with which the\u003cbr\u003epresent age is disinclined to deal.  Perhaps some future attempt\u003cbr\u003eto provide a solution for it may prove to be even more astonishing\u003cbr\u003ethan the last.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo\u003cbr\u003ePeter Davies who made me write it\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a\u003cbr\u003edeath ...  and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year\u003cbr\u003eis quit for the next.   --- SHAKESPEARE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe darkness was increasing rapidly, as the whole sky had clouded,\u003cbr\u003eand threatened thunder.  There was still some desultory shelling.\u003cbr\u003eWhen the relief had taken over from them, they set off to return\u003cbr\u003eto their original line as best they could.  Bourne, who was beaten\u003cbr\u003eto the wide, gradually dropped behind, and in trying to keep the\u003cbr\u003eothers in sight missed his footing and fell into a shellhole.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the time he had picked himself up again the rest of the party\u003cbr\u003ehad vanished and, uncertain of his direction, he stumbled on alone.\u003cbr\u003eHe neither hurried nor slackened his pace; he was light-headed,\u003cbr\u003ealmost exalted, and driven only by the desire to find an end.\u003cbr\u003eSomewhere, eventually, he would sleep.  He almost fell into the\u003cbr\u003ewrecked trench, and after a moment's hesitation turned left, caring\u003cbr\u003elittle where it led him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe world seemed extraordinarily empty of men, though he knew the\u003cbr\u003eground was alive with them.  He was breathing with difficulty, his\u003cbr\u003emouth and throat seemed to be cracking with dryness, and his water\u003cbr\u003ebottle was empty.  Coming to a dugout, he groped his way down,\u003cbr\u003efeeling for the steps with his feet; a piece of Wilson canvas,\u003cbr\u003ehung across the passage but twisted aside, rasped his cheek;\u003cbr\u003eand a few steps lower his face was enveloped suddenly in the\u003cbr\u003emusty folds of a blanket.  The dugout was empty.  For the moment\u003cbr\u003ehe collapsed there, indifferent to everything.  Then with shaking\u003cbr\u003ehands he felt for his cigarettes, and putting one between his lips\u003cbr\u003estruck a match.  The light revealed a candle-end stuck by its own\u003cbr\u003egrease to the oval lid of a tobacco-tin, and he lit it; it was\u003cbr\u003escarcely thicker than a shilling, but it would last his time.  He\u003cbr\u003ewould finish his cigarette, and then move on to find his company.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073897873648,"sku":"2940014043588","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014043588_p0.jpg?v=1763599568","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014043588","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}