The Bloody Game

By Paul Fussell (editor),

Book cover of The Bloody Game: An Anthology of Modern War

Book description

In sections ranging from outstanding works of fiction, to poems and simple letters home, this book presents the voices of the 20th century's major conflicts - the two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War and those in Korea and Vietnam. The greater power of weapons has made killing a more…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Bloody Game as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

We are in danger of engaging with war as though it were a philosophical enquiry or a strategic game if we leave out its essence: the death, the suffering, the destruction, the fear, the devastation that it brings, reflected in many among the texts in this anthology, written by eye-witnesses. Others – including the poems – are the product of a different sort of engagement with war: not the attempt at rational analysis but of artistic sublimation of the experience. This, too, represents a thoroughly valid approach missing from the academic works recommended in this section. 

If this collection can…

From Beatrice's list on war in general.

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