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| Arras Cathedral, Destroyed 1914 |
The Beauty and the Sorrow by the eminent Swedish historian Peter Englund is a European bestseller. Already available in 18 different languages, it is currently being translated into Estonian and is shortly to be translated into Chinese. Drawing on the diaries and letters of 20 individuals from both sides and from all around the world, The Beauty and the Sorrow is not a conventional history of the war. Instead, through personal letters, diaries, and other materials the book offers a unique insight into how the First World War was experienced, incorporating its tragedy, horror, absurdity, monotony, and even beauty. The selected individuals are not exceptional; they represent the experience of the average individual: male and female, soldier and non-combatant.
Peter Englund, professor, historian, and writer, was appointed permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in 2008. He was awarded the August Prize in 1993 and the Selma Lagerlöf Literature Prize in 2002. His first collection of essays, Förflutenhetens landskap (1991, The Landscape of the Past) incorporates both "large history" in the form of war, revolution, and battlefields and "small history," focusing on the personal specifics of such entities as time, dirt, and terror.
The combination of the two is a recurring theme in Englund's work. He has also been a reporter for the Swedish newspapers Expressen and Dagens Nyheter, operating in such areas as Croatia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. A specialist in 17th-century history, he has published widely on the twentieth century, including Brev från nollpunkten (1996; Letters from Ground Zero). He has taught the First World War at university level for many years.
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| Author Peter Englund |
Both the content and style of The Beauty and the Sorrow make it read like a novel. The twenty individuals listed at the beginning of the book as "Dramatis Personae" are presented as "characters" with specific wartime occupations. Their ages are also included, and through their eyes we experience a vast panorama of the horrors, hardships and even small pleasures that the war brought to countless individuals in every theater of conflict. Englund was surprised to discover that the diaries of women were particularly useful in identifying feelings. This isn't a question of gender, he maintains, but of circumstance: men were often to be found at the center of dramatic events; time for reflection or emotion was limited.
The Beauty and the Sorrow describes each year of the war in separate sections containing material by the 20 individuals selected. Each section opens with a chronology of the year to give context. The entries are accompanied by copious footnotes explaining references and place names, and provide useful background information. The entries are chosen on the basis of their relevance to the selected days and months of the year. Variety is ensured by the avoidance of two consecutive entries by the same individual. The number of entries is particularly large for the years 1915-1917. This, according to Englund, is due to the fact that the war did not begin until August 1914, and the most important battles and events took place between 1915 and 1917. In the edition to be published in 2014 (of which more shortly), additional material will be added to the section on 1918, most notably on the American involvement in the war.
It's particularly interesting that the content of The Beauty and the Sorrow is amended for each language and country: new individuals are introduced and others excluded to suit the country for which the edition has been translated. Englund has studied more than 1,000 individuals in total; this number is increasing as new editions are produced. Plans are under way to produce a collected edition incorporating all the translations and their various additional characters, and this comprehensive volume is to be published in 2014. All versions of the book include an excellent bibliography and a large selection of high-quality illustrations, including portraits or specific areas of fighting: the Western Front, East Africa, the Eastern Front, the Italian Front, the Balkans and the Dardanelles, and the Middle East. The index, comprising 15 pages, is detailed and informative.
In a telephone conversation I had with the author in 2013, he reflected on his position as a Swede recording the history of a war in which his own country played no active part. The Beauty and the Sorrow is dedicated to Carl Englund, a distant relative of the author. While Peter Englund is currently investigating the war career of this distant relative, he stresses that the latter has had no significant impact on the contents of The Beauty and the Sorrow. With regard to Englund's Swedish nationality, he sees this is an advantage because it gives him a political and personal distance to the subject. World War II is much better known in Sweden and is taught in secondary and high schools as well as at university. Englund hopes that The Beauty and the Sorrow will stimulate Swedish interest in World War I. His book is already an important addition to the human history of the Great War for readers of at least a score of languages.
Jane Mattisson
Thank you for the fascinating information about the author and the background on the book's journey and influence. As a social historian I applaud the methodology used by Englund. How can we truly understand these momentous events without attention paid to the participants?
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