France at War: On the Frontier of CivilizationDuring World War I, acclaimed author Rudyard Kipling visited the Western Front as a reporter and wrote about his experiences in France at War. These thoughtful pieces are ideal for history buffs and all the more compelling because Kipling's only son, John, was killed in the war at the Battle of Loos. |
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adorable coun aeroplanes Alan army artillery asked battalion battery bayonets Beast big guns big shell billets blue Boche BOMBARDED broke burst cars cathedral cellar cellar door chalets climbed Colonel Crown Prince demon-driver dinner drive dug-outs earth edge English fight forest French French officers front FRONTIER OF CIVILIZATION Furious in luxury Gaul goes ground gunner half heart hieroglyphic hills hillside horse iron Janny jibbed knew laughed looked Maréchal des Logis ment miles mist misty monsieur Mussoorie NEVER SLEEPS other's Paris pile pines plain plume realize rememberest thou Rheims rifle road rubbish RUDYARD KIPLING seemed shell holes shot side silence smashed smoke soldiers soul sound spoke stone stood streets Switzerland talion talk tea-garden things timber town trees trench-sweepers villages voices watched woman women woods word of command wounded wrecked young
Popular passages
Page 3 - Broke to every known mischance, lifted over all By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul; Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, Terrible with strength renewed from a tireless soil; Strictest judge of her own worth...
Page 3 - Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil; Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of man's mind, First to follow Truth and last to leave old Truths behind— France, beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind!
Page 45 - Our national psychology has changed. I do not recognize it myself." "What made the change?" "The Boche. If he had been quiet for another twenty years the world must have been his — rotten, but all his. Now he is saving the world." "How?" "Because he has shown us what Evil is. We — you and I, England and the rest — had begun to doubt the existence of Evil. The Boche is saving us.
Page 8 - FRANCE 1913 to every known mischance, lifted over all By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of the Gaul; Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, Terrible with strength that draws from her tireless soil...
Page 52 - Remember, we knew the Boche in '70 when you did not. We know what he has done in the last year. This is not war. It is against wild beasts that we fight. There is no arrangement possible with wild beasts.
Page 45 - ... resolve that not until Germany as a nation has confessed and lamented her own wickedness, can the world be made safe for decency, or God rest satisfied with the result. Evil, in other words, must be hated for what it is. During the early days of the war, a French officer said to Rudyard Kipling : " 'Our national psychology has changed. I do not recognize it myself.
Page 128 - It is a people possessed of the precedent and tradition of war for existence, accustomed to hard living and hard labour, sanely economical by temperament, logical by training, and illumined and transfigured by their resolve and endurance.
Page 94 - They were the breed which, at the word of command, had stolen out to drown women and children; had raped women in the streets at the word of command; and, always at the word of command, had sprayed petrol, or squirted flame; or voided their excrements on the property and persons of their captives. They stood there outside all humanity. Yet they were made in the likeness of humanity. One realised it with a shock when the bandaged creature began to shiver, and they shuffled off in response to the orders...
Page 60 - He was a kindly man, and in speaking English had discovered (as I do when speaking French) that it is simpler to stick to one gender. His choice was the feminine, and the Boche described as "she" throughout made me think better of myself, which is the essence of friendship.
Page 29 - ... and the tattered window-curtains fluttered as proudly as any flag. And time was when I used to denounce young France because it tried to kill itself beneath my...