Simon Paulin, a contented clerk in a provincial factory town, admires his own neat mustache, courts Marie and accepts the world as his employers and priests describe it. The war of 1914 sweeps him into the ranks, and amid mud and slaughter he begins to see the old order and its patriotism with new and furious clarity.
A companion in spirit to Under Fire, the passionate anti-war novel that gave its name to Barbusse’s Clarté movement. Download the free EPUB.