A squad of French poilus — farmhands, a barman, a messenger, a cyclist — waits, digs, eats, quarrels and attacks along the Western Front. Barbusse, who served in the line himself, records their slang, their mud and their grim humour in short episodes that build toward a vision of what the war has made of ordinary men.
Awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1916, it was among the first novels to show the Great War without heroic varnish. Download the free EPUB.