Publications
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1929 (339 pp., New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co.) View Online
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1937 (280 pp., Harmondsworth: Penguin) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1965 (reprint of the original publication in 1929, 255 pp., London: Collins, ISBN-10: 0002118491 & ISBN-13: 9780002118491) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:In what is one of the finest autobiographies to come out of the First World War, the distinguished poet Edmund Blunden records his experiences as an infantry subaltern in France and Flanders. Blunden took part in the disastrous battles of the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele, describing the latter as 'murder, not only to the troops, but to their singing faiths and hopes'. In his compassionate yet unsentimental prose, he tells of the heroism and despair found among the officers. Blunden's poems show how he found hope in the natural landscape; the only thing that survives the terrible betrayal enacted in the Flanders fields.