Main content

Le Feu

Dr Heather Jones reflects on Henri Barbusse's novel Le Feu, the work of a French soldier at the front in World War I and the first explicit account of conditions there.

How great artists and thinkers responded to the First World War in individual work.

6. Dr Heather Jones of the LSE reflects on Henri Barbusse's novel Le Feu.

Completed in 1916 and the work of a French soldier at the front, Le Feu was the first explicit account of conditions there. It proved a revelation to a French public sold a sentimental line by the press of the time. Yet Le Feu, with its deep insights into the emotions of men at war, was not seen as damaging to home-front morale. Here was a new kind of writing in which rural dialects and working- class accents conveyed heroism, and could be literary, even transcendent.

Producer: Ben Warren.

Available now

15 minutes

Broadcast

  • Mon 30 Jun 2014 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast