Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

It's a good idea to read the introduction to the book first.Prior to reading it I hadn't realized it was a novel not "straight" autobiography.Paul Fussell explains that Sassoon's life was in some substantial ways different from what is depicted here.He didn't grow up with a maiden aunt and his environment was more intellectual and cultural than he lets on.This is clearly deliberate.Sassoon obviously wanted to create an alter ego who was quite a bit more naive and bumpkinish than he ever was; I suspect to highlight the changes ,in him and in his country wrought, by war.One thing that will probably hit most readers is , this is a strange book about a very strange man.It really hit me when the book begins to depict its lead character and narrator at around 24 years of age.George Sherston is a university drop out without a job who has no intention of working or going back to Cambridge.Sure he can get away with this because he has an income and his aunt, who he still lives with, covers his expenses anyway.Still, while well off, he's not really rich.Most people in his position are expected to do something.George plays golf by himself and plays in the occasional cricket match.Finally he takes up fox hunting on a serious basis, which of course is expensive.That is his main activity until the War breaks out and he enlists.The book ends with him at the front in France.This is a languid book about a fundamentally lonely , disconnected man who has no real focus.The material on fox hunting is actually rather interesting.Sassoon eschews the didactic but the book is far from empty of thought.He has genuine affection for what he depicts and sufficient awareness to know he and it are a bit ridiculous.But for him , before the war, that's how it was.

In the list of books about World War I, this is a good one. It's slightly fictionalized , but corresponds to Sassoon's real life. His Memoirs of an Infantry Officer is a continuation. There is a third volume, but I haven't read that one. Sassoon's friendship with Robert Graves author of Good-bye to All That ( 5 stars) is of great interest. Other key memoirs about WW I are Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger (5 stars) , Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden (4 stars) (also a friend of Sassoon), Under Fire by Henri Barbusse, badly translated but worth it--in French the title is simply Feu, and it's better to read it in French until a better translation comes along. I'd also include A German Deserter's War Experiences, anonymous. It's available still. I bought n early edition from Lowdermilks' Used Bookstore when I was 11 or 12.There are more on my list, but that's a good start for considering WW I on its centennial.

Siegfried Sassoon was a lieutenant in the Great War and came from a modestly privileged family background. This trilogy is a thinly disguised autobiography leading up to and into the War and then thereafter. Sassoon was a fox-hunter and a poet and a lieutenant. After being in the War he became stridently anti-war but was not prosecuted for his writings. He was instead, sent to a mental hospital. He lived long but his WW I materials are considered his best work. I enjoyed this book as a semi-history of a young lieutenant over his head in a great enterprise. I am looking forward to the second book in the trilogy. I recently bought a Kindle and Amazon has a couple of books of Sassoon poems available for $0.00. The price was right, so I ordered them and they came in as promised. This book is more expensive.

It is beautifully written. Sassoon is a first-rate poet. But I missed more interpersonal relationships. It is a memoir that is largely consumed by the author's thoughts on his own life and predicaments. Also, the book is touted to be the memoirs of George Sherston. This allows Sassoon to make things up. One constantly wonders whether what one is reading really happened to Sassoon. He was a war hero; he was wounded; he did love fox hunting. But how much is true. If the reader is interested most of all in first rate rhetoric, this is a good read.

I enjoyed the hunting parts, but the main character was annoying at times. He had a privileged life, but was not very appreciative to his aunt or those that supported him. Frequently he obsesses about not being an experienced enough huntsman. It would have been more interesting if he described the hunts in more detail so we could know what it was like back then.

One needs to read this first book in Sassoon's trilogy in order to appreciate his second and third volumes, which are both outstanding. But the combination of his dry British perspective along with lots of time playing cricket and galloping over hill and dale chasing foxes left me cold and bored. But wait until you get to the rest of the trilogy!

This is a wonderful descriptive look at English upper class life before the WW1, he writes evocatively and with passion for a time gone by never to return after the horrors of trench warfare. This is part one of the trilogy which leads to the beginning of the war and the beginnings of his dissolving patriotism and anger against the architects of war. Its not a gung ho war story its a compassionate look at the human side of war from the perspective of the actual combatants.

A very absorbing and elegantly written memoir about a time long vanished. Sassoon has a wonderful gift for description and a quite sophisticated insight into his own emotions and motivations. The lengthening shadow falling across his idyllic bucolic life is subtly added, but it's always there. A sensitive and aware author, this book left me hungry for parts two and three.

Came with a protective box slip and was in excellent condition - very pleased with this

Having owned a copy of this for years, it made a great gift. The book was used but in good order and arrived well within the time scale proposed.

Good stuffr

Good quality, lovely book.

Condition better