The Crusaders
by Stefan Heym
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Description
This moving, suspense-filled story about men at war, and after wear, is a historical novel with all the drama and the verity of the best of its kind. Bu tin one major respect it differs from other stories which vividly re-create exciting and meaningful events in the past: the difference is that we, of today, made the history of which this story grew.We know there were men in the American Army like Sergeant Dondolo and Major Willoughby, for whom World War II was chiefly a once-in-a-lifetime show more chance to feather their own nests in characteristic though quite dissimilar fashions. There were also unimaginative, methodical good eggs like Corporal Ambramovici, tired, honest, and frustrated officers like Colonel DeWitt, and flamboyant brass like General Farrish. And any one of us might have been Lieutenant David Yates, torn between his loyalty to his wife at home and his passion for a French girl, trying to determine, in the welter of conflict, whether he was involved in a Crusade or a Conquest. We might not know so well Sergeant Bing, fighting against his former countrymen, for whom the war was surely a personal crusade. Men, and often women, are the theme of this novel. The story lies in the development of people, especially of Bing and Yates, under the intensified emotions of war. Some of the people are connected with a Propaganda Intelligence Unit, some with an Armored Division; others are civilians on our side and on the enemy's. show lessTags
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Na de landing in Normandië trekt het Amerikaanse leger op naar Parijs en vandaar in de richting van Duitsland. De idealen van veel personages in het boek maken langzamerhand plaats voor desillusie: na de oorlog zal iedereen weer net zo goed zijn eigen voordeel najagen. Een enkele keer lukt het een plaats iets beter achter te laten dan die tijdens de oorlog was, maar het Amerikaanse leger is niet voorbereid op het verzorgen en/of huisvesten van alle displaced persons en zo, dus als het een keer lukt, is dat een uitzondering.
Aug 11, 2020Dutch
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Author Information
Stefan Heym is representative of many intellectuals in the former East Germany who found themselves torn between loyalty to the ideals of their state and disdain for the reality. He was born into a secular Jewish family in Chemnitz. As a young man, he went to the United States to escape Hitler, where he worked for a while as a journalist. In 1943 show more he joined the American army. His first novel, The Crusaders (1948), became a best-seller. It was loosely based on his wartime experiences and filled with contempt not only for the Nazi government, but for virtually all of German culture. Distressed by the rise of McCarthyism in the United States and by Western tolerance of former Nazi officials, Heym emigrated to East Germany in 1953 and gave his enthusiastic support to the Socialist aspirations of his new homeland. His disillusionment with East Germany was far more gradual and, by his own account, more difficult than that experienced in the United States. In 1976 Heym protested the forced emigration of singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann from the German Democratic Republic. Two years later he was fined and expelled from the East German Writers' Union for accepting royalties for work published abroad. Though Heym continued to believe that the GDR was the "better-half" of Germany, disillusion with the reality of socialism moved him to turn to his Jewish heritage for inspiration in novels such as The King David Report (1972) and The Wandering Jew (1984). In 1992 he became a founding member of the "Committee for Justice," a lobby representing the interests of former East Germans in a newly united Germany. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Crusaders
- Original title
- The Crusaders: A Novel of Only Yesterday
- Alternate titles*
- Kreuzfahrer von heute; Der bittere Lorbeer
- Original publication date
- 1948
- Important events
- D-Day (1944-06-06); Operation Overlord (1944-06-06 | 1944-08-30); World War II (1939 | 1945)
- Dedication*
- Für Gertrude
- First words*
- Das Gras, dieses saftige, weiche, üppige Gras! Es tut gut, darin zu liegen und sich lang auszustrecken, so daß es über einem zusammenschlägt.
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Die Feier schien beendet zu sein. Der General trat aus dem Herrenhaus. Er warf einen Blick auf DeWitt und Yates, die auf ihrer Bank saßen. Sein Mund zog sich ärgerlich zusammen. Aber er sagte nichts.
- Original language*
- Englisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 833.914 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures German fiction 1900- 1900-1990 1945-1990
- LCC
- PT2617 .E948 .C715 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures German literature Individual authors or works 1860/70-1960
Statistics
- Members
- 75
- Popularity
- 420,470
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.30)
- Languages
- 8 — Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 11
