The General

The General has achieved a recent notoriety as the book White House Chief of Staff (for now) General John Kelley reads after every promotion. And since I'm a long-time fan of Forester's Horatio Hornblower books, I decided to check it out. What we have is a lean, ironic, and acerbic picture of an exemplar of British military leadership during the First World War. Our protagonist, Curzon, is a cavalry officer of the old school: Red-faced, energetic, stiffly honorable, utterly unimaginative. Sent into line at the Battle of Mons, Major Curzon distinguishes himself through unyielding defense and is promoted to Major-General. He marries a duke's daughter, trains a new division of Kitchener's Army, and is promoted to Corps level. At Ypres, at show more the Somme, at Arras, he proceeds in the best tradition of the British Army, sending thousands of Tommies to their deaths in the trenches in futile attacks. Curzon is untroubled by the slaughter, by innovations like gas and tanks, unable to see victory beyond brutal attrition. He participates in intrigues at G.H.Q. and the dining table, until at the end of the war, his lines broken by new German stormtrooper tactics, he rides out to meet his fate, and loses a leg to a random shell. Death before comprehension, for this general.

The kindle edition has a solid introduction by Max Hasting, placing it in historiographic context of interpreting the first World War, the popularity of generals like Haig at the time, and their subsequent erasure as donkeys and butchers. Two passages, the description of Curzon in the beginning, and the metaphor of the general staff trying to win offensives like someone who had never seen a screw before try and remove one by pulling, are legendary. The book as a whole is a strong contribution to military literature, and a fascinating character study of a vanished breed. show less

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Of course I was favourably disposed to it from the outset because it was recommended to me by a co-worker who has often given me good recommendations, but I was certainly not expecting to love the dry-witted narration so much. The only reason it took me so long to read was that I had to keep stopping to write down amusing quotes, such as:

"A complete record in detail of those twelve years would need twelve years in the telling to do it justice, so as to make it perfectly plain that nothing whatever happened during those twelve years."

and:

"Men who stopped to think about their chances of being killed were a nuisance to their superior officers."

and this dialogue, which made me actually laugh show more out loud:

"Two men to carry up each gas cylinder? We've only been using one for the empty ones."
"Yes, sir. These are full and they're heavier in consequence."
"Nonsense. Everyone knows that gas makes things lighter. They put it in balloons and things."
"That's coal gas, sir. This is chlorine, and heavily compressed."

As to what this novel is actually about, it chronicles the career of one Herbert Curzon as he rises through the ranks during the Boer War and the first few years of the First World War. It's an excellent portrayal of the typical commander during the Great War, the ones who were not necessarily bad men per se but sincerely believed they were doing their duty and that there was no need to change their strategy -- just send in more young men to die (needlessly) at Ypres, the Somme and Passchendaele. Forester really puts us in Curzon's boots and we can see how easy it was for Curzon to believe that what he was doing was right.

My only criticism of this book is that the ending was rather too abrupt for my liking. It did come full circle, which was nice, but I just felt like there should have been a few more pages. As I was coming to the end, I thought "Jeez, we're running out of book." But the rest of it was very good, and I would definitely recommend it to WW1 history enthusiasts in particular. show less

Outstanding writing combined with Forester's deep empathy for the kind of man portrayed make this a gem of a book.

Excellent insight into the psyche of a general during WW1
Forester aptly captures and characterizes the mentality and hubris required to be seen as a successful senior officer during the chaos and casualties of “The War to End All Wars..

A novel that apparently fully describes the mind of the unimaginative army officer. Read in staff colleges as a warning. But he's a good officer, just hopelessly beyond his ability in the latter stages of his career. There's a bit of dead-pan humour, and sympathy with the central character, who gets on with his life, as he sees it. This book is useful to contrast with Hornblower's mental framework, and with that of Bush.

Outstanding book, makes me want to frog-march Haig out and shoot him. But then, such feelings were common at the time.