Transcriber's note: Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
THE LAST DAYS OF
FORT VAUX
THE LAST DAYS OF
FORT VAUX
MARCH 9–JUNE 7, 1916
BY
HENRY BORDEAUX
AUTHOR OF ‘LA CROISÉE DES CHEMINS,’
‘LES ROQUEVILLARD,’ ETC.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL V. COHN, B.A.
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, Ltd.
London, Edinburgh, and New York
AUX
SOLDATS
DE
VERDUN
The Author of “The Last Days of Fort Vaux,” M. Henry Bordeaux,is a native of Savoy who has distinguished himself in more than onedepartment of letters before performing his duty manfully in the field, andthen as official historian of the Great War. Apart from his reputation inFrance, M. Bordeaux has probably more readers in this country than anyother French novelist of the day. Born in 1870 at Thonon-les-Bains, inHaute-Savoie, he began his career, like so many literary men, by readinglaw at Paris. He was called to the bar, and duly performed his militaryservice. Then he attracted attention by a series of admirable critical essays,speedily republished in a book, and by an historical romance. He did not,however, forsake law altogether on this first success; but, after the deathof his father in 1896, took his place for four years as a practising barristerin his native town, where he also held various municipal posts. Then hecould no longer resist the call of art, and from the publication of his novel,Le Pays Natal, in 1900 to the outbreak of war, he has divided his life betweenParis and Savoy, devoting himself entirely to writing. Besides novels suchas La Peur de vivre, Les Roquevillard, La Robe de laine, La Neige sur les pas,which bid fair to attain classic rank, M. Bordeaux has worked as a dramaticcritic and one of the most sensitive and discerning judges of literature inthe leading French reviews.
M. Bordeaux is one of those who keep evergreen by a life of physicalas well as mental activity. He is a cyclist and a motorist; one of hisfavourite sports is fencing; and he is a devotee of that special recreationof the intellectual, Alpine climbing.
Being an impassioned lover of his own beautiful country of Savoy, heis one of the many modern novelists who have identified themselves witha particular region, and invested their books with local colour. At thesame time he is a brilliant chronicler of Parisian life. Above all, M. Bordeauxbelongs to the school of writers who have raised the tone of Frenchfiction, and freed it from the old reproach of cynicism, frivolity, and immorality.A keen analyst of the modern spirit, he represents all the sterlingqualities that have placed France in the front rank among civilizednations. Says one of his countrymen, “Henry Bordeaux has the soul of apoet, a thinker, and a soldier, a soul ardently in love with beautiful rhythmsand with noble efforts, a soul firm as a rock and luxuriant as the valleysof its birthplace.” His writings are of peculiar interest at the presentmoment, when France, in her glorious struggle against a brutal invader,is showing the world how sorely her enemies, and even some of her friends,had misjudged her, when they thought she was a prey to decadence. Hetypifies the reaction from the morbid introspection and ferocious egotismthat have marred the work of so ma