The Penguin Book of First World War Stories

by None

  1. the retreat of the eighty thousand: the British retreat at Mons in 1914.

  2. Sedan: a decisive victory over the French during the Franco-Prussian war, on 1 September 1870, by the German army under General Helmuth von Moltke (1800–91). French forces were vastly outnumbered.

  3. ‘Good-bye, good-bye to Tipperary’: In the autumn of 1914, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ (1912) was a popular song among English soldiers and civilians.

  4. What price Sidney Street?: Sidney Street, in Stepney, east London, was the scene of a showdown between the Metropolitan Police and a group of Eastern European anarchists in January 1911. Cornered after a failed robbery and the shooting of several policemen, two anarchists set fire to the building in which they were hiding and died during their attempt to escape. ‘The Siege of Sidney Street’ or ‘the Battle of Stepney’ was widely reported and even depicted on postcards.

  5. Worldwithout end. Amen:final words of the ‘Song of Mary’ (Luke 1:46–55), sung as the Magnificat during Anglican evensong.

  6. Harow: an Anglo-Norman battle cry.

  7. the contemptible English: reference to a remark attributed to the Kaiser – but probably invented by the War Office – to the effect that the English were ‘a contemptible little army’. The name ‘Old Contemptibles’ was subsequently adopted as a term for the soldiers of the BEF.

  ‘Sapper’ (Herman Cyril McNeile): Private Meyrick – Company Idiot

  Like most of McNeile’s war stories, ‘Private Meyrick – Company Idiot’ was first published in the Daily Mail during the war, and later appeared in his collection Men, Women and Guns (1916).

  1. Expeditionary Force: the BEF.

  2. a contemptible little army: see ‘The Bowmen’, note 7.

  3. Kipling: Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936, see Biographies, p. 395).

  4. Pay Corporal: a non-commissioned officer who, in addition to his usual duties, was in charge of a regiment’s payroll and connected administration.

  5. Musketry returns: the records of the most recent shooting practice.

  6. A Company: military unit, typically 190 to 200 soldiers; see also ‘Victory’, note 1.

  7. Savez: ‘Understand?’

  8. through the charge that won the day: the Charge of the Light Brigade – the British cavalry against Russian forces during the Crimean war in 1854, commemorated in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1855) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892). The small British force attacked on a misinterpreted order and suffered heavy casualties.

  9. If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white: from Rudyard Kipling’s (1865–1936) ‘The Young British Soldier’, published in Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads (1892), which, by 1915, was in its forty-second edition.

  C. E. Montague: A Trade Report Only

  First appeared in Montague’s collection of war stories Fiery Particles (1923). On 28 April 1923, Time magazine judged the volume as ‘not so important’ as Montague’s war recollections in Disenchantment (1922), but praised the author’s ‘humour, irony, [and] sympathy’.

  1. Proserpine’s garden: Proserpine, the Roman goddess of the underworld, was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of fertility. Dividing her time between her husband, Hades, and her mother, Proserpine spends four months of the year in the underworld and the remaining eight above ground with her mother. Her return to the upper world was believed to herald spring.

  2. Mais assez gentil: ‘but pleasant enough’.

  3. Le bon Dieu Boche: ‘the good German God’.

  4. ne faut pas les embêter: ‘you don’t need to annoy them’.

  5. Paisiblement: ‘peacefully’.

  6. dixie-lid: the lid of a cooling pot.

  7. Pas d’inquiêtude: ‘no trouble’.

  Richard Aldington: Victory

  First appeared in the author’s Roads to Glory (1930), and was published a year after his war novel Death of a Hero (1929).

  1. C Company: military unit, typically 190 to 200 soldiers. The British army identifies its rifle companies by letter (usually, but not always, A, B and C).

  2. the Dormouse in Alice: a character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), by Lewis Carroll (1832–98).

  3. bally: euphemism meaning ‘bloody’.

  4. zero hour: the co-ordinated moment of attack when the soldiers had to go over the top.

  5. Siegfried Line: a defensive line of trenches and five forts, established in 1916–17 by the German army as a section of the Hindenburg Line in northern France, and named after characters from the medieval German epic Nibelungenlied.

  6. Rosinante: Don Quixote’s horse.

  7. maffick: from ‘mafeking’, to describe riotous celebrating, such as took place after the relief of Mafeking on 17 May 1900.

  Anne Perry: Heroes

  In 2000 ‘Heroes’ won an Edgar Award, the Mystery Writers of America award for the best short story. It was first published in an anthology of mystery stories, Murder and Obsession (2000), edited by Otto Penzler.

  1. God’s an Englishman: popular nineteenth-century maxim of obscure origin, further popularized by R. F. Delderfield’s God Is An Englishman (1970).

  Mary Borden: Blind

  First appeared in its author’s The Forbidden Zone (1929), a collection of sketches and stories based on her experiences as a nurse on the Western Front.

  1. Casse-croû te: a snack.

  2. Briquet: cigarette-lighter.

  Katherine Mansfield: An Indiscreet Journey

  Published posthumously in Something Childish and other Stories (1924). Katherine Mansfield based the story on her affair with a ‘little corporal’, the French officer and writer Francis Carco (1886–1958).

  1. ma mignonne: ‘sweetheart’.

  2. mignonette: a plant with fragrant green-grey flowers.

  3. ma France adorêe: ‘my beloved France’.

  4. kepi: uniform cap worn by French soldiers.

  5. vous ˆtes tout à fait aimable: ‘You’re very kind’.

  6. toute de suite: ‘Now; immediately’.

  7. juste en face de la gare: ‘directly opposite the railway station’.

  8. Venez vite, vite: ‘Come quickly!’

  9. un espècedesea-gullcouchê survotrechapeau: ‘a kind of sea-gull perched on your hat’.

  10. Non, je ne peux pas manger ça: ‘No, I can’t eat that’.

  11. Matin: Le Matin (1883–1944) was a French newspaper, with a print run of 670,000 in 1914.

  12. Montez vite, vite!: ‘Get in quickly!’.

  13. Ah, je m’en f…: polite abbreviation for ‘Je m’en fou’, meaning ‘I couldn’t care less!’

  14. Prends ça, mon vieux: ‘Take this, old friend’.

  15. Dodo, mon homme, fais vit’ dodo: a lullaby French baby-talk, meaning ‘to fall asleep’.

  16. Premier Rencontre: ‘First Meeting’.

  17. Triomphe D’Amour: ‘The Triumph of Love’.

  18. Il pleure de colère: ‘He’s crying with rage’.

  19. Picon: an alcoholic drink.

  20. Mais vous savez c’est un peu dêgouˆ tant, ça: ‘This is rather disgusting, you know.’

  21. N’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle?: ‘Isn’t that so, Miss?’

  22. bifteks: beefsteaks.

  23. souvenir tendre: ‘a fond memory’.

  24. êpatant: ‘jolly good; terrific’.

  Joseph Conrad: The Tale

  First published in the Strand Magazine in October 1917. The text reprinted here has been taken from The Complete Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad, vol. 2 (1992).

  A. W. Wells: ‘Chanson Triste’

  First published in The English Review in November 1924, and subsequently included in The Best Short Stories of 1925, edited by Edward J. O’Brien.

  1. ‘Chanson Triste’: a short piece for the piano by Peter Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), Opus 40 No. 2.

  2. a common Bulgar soldier: Bulgaria had fought Romania in the Second Balkans War of 1913, and while Serbia, Greece, Romania and Montenegro joined the
Allies, Bulgaria fought alongside Germany in the First World War. Britain and France declared war on Bulgaria in October 1914.

  3. Dorrain: a town on the border between Macedonia and Bulgaria.

  4. Rupert Brooke: English poet (1887–1915), made famous by his War Sonnets (1915) and ‘The Soldier’ in particular. He died of blood poisoning on a hospital ship in the Mediterranean. Brooke became a tragic symbol of Edwardian youth destroyed by the war.

  5. and I shall find some girl, perhaps: the final lines of Brooke’s ‘The Chilterns’ (1916).

  6. Omar Khayyám: twelfth-century Persian poet. He became famous in Victorian England when his Rubáiyát was translated by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883).

  7. Johnny: soldiers’ slang for enemy soldier.

  Arthur Conan Doyle: His Last Bow

  First published in the September 1917 issue of Strand Magazine, subtitled ‘The War Service of Sherlock Holmes’. It also appeared in Collier’s on 22 September 1917 and in a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (1917).

  1. the Kaiser: William II (1859–1941), the last German emperor and a grandson of Queen Victoria.

  2. our good Chancellor: Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (1856– 1921), in office since 14 July 1909. Even before the outbreak of war, Bethmann Hollweg doubted that Germany would win. He opposed unrestricted submarine warfare and was dismissed on 13 July 1917 under pressure from generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff.

  3. four-in-hand: carriage drawn by four horses.

  4. window-breaking furies: the suffragettes of the Women’s Social and Political Union, led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. The WSPU was founded in 1903, and from 1905 embraced acts of violence such as window-breaking or even arson to draw attention to their claim for women’s suffrage.

  5. Rosyth: naval base and dockyard on the south coast of Fife, built between 1909 and 1916.

  6. Carlton House Terrace: location of the German embassy in 1914.

  7. Duke of York’s steps: the steps below the York Column, in London’s Waterloo Place, Westminster.

  8. semaphore: optical telegraph or sign transmission with two flags or paddles, fixed to a series of relay-station towers to cover longer distances.

  9. lamp-code: a means of transmitting information with signal lamps. The flashes can convey even complex information, and were used in the British Royal Navy well into the twentieth century during periods of radio silence.

  10. Marconi: Guglielmo Marchese Marconi (1874–1937) developed the wireless radio-telegraph system, which he had patented in Britain in 1897.

  11. Portland: a prison and naval base on the Devonshire coast, surrounded by artificial breakwaters.

  12. Franz Joseph: Franz Joseph I (1830–1916), Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia since 1848.

  13. Schoenbrunn Palace: residence of the Austrian royal family in Vienna.

  14. Behold the fruit of pensive nights and laborious days: from William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (Act V scene 6).

  15. the constabulary at Skibbereen: the Royal Irish Constabulary, one of Ireland’s two police forces in the early twentieth century.

  W. Somerset Maugham: Giulia Lazzari

  Included in Maugham’s Ashenden, Or, The British Agent (1928), a cycle of short stories based loosely on Maugham’s own experiences as an agent during the war.

  1. cochon: ‘swine’.

  2. Allons, levez-vous: ‘Come on, get up’.

  John Buchan: The Loathly Opposite

  First appeared in Buchan’s The Runagates Club (1928), a collection of stories told by the members of the eponymous and fictitious London dinner club.

  1. Generalstabsoffizier: General Staff Officer in the German army.

  2. Falkenhayn: Erich von Falkenhayn (1861–1922), infantry general and chief of the German General Staff from 1914 to 1916. He was responsible for planning the German Western Offensive of 1915, and advocated total submarine warfare.

  3. a place called Rosensee in the Sächischen Sweitz: Rosensee, a lake in a mountainous region of Saxony (Sächsische Schweiz).

  4. violet rays: ultra-violet rays.

  5. Junkers: a German country squire.

  6. capercailzie: the wood-grouse, a large game bird found in mountainous regions.

  7. Homburg: Bad Homburg; a popular German spa.

  8. Champagne: in the autumn of 1915, the Allies resumed their offensive in Champagne.

  Rudyard Kipling: Mary Postgate

  First appeared in the Century, September 1915, and subsequently published in Kipling’s A Diversity of Creatures (1917).

  1. cassowary: a large flightless bird.

  2. Contrexeville: a spa in Lorraine. The name here refers to the mineral water bottled in the town.

  3. Hentys, Marryats, Levers; Stevensons, Baroness Orczys, Garvices: popular novelists, widely read by the young: George Alfred Henty (1832–1902), Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848), Charles James Lever (1806–1872), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850– 1894), Baroness Emma Orczy (1865–1947) and Charles Garvice (1833–1920).

  4. assegai: spear used in South Africa, and the name of the tree whose timber is used in its manufacture.

  5. Brooklands: motor-racing track and aviation centre in Surrey, built in 1907.

  6. ‘Laty!’: ‘Lady!’

  7. Cassêe. Toute cassêe: ‘Broken, all broken’.

  8. Che me rends. Le mêdicin! Toctor!: ‘I surrender. The doctor! Doctor!’ The pilot speaks French and English with a German accent: ‘che’ = ‘je’, and ‘toctor’ = ‘doctor’.

  9. Ich haben der todt Kinder gesehn: literally, ‘I have seen the dead children’, but Mary Postgate’s German is faulty: ‘Ich habe die toten Kinder gesehen’ is correct.

  Stacy Aumonier: Them Others

  First published in the Century in August 1917, and subsequently appeared in Aumonier’s The Love-A-Duck and Other Stories (1921), and Great Short Stories of the War (1930), ed. H. C. Minchin. In his study Aspects of the Modern Short Story (1924), A. C. Ward claimed that the protagonist of the story, Mrs Ward, was ‘a shining symbol of all bereaved mothers – not of England only, but of all the warring nations, friends and enemies made one in grief’.

  John Galsworthy: Told By the Schoolmaster

  First appeared in Argosy in May 1927, then in Galsworthy’s Forsytes, Pendyces and Others (1933).

  1. Scott’s first Polar book: Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912), the most famous (and tragic) figure of the ‘heroic’ age of Antarctic exploration; he reached the South Pole behind his Norwegian rival, Roald Amundsen (1872–1928). Scott died with four companions while trying to return to base after reaching the Pole. He had published his account of the first National Antarctic Expedition (1901–4)in The Voyage of the Discovery (1905).

  2. its lingering deadlock: from mid-September 1914 onwards, the Allied and German armies were caught up in stalemate on the Western Front. With increasingly deep trench systems on both sides, the cratered and wired no man’s land between them, the front hardly moved until the German spring offensive of March 1918.

  3. ‘Connais-tu le pays?’ from Mignon: the opera Mignon (1866), by Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896), is based on a character from Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–6). The aria referred to here is the French version of Goethe’s poem from the novel, ‘Know you the land where the lemon-trees bloom’.

  4. All the Drang – as the Germans call it: Drang translates literally as ‘urge’; the reference is to the German literary Sturm und Drang movement (i.e. ‘Storm and Stress’).

  D. H. Lawrence: Tickets, Please

  First published in April 1919, in Strand Magazine. During the war women temporarily replaced men in the home economy and public-service sectors. The version of the text reproduced here appeared in Lawrence’s collection England, My England (1922).

  1. Thermopylae: a narrow mountain pass, site of a famous battle in 480 BC in which the ancient Greeks, led by the Spartans, successfull
y held back an army of Persian invaders in a desperate last stand.

  2. Coddy: the nickname is ambiguous, since it implies that Thomas resembles a fish, but may also refer to the abbreviation ‘cod’ for ‘codswallop’ and reflect negatively on his conversation.

  3. The Statutes Fair: a fun-fair.

  4. on the qui-vive: on the look-out.

  5. I’m afraid to, go home in, the dark: an allusion to the song ‘I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark’ (1908), by Egbert van Alstyne and Harry Williams. In it, a husband explains his nightly absences to his newlywed wife by claiming that he has had to stay at the club, not daring to venture out after dark.

  Radclyffe Hall: Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself

  Written in 1926, and taken from the author’s short-story collection of the same title, which first appeared in 1934. It is one of two stories addressing the First World War. The other, ‘Fräulein Schwartz’, relates the story of an elderly German spinster who experiences the war in London lodgings and is bullied into suicide by her hostile fellow lodgers.

  1. Caporals: the American cigarette brand, Sweet Caporals.

  2. Bon Dieu! Mais dêpeˆchez-vous donc!: ‘Good God! Hurry up!’

  3. Jaeger trench-helmets: a close-fitting woollen cap of the balaclava type. Jaeger, the British knitwear company, offered a range of products for the forces during the First World War.