Under Fire

Henri Barbusse takes us to the very heart of the trenches, revealing the reality of soldiers’ lives—trapped by a patriotic ideal that does not represent them and by a daily horror made up of their own blood and sacrifice. Under Fire is a brutal and ensemble novel, born from the author’s firsthand experience in the trenches. Though opposed to war and already in his forties, he enlisted as a volunteer in 1914. Barbusse, a communist intellectual, becomes the voice of an anti-militarist vision, denouncing the atrocities and the loss of humanity that characterize every conflict. His is an impartial yet raw realism that caused a sensation in France at the time: the book was published while the war was still raging and immediately became the manifesto of all European anti-war movements. In the dialogues of this teeming mass of soldiers—who are workers, peasants, small artisans, all victims of political and economic powers stronger than themselves—a real lexicon emerges, far removed from literary idealization. The soldiers speak like soldiers because their words resemble their flesh, their blood, their horrible exposed wounds, their rotting entrails. Thus Barbusse manages to capture the essence of humanity, revealing the fragility and solidarity that flourish even in moments of despair. Under Fire remains a call not to forget and to fight for a future of peace and solidarity.