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The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (Penguin History)
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List Price: £12.99
algeria.mktgs.co.uk Price: £9.09
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.4272
EAN: 9780140170412
ISBN: 0140170413
Label: Penguin
Manufacturer: Penguin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 388
Publication Date: 2007-06-28
Publisher: Penguin
Studio: Penguin
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Oddly incomplete
Comment: This is the middle volume of Alastair Horne's trilogy on Franco-German conflicts (the other two cover the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Blitzkrieg offensive in 1940). I read all three some years ago and have been reminded of them again.
In what is generally a well-researched book, I have never fathomed the omission of the facts that Joffre wanted to pull back from Verdun, which he saw as a rather useless salient in the French line, but Prime Minister Briand, afraid of the political consequences, ordered Joffre to hold or be sacked. So Joffre did - and fell into Falkenhayn's trap.
Mr. Horne has some fascinating details - he even managed to find the German officer who took almost by accident Fort Douaumont (which had been left almost unguarded, a mistake for which the French were to pay a heavy price).
As other reviewers have pointed out, the book shows its age in some ways, but nevertheless it would appear to remain the best history of the battle in English, and a revision should remove many of the minor flaws.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic account on one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
Comment: I bought this realising I knew next to nothing about the French experience in WW1 - Verdun being reduced to `Falkenhayn's mincing machine' in a poorly remembered history lesson from my fourth year at school.
Alistair Horne's account is the undisputed classic retelling of the battle of Verdun in English and like all good narrative history books, manages to transport the reader to the time and place, with writing that is at times lyrical.
The events are horrific and as part of a trilogy on French military history (that takes in `La Debacle' - the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and the Fall of France in 1940) a strand runs through all three. And this account points out that the humiliating defeat in 1870-71 was to play an enormous part in French strategy with bloody and disastrous consequences. In the same way, the experience of Verdun was to inform the French staff in a different way and convince them that the Maginot Line was the best form of defence in WW2.
But with the broad strokes in place, it is the detailed brushwork that fascinates and impresses. Horne captures the lives of the poilu and the landser with real skill. The absolute slaughter of the battle is beyond comprehension, but Horne picks out the phases of the battle with great skill, using first hand accounts from both sides. The terror of the defence of Fort Vaux, the cock-up with the loss of Fort Douaumont, the defence of the Line of Panic, La Voie Sacree, Le Mort Homme, the Trench of Bayonets were all unfamiliar places and episodes to me, but Horne's account places you there. A truly sobering read.
This is a quite brilliant history, now some 40 years' old, but stands the test of time and I imagine has yet to be surpassed.
Indispensable reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Comment: This book is excellent - if you are interested in Verdun and the Great War generally, this is just the sort of book needed for any aspect of it. A real shame Mr Horne didn't cover the whole conflict in a similar format.
It's a must for any visitor to the battlefields, not least as it will get your interest going nicely.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outdated
Comment: This is a very nice book to read, but it is outdated. A number of important studies has been published since Alistair Horne published hes book. There is a relatively new and good biography of General Erich von Falkenhayn, "Falkenhayn. Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich" by Holger Afflerbach. In English there is Robert A. Doughty's excellent "Pyrrhic Victory - French Stratetgy and Operations in the Great War". I is not a dishonor for a historian, if newer books makes his or her text a little obsolete. The only flaw of Horne is to make Falkenhayn to look a bit silly. Falkenhayn is not a man who can't be whitewashed, but he wasn't as foolish as Horne claims. An immoral and cynic General, yes, but not a fool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My very first Great War book
Comment: That is, I got it from the library many years ago, translated into Danish. Back when WW1 was not that long ago and the old people could tell me how it was.
And the impression it made on me has been with me ever since. Mud, blood, gas, terror, futility, hopelessness.
It is one of those books that shake the very foundations of existence. Then you discover other books on WW1, and WW2, and you become just a little bit jaded.
But I always remembered this book and finally got around to see if Amazon had it. It still is terrible.
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