Novel
Wooden Crosses
Les Croix de bois
Roland Dorgelès · 1919
Synopsis
Gilbert Demachy, a law student, enlists and joins an infantry squad at the front. His new comrades are for the most part peasants and men of modest trades, with simple concerns. The book follows their existence from the trench to the billets, what they say and what they endure, in the face of an industrial war whose meaning escapes them.
Context
Begun during the war, the novel was published by Albin Michel in 1919. For the Prix Goncourt, it obtained four votes against six for Proust's book, a choice that caused a scandal, the veteran having been the favourite; the publisher then had the copies wrapped with a band reading “Prix Goncourt, 4 voix sur 10”. The jury of La Vie heureuse, forerunner of the Prix Femina, honoured the book the same year.
Who it is for
Short chapters, in a spoken language without emphasis; the humour of the troops sits alongside the horror of the fighting.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English in the early 1920s under the title Wooden Crosses, the novel was adapted for the screen by Raymond Bernard in 1932.
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