Standard Ebooks

Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man

Siegfried Sassoon

Description

By the 1920s, Siegfried Sassoon had built a reputation as a poet and man of letters, though he had not yet published prose. It wasn’t until the end of the decade that he finally made the attempt with Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, the first volume of his fictionalized autobiography—and he was so nervous about the prospect of publishing prose that he published it anonymously.

George Sherston, the semi-autobiographical stand-in for Sassoon, is a young boy growing up in the English countryside under the gentle care of his aunt Evelyn. His youth is idyllic, and he spends many afternoons lazing in the verdant hedges and warm sunlight of Aunt Evelyn’s country home. But he soon becomes enamored with horses, racing, and hunting, and quickly finds himself a decidedly middle-class youth embedded in an aristocratic pastime.

The first half of the novel is presented as a series of cozy and often comical vignettes. But as Europe teeters at the brink of the Great War, and then finally enters it, the novel’s tone shifts from nostalgic reminiscence to the stark brutality of one of the world’s bloodiest conflicts. George’s—and thus Sassoon’s—very English way of life was now changed forever.

Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man became an instant bestseller and sealed Sassoon’s growing reputation as one of England’s most important literary men of the war generation. It received several awards and was followed up by two sequels which completed Sassoon’s “autobiography.”

Read free

This ebook is thought to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. It may still be under copyright in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws to verify that this ebook is free of copyright restrictions in the country you’re located in before accessing, downloading, or using it.

Download for ereaders

Read online

A brief history of this ebook

  1. Finish metadata and initial publication

  2. Adjust semantics

  3. [Editorial] 'home-service' -> Home Service

  4. [Editorial] 'nineties -> nineties

  5. [Editorial] Lowercase some words

More details

Sources

Transcriptions

Page scans

Improve this ebook

Anyone can contribute to make a Standard Ebook better for everyone!

To report typos, typography errors, or other corrections, see how to report errors.

If you’re comfortable with technology and want to contribute directly, check out this ebook’s GitHub repository and our contributors section.

You can also donate to Standard Ebooks to help fund continuing improvement of this and other ebooks.