The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (Wonders of the World) - Softcover

Stamp, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861978960 ISBN 13: 9781861978967

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing is the principal, tangible expression of Britain’s defining experience in the Great War—the first day of the Battle of the Somme. It bears the names of 73,000 soldiers whose bodies were never found at the end of that bloody and futile campaign. Visited by tens of thousands of tourists, it holds notable elements of the 20th century while casting a shadow into the future, extending beyond the dead of the Holocaust to the "disappeared" of South America and Tianenmen. A brilliant study to arguably the finest structure erected by any British architect in the 20th century, the origin of this marvel is revealed here in the context of commemorating the fallen, considering its historical significance, and touching on its resonances today.

About this title

About the Author:

Gavin Stamp is a well known architectural historian, writer, and broadcaster. He has taught at Glasgow School of Art and held a research post at Cambridge. He lives in London.

Review:

[a] moving and eloquent book... * Literary Review * as a piece of architectural analysis it is impressive * The Spectator * Stamp has provided an invaluable, detailed and illuminating study... * Guardian * the value of Stamp's book lies in its eloquent account of the genius of the vision of Edward Lutyens...who created in the Monument to the Missing at Thiepval the central metaphor of a generation's experience of appalling loss. * Observer * This book is a gem...an eloquent, moving lament for the futile waste and industrialised killing of the First World War, and indeed of the 20th Century - an elegy which resonates powerfully today. * Sunday Telegraph * Much, much more than architectural history, for here, encapsulated in marmoreally angry prose, is an account of that collective act of mass murder, without parallel in history, known as the Great War. An unforgettable, passionate book. -- A.N. Wilson * Evening Standard * Perfectly formed and beautifully written, this book is a minor masterpiece, a paragon of its genre. It will move all but the hardest heart to tears at the folly, and the glory, that is man. -- Ross Leckie * The Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1861978960
• ISBN 13: 9781861978967
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 214