The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme - Hardcover

Stamp, Gavin

4.23

30 ratings by Goodreads

9781861978110: The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1861978111 ISBN 13: 9781861978110

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd, 2006

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This study by an architectural historian tells the story of the building of the Somme Memorial in the context of the history of commemorating war dead and the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission; it considers the intellectually complex and breathtaking form of this truly original development of the Roman triumphal arch in relation both to Lutyens's own work and the history of memorial architecture, as well as exploring its wider historical significance and its resonances today. More and more it is clear that so much of the meaning of the twentieth century, its ruthlessness and brutality, is concentrated here. At Thiepval terrible events eventually gave rise to a very great work of architecture whose language, at once modern and traditional, retains the power to move and astonish.

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About the Author:

Gavin Stamp was made an honorary professor by the University of Glasgow.

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 *

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