![]() ![]() ![]() Ellwood is partly inspired by Siegfried Sassoon, for instance, while the ghosts of the young men Vera Brittain lost never feel far away. In Memoriam acknowledges some of the period’s best-known sources. As Ellwood himself soon realises, his “useless, incomprehensible eloquence” has no place there. Ellwood soon follows, his arrival in the trenches sparking rage in his horrified friend. ![]() ![]() Both have more to hide besides their latent sexuality, and as anti-German feelings rise, Gaunt, who has just turned 18, is compelled by his Prussian aristocrat mother to enlist. Opposing it is Henry Gaunt, a tall fellow, awkward even by the standards of his peers (he can barely communicate with his twin sister), who has boxed his way to respect among his classmates but is tortured by intense, forbidden feelings for his best friend, Sidney Ellwood.Ĭharming, glamorous, Tennyson-quoting Ellwood feels the same way about Gaunt, though their banter prevents them from confessing their “abnormalities” to each other. Throughout, Winn inserts extracts from the school newspaper, the Preshutian, which is how we learn that the debating society has been discussing the motion “In the opinion of the House, war is a necessary evil”. ![]()
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