Another World: 1897 to 1917 by Anthony Eden

By the time I finished reading this book, I had begun to think that the word 'Elegy' ought to have appeared somewhere in the title. I doubt that more than five pages pass at any time without him marking the death of another person -- and far too many of them in World War I where he lost brothers, cousins, uncles and friends. Even the opening -- where he is returning to the home he knew as a child -- is a moment of loss as we see the huge, old building going to ruin.

That makes this a melancholy book to read, and yet there is something about Anthon Eden (Lord of Avon) and his acceptance of all that happened, that makes this less painful than it otherwise would have been. Even his description of living in the trenches during World War I, while informative seemed distant. And yet it as a moving book -- powerful perhaps, in its lack of sentimentality and its straight-forward approach to horrific and horrible events.

From his father's obsession with modern art to his days in the trenches in Somme, a reader can see, piece by piece as the old world slips away. His closing lines, perhaps, best explain the changes:

"...I emerged tempered by my experience and bereft of many friends, but with my illusions intact, neither shattered nor cynical, to face a changed world."

This short, well-written book is an excellent glimpse into the world of British aristocracy at the turn of the century. It's filled with insights about the links that stretched across the Europe, and about how badly many of them miscalculated the situation with Germany. From a protected childhood to days in the trenches at the battle of Somme, this narrative does carry the reader easily through a passage when the world did, indeed, change. ( )