One Moldavian Summer

This Romanian novel, published in 1924, is apparently a national favourite, with the introduction to this English translation claiming that “almost any Romanian can tell you about the three principal heroes of the story, Dănuţ, Olguţa and Monica”. This novel was the first of a coming-of-age trilogy, called La Medeleni, set in the early 20th century in Moldavia (the northeastern region of present-day Romania). The trilogy “follows his heroes through the innocence of childhood to adulthood as they experience the tragic years of the First World War” in which more than half a million Romanians died.

The author, Ionel Teodoreanu (born 6 January 1897), came from Iaşi, the main city of Moldavia, and belonged to a family of lawyers and intellectuals. Whereas the author was conscripted in 1917 and joined a unit at Botoșani, he was never sent to the front. A brother, Laurențiu, was killed serving as a pilot on the Western Front.

Probably the most poignant scene of the novel comes when it is decided that 11-year-old Dănuţ should be sent away to boarding school. Before the final decision has been made, Dănuţ hurts himself playing football and reflecting on his injury recalls a verse of poetry learnt at school:

“Wounded in the war, the soldier had fallen
And before long his days of torment ended.
Far from the mother that had brought him up
and who had loved him.”

His uncle, who had proposed that he be sent away to school, reminds Dănuţ's mother:
“...it won't be so long until the time comes for military service. Whether you like it or not, they'll take him from you... For you — and especially for him — it is preferable for the separation to be tearless, manly.”

Dănuţ reflects on his departure by revisiting Robinson Crusoe for a last time before consigning the book to the attic:
“Bidding farewell to the island, I took with me the cap, the sunshade and the parrot, nor did I forget the money I have spoken about, which having been hidden for so long, had got rusty.”
The author describes Dănuţ's preparation for departure:
“Danut’s heart was an island Robinson had left, taking with him only his cap, his sunshade and his parrot... The first grade... the second... the third... the fourth... the fifth... the sixth... the seventh... the eighth... and more grades after that... Dănuţ alone facing an ocean of school desks. In the attic there was only what had once been... In the attic was Robinson Crusoe's island. Beyond the attic were the school desks.”

Two Masters

This novella, written in 1923 and first published in 1924, is set among the Australian forces in Egypt and France during the First World War. The narrator, Carter, first encounters the central character, Sergeant Ralston, at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt at the beginning of 1916 soon after the withdrawal from Gallipoli. Carter’s first impressions of Ralston are of “an unsoldierly appearance”:
“His face was small and the features sensitive and delicate... His whole expression suggested something fragile and feminine that sorted ill with adventure and the alarms of war.”
He sees him as a man of cultural refinement rather than of military bravado. In France, however, Carter for the first time observed Ralston in combat:
“I was prepared to excuse him, in circumstances which must in their nature unman him. I say I was amazed at his conduct. His courage was of a character which marked it as unique. Everywhere he was serene and imperturbable and in an extremity he was the rallying-point for us all.”

Arthur Wheen (born 9 February 1897) enlisted in the Australian Army in October 1915 and embarked for Egypt in December. Like Carter, the narrator, Wheen arrived at Tel-el-Kebir in early 1916 and in June left Egypt for France. There he served as a signaller with the 54th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force and was three times recommended for the Military Medal. He was severely wounded in the shoulder at Péronne on 6 September 1918 and was invalided to England. On returning to Australia, he went to the University of Sydney and in 1920 was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. This was to lead him into writing and translating. In 1929 he undertook what is still regarded as the standard English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s Im Westen nichts Neues, to which he gave the famous title, All Quiet on the Western Front. 

In March 1918, Carter left France to attend officers’ training in England but remained in touch with Ralston by occasional letters. The majority of the final chapter of the novella is made up of a long letter of August 1918 from Ralston to Carter in which he describes his experience as a spy among the German artillery troops. Here Ralston explores the idea summarised in the title of the book:
“I passed through the lines; and because of the unsuspicious kindliness of heart of one man I was accepted and carried through my task with ease and profit to my country. Again I was serving two masters. As a German artillery office I was ranging guns on my own countrymen and as a British spy I was betraying the Germans who had accepted me.” Later, Ralston’s dilemma is far more serious. One of his friends among the Germans discovers that he is a spy but does not betray him. Ralston tries to reason with the situation he is in:
“My duty to my country, which, so far, I had placed above all else, required me to carry through my task of espionage. To secure myself in that, there must be no evidence against me. I saw that my country would require that I should kill my friend. But may one's country ask this of its citizens? 
...no Christian could live entirely for the state and still preserve his faith... Unhappy man to live in such a world!”

Ordeal

This Australian novel, published in 1924, describes the ordeal experienced by the crew and passengers of a schooner sailing from Japan across the Pacific. The ship, called the Spray, belongs to Paul Thorpe, an important scientist, and has a small multiethnic crew. Whereas much of the ordeal relates to cabin fever, a hurricane also has a major impact on the voyage. Among the crew there is a biblical fear of a Jonah figure jeopardising the safety of the ship. The novel was adapted by John Howard Lawson into the 1930 film A Ship from Shanghai.

The author, Dale Collins (born 9 April 1897), was, like James Morgan Walsh, the son of an Irishman. Significantly, his father, Dr Michael John Collins, served as ship surgeon for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. He died in 1898 and perhaps his son had a keen maritime interest from an early age as a means of connecting to the life of his father. It's unlikely that the author was fit for military service as he had many periods of illness as a child. He did, however, write a children's book about the Australian experience at Gallipoli (ANZAC Adventure, published in 1959).

The key event of the novel happens when Reid, the mate, attempts to settle a grudge against Ted, the steward, once and for all:
“In the blackness the two men of hatred and bitterness fought and each thought he grappled with the living embodiment of Fate. They closed in silence, as if this matter of theirs must be secret from all the world... They slid over upon their sides, straining every muscle in terrific effort and yet without movement as trained wrestlers do. There were no oaths, no threats — only locked and wracking effort. Blows and kicks were disdained. The knife was the thing. They did not fight; they played a game of murder under simple, but sacrosanct, rules.”
Ted kills Reid and takes control of the ship, chiefly because no one else has the necessary training in navigation. He becomes a much-feared tyrant. The author imagines that Ted sees himself to be turning the tables of his Armenian nation’s experience of oppression by the Turks within the Ottoman Empire (reaching its peak in the genocide that began in April 1915):
“He was the Sultan. The word danced through his mind, standing for power and lust and the right to take by force the good things of life. The Armenian blood in him found it sweet, enriching it with meaning. Influences older than himself were working in him. It was not merely the oppressed steward who had become a sultan — it was the oppressed Armenian... Powerful as a Sultan in his purple palace and serving out life and death.”
Similarly, the working classes had risen up to turn the tables in the name of socialism. So, too, had the people of smaller countries in Europe sought to take over in the name of nationalism as the empires weakened.

Garth, Able Seaman

Published in 1923, this adventure novel for boys is set in New England during the First World War. Garth, the central character, is a nine-year-old boy with a keen interest in the sea and sailing, largely due to his father having been a lighthouse keeper and now serving on a navy destroyer off the coast of Europe. The novel is remarkable for its portrayal of a character with shell shock. It reminded me of Sébastien Japrisot's novel Un long dimanche de fiançailles (adapted into the film with an ambiguous English title, A Very Long Engagement). In both cases, a returning soldier loses his memory and cannot recognise his fiancée.

The author, Edith Ballinger Price (born 26 April 1897), was both a writer, an illustrator and a keen proponent of the girl scouts movement. At least one of her brothers did military service during the war. The author includes in the novel three characters serving in the war: Garth's father, his uncle and the fiancée of Celia, a family friend. Garth’s mother tells her sister-in-law about Celia’s sorrow:
“It's simply that she was in love and her man’s dead — or as good as dead... His name is Wyeth Merriman and he went over at once with the Foreign Legion. Nothing has been heard of him since last summer and he's listed as missing — which usually means dead, of course. He wanted to go in the navy, being fond of water things apparently, but I gather that she discouraged him, holding that the soldier's is the nobler career.”

While being treated in hospital, Garth is befriended by a returning soldier called John Loomis. Garth had been told about him:
“He was shell-shocked; they just found him walking around without any identification-disc or anything. They've been sending him to lots of hospitals... but they can't find out if there are people he knows anywhere.”
When John visits Garth after they have both left hospital, Celia recognises him as her fiancée but John has no sense of knowing who she is.

When out walking one afternoon, Garth and his mother experience something “strange and terrifying and wildly beautiful” when “suddenly, out of the stillness, whistles began to blow, whistles from the factories and the power houses... every boat in the harbour raised her voice in a prolonged bellow; the sound swelled, a distant, solemn unflagging scream of exultation... The war — is over.” It's not until the navy ships return to Newport, Rhode Island, that the denouement of the novel takes place with Garth saving the day and being commended by his father as an able seaman.

The Lost Valley

This Australian mystery, published in 1921, is set in the Western District of Victoria. It concerns the robbery of a gold escort in 1881 and the attempts in 1919 to recover the gold that was buried by the robbers in a small hidden valley. The air of mystery is added to by awareness of the paranormal in Carstairs, the central character. He refers several times to premonition. One of the robbers has only partial memory due to brain damage and is unsuccessful in his attempt to discover the valley. Carstairs pieces together the clues in order to locate the treasure.

The author, James Morgan Walsh (born 23 February 1897), whose father was from Co. Galway, was an avid reader as a child and had his first short story published in 1913 and his first novel in 1921. The success of The Lost Valley encouraged him to pursue a full-time writing career and he went on to write more than 60 novels as well as scores of short stories.
    

Some of the warfare mindset is present in the author, particularly in his attitude to violence. We can imagine how the following passage is reflective of a soldier’s response to his comrade having been killed:
“It was a monstrous and incredible thing that this quite little corner of the quietest little state in Australia should be polluted by the presence of the incarnate fiends that had murdered... A cold, pitiless anger took possession of me and I set about my work of vengeance as calmly as if I were going rabbit-shooting. I knew now of a surety that I could shoot at any man who came within range without fear or favour.”

The Gang

This coming-of-age novel, published in 1921, describes the experience of boys on the streets of Harlem. The title suggests that Harold, the central character, is more interested in being old enough to be accepted in the local gang but there is also considerable focus on his school life and his reading.

The author, Joseph Anthony (born 9 April 1897), wrote prolifically in early adulthood and built on the success of his fiction as a script writer in Hollywood in the mid-1930s. Whereas it is likely that he was conscripted (his registration for the draft was in New Jersey in June 1918), it is not clear whether he saw active service.

Set in New York’s immigrant communities of Jewish and Irish families, there are clearly autobiographical elements in the novel. Like the author, Harold's heritage is in Austria-Hungary. Harold drops his parents’ expectation that he would become a doctor or a lawyer and instead chooses to begin a career in journalism. This is exactly how the author began his career. His draft registration form shows the author to be employed on the Newark Evening News. Harold leaves school to take up the role of copy boy on the New York Banner.

There is a lively interest in socialism among the characters in Harold’s community. In Chapter IV, Harold discusses Karl Marx with Yonkel, one of his father’s employees:
“Didn't he want to start a lot of fighting, to take the rich men’s money away from them?" Harold asks.
“Fighting? Fighting, Harold? From who did you hear this? It's for dogs and cats to fight, Harold, not for intelligence men. If only we had socialism, Harold, there wouldn't be no fighting.”
Harold’s outlook was different he knew he wanted to be in the street’s gang and to take on the rival gang of the neighbourhood. His elder brother was in the gang and he aspired to be like him. He bartered for a dustbin lid to serve as a shield in a street battle and thus gained entry to the gang. The action was dramatic:
"Harold let his shield drop with a dull jangle on the flagstone, then poised it again, and was off at full gallop. A passing grown-up turned to watch and proudly he sensed at least the beginning of a glimmering appreciation of the splendour and terror of things happening and to happen. He crossed to the walk beside Mount Morris park and dashed on at break-neck speed, glory-bent, with the too-heavy shield tugging at his arm, straining his eyes for a sight of combat.”