Stand in the Trench, Achilles

Vandiver ranges from the history of classics teaching in schools at the end of the nineteenth century to detailed consideration of the history and usage of particular motifs suct famously reworked by Wilfred Owen. As well as public schools such as Eton and Marlborough, she scrutinizes the curricula of grammar schools and the ways in which classical texts were encountered both in the original and in translation. Hers is an inclusive study of poets and poems from across social classes and military ranks, devoting detailed attention to familiar figures such as Rudyard Kipling, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, and Isaac Rosenberg, as well as less well-known writers, such as J.L. Crommelin Brown and Joseph Streets. * Matthew Creasy, Years Work in English Studies *
The book is abrim with research ... it is enthrallingly written and on the sly it provides a fascinating socio-historical account of the making of the officer classes * Tim Kendall, War Poetry Blog *
The wealth of Vandiver's material is admirable. The study includes numerous relatively unknown poets and makes available hitherto unpublished material. * Claudia Olk, Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik *