MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewKorda sets the intimate details of Brooke’s story, jewel-like, amid the larger context of a Europe on the blind precipice of catastrophe ... The sheer number of pages given over to Brooke, who died without seeing much, if any, combat, is slightly bewildering — particularly in a history meant to show us the whole war in all its remorseless violence ... In its breadth, the book occasionally lacks depth when it comes to probing the complex emotions behind its subjects’ verses ... Korda’s group portrait of soldier poets skillfully depicts how different classes of men experienced the Western Front and offers an entry point into a rich seam of under-read war poetry.
