Overview

Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) was a French novelist and biographer of Stalin, a member of the French Communist Party, and an Esperantist. He was born in Asnieres-sur-Seine but in 1889, at 16, he left for Paris. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, then aged 41, Barbusse enlisted in the French Army, serving for 17 months despite being invalided out three times. By the end of 1915 he was moved permanently to a clerical position due to pulmonary damage, exhaustion, and dysentery. He first came to fame with the publication of his novel Le Feu in 1916 (translated as Under Fire), which was based on his wartime experiences. By this time he had become a pacifist and his writing demonstrated his growing hatred for militarism. Le Feu drew criticism at the time of publication for its naturalism but won the Prix Goncourt. In January 1918 Barbusse moved to Moscow for a time where he married a Russian woman and joined the Bolshevik Party. The Russian Revolution had a significant influence on his life and work and he was committed to many anti-imperialist causes, and in the 1920s and '30s he edited the periodicals Monde and Progres Civique. The hero of his 1919 novel Clarte (translated as Light) is a factory manager and good company man who, like the other men of his town, is called up for service during WWI. Thrust into the horror of the trenches, his experiences of war open his eyes to the injustices of society. The nightmare of the war transforms him into an anti-imperialist, and this is essentially the story of a man's awakening to Marxism. Barbusse creates a vivid and poetic evocation of the human condition that is as relevant today as when it was written in the early 20th century. Reprinted from the English translation by William Fitzwater Wray (1869-1938).

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