Muse of Fire, Michael Korda
Muse of Fire, Michael Korda
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Muse of Fire
World War I As Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets

Author: Michael Korda

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Unabridged: 13 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2024


Synopsis

The First World War comes to harrowing life through the intertwined lives of the soldier-poets in Michael Korda's epic Muse of Fire.

With Muse of Fire, Michael Korda, the bestselling author of Alone and Hero, takes a novel approach to World War I by telling its history through the lives of the soldier-poets whose verses memorialize the war's unimaginable horrors. He begins with Rupert Brooke and the halcyon days before violence engulfed his generation—destroying the self-contented world of Edwardian England—and ends with the tragic death of Wilfred Owen, killed only days before the armistice brought an end to a war that took over 25,000,000 lives. In a sweeping narrative that echoes The Guns of August, Korda recounts these four years of a civilization destroying itself and portrays the lives and anguished deaths of the young men who unforgettably illuminated it. As the success of Pat Barker's Regeneration, the remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, and the images of brutal trench warfare in today's Ukraine demonstrate, contemporary interest in "the war to end war" remains high.

About Michael Korda

Michael Korda participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. He is the author of major biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Robert E. Lee., as well as the bestselling memoir Charmed Lives.


Reviews

Goodreads review by - ̗̀ jess ̖́- on September 10, 2024

is this the pinnacle of scholarly rigour, or the most perfectly structured book? no, but i did have a blast reading about rupert brooke’s trainwreck of a love life for five chapters? absolutely. more thoughts that im gonna turn into sentences when i have time - i dont even like rupert brooke! - the my......more

Goodreads review by nicole on August 15, 2024

feels weird to rate a nonfiction book, but man. the author annoyed me. it's a old white man book for old white men. i wish there was more examples of the actual poetry in this book about poets??? or talked more about how poetry was massively influential on popular culture during this time in a way i......more

Goodreads review by Peter on May 28, 2024

What a beautiful book. A thoughtful biography of the key poets of WW1, giving insights into where each of them drew from. The poetry remains breathtaking. At the end, the author reminds us that WW1 remains very relevant in the wars in Ukraine & the Middle East. The poets still have much to tell us…......more

Goodreads review by Trevor on March 07, 2025

The First World War set the table for the 20th century: cruel, stupid, and pointless, with the cavalry charge and dreams of glory replaced by mechanized warfare and widespread slaughter and destruction. Those lucky enough to survive it witnessed the outbreak of another, even more devastating conflic......more

Goodreads review by Matt on June 13, 2024

This was disappointing. One third of this book was about Rupert Brooke and nearly one hundred pages about his pre war life. Nearly 2/3 of the book was about lessed know war poets. It is not until 200 pages into the book that either Graves, Sassoon, or Owen is mentioned. The organization of organizin......more