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One of Canada’s most painful and breathtaking pictures of a soldier’s life during the First World War.
Peregrine Acland’s novel All Else Is Folly is an irreplaceable depiction of the Canadian experience in the First World War. More than just a devastating portrayal of the terrors and hardships of trench warfare, the novel is also a profound meditation on the nature of man, one that draws on both the Nietzschean notion of man as warrior and Havelock Ellis’s idea of man as lover. Subtitled "a tale of war and passion," the novel was something of a bestseller in its time and drew significant critical praise. Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden remarked: "No more vivid picture has been painted of what war meant to the average soldier."
Originally published in 1929, Acland’s war story had transatlantic success, with editions published under the Constable imprint in England, and by Coward-McCann and Grosset & Dunlap in the United States. The Canadian edition published by McClelland & Stewart enjoyed three printings. This new edition marks a return to print after more than eight decades.
Brian Busby is a literary historian, independent scholar, and writer. He has written two books: Character Parts and A Gentleman of Pleasure. Busby is also the editor of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems of the First World War and War Poems.
James Calhoun served briefly as a reserve private with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. A book-collector and researcher with a particular interest in Canadian literature of the First World War, he lives in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.