Смерть героя

Roman R. Oldingtona - strastnyĭ i sarkasticheskiĭ rasskaz ob Anglii nachala XX veka i katastrofe pod nazvaniem "Pervai͡a mirovai͡a voĭna". Geroĭ romana - molodoĭ khudozhnik, kotoryĭ zaputalsi͡a v li͡ubovnykh otnoshenii͡akh, vedët svetskui͡u zhiznʹ (v romane izumitelʹnye portrety Tomasa Ėliota, Ėzry Paunda i drugikh znamenitosteĭ togo vremeni) i popadaet v ad voĭny. Rezkoe neprii͡atie avtorom viktorianskoĭ Anglii, paradoksalʹnye razmyshlenii͡a o semʹe i meste cheloveka sdelali "Smertʹ geroi͡a" manifestom "poteri͡annogo pokolenii͡a" i po-prezhnemu zastavli͡ai͡ut chitateli͡a soperezhivatʹ. Svoë proizvedenie pisatelʹ nazyvaet "roman-dzhaz", i ego chasti ozaglavleny muzykalʹnymi terminami. "…Ėta kniga, v sushchnosti, ― nadgrobnyĭ plach, slabai͡a popytka sozdatʹ pami͡atnik pokolenii͡u, kotoroe na mnogoe nadei͡alosʹ, chestno borolosʹ i gluboko stradalo. Vy - voennoe pokolenie. Vy rozhdeny dli͡a togo, chtoby srazhatʹsi͡a v ėtoĭ voĭne, eë nuzhno vyigratʹ - i vy eë vyigraete, ėto my tvërdo reshili. Chto do kazhdogo iz vas v otdelʹnosti - ne imeet ni maleĭshego znachenii͡a, budete vy ubity ili net. Veroi͡atnee vsego, vas ubʹi͡ut - vo vsi͡akom sluchae, bolʹshinstvo. Sovetui͡u zaranee s ėtim primiritʹsi͡a". Richard Oldington

R. Aldington's novel is a passionate and sarcastic story about England at the beginning of the XX century and the catastrophe called "The First World War". The hero of the novel is a young artist who is entangled in a love relationship, leads a secular life (in the novel there are amazing portraits of Thomas Eliot, Ezra Pound and other celebrities of that time) and falls into the hell of war. The author's sharp rejection of Victorian England, paradoxical reflections on the family and the place of a person made "The Death of a hero" a manifesto of the "lost generation" and still make the reader empathize. The writer calls his work "roman jazz", and its parts are titled with musical terms. "... This book, in essence, is a funeral lament, a weak attempt to create a monument to a generation that hoped for a lot, fought honestly and suffered deeply. You are the military generation. You were born to fight in this war, it needs to be won — and you will win it, we have firmly decided that. As for each of you individually, it does not matter in the slightest whether you will be killed or not. Most likely, you will be killed — at least, most of them. I advise you to come to terms with this in advance." Richard Aldington