Description: Retreat A Story of 1918 by Charles R. Benstead This is the 1930 Second Edition “The moving story of a Padre who, attached to a unit of artillery, took part in the retreat of the Fifth Army from St. Quentin during the last great German offensive of March 1918” Front cover and spine Further images of this book are shown below Publisher and place of publication Dimensions in inches (to the nearest quarter-inch) London: Methuen & Co. Ltd 5 inches wide x 7¾ inches tall Edition Length 1930 Second Edition (published in the same year as the First Edition) 318 pages Condition of covers Internal condition Original blind-stamped black cloth, blocked in gilt on the spine. The covers are rubbed and scuffed, with a few minor marks and some variation in colour. The spine ends and corners are bumped. There is a small frayed patch on the top edge of the rear cover. There is a previous owner's name inscribed in ink on the front end-paper map ("J. Richd. H. Jones") and again in pencil on the reverse of the Title-Page. The bottom corner of the front end-paper map and the Title-Page is creased (there is no Half-Title page). The previous owner has made a number of pencilled comments in the margins, indicating some personal knowledge of events described. The text is otherwise generally clean throughout, on tanned paper, though there is scattered foxing, occasionally affecting the text (with the Table of Contents page appearing to be worst affected - please see the image below). The edge of the text block is dust-stained and foxed and the bottom edge is not uniformly trimmed. Dust-jacket present? Other comments No The covers are scuffed but still reasonably bright while the main internal defect is the foxing which is mainly, but not always, confined to the margins and edges. The few pencilled comments by the previous owner indicate some personal knowledge of events described. Illustrations, maps, etc Contents No illustrations are called for. There is a front end-paper map (shown below). Please see below for details Post & shipping information Payment options The packed weight is approximately 600 grams. Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. Payment options : UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. Retreat : A Story of 1918 Contents I. Night II. Dawn III. Escape IV. Finding a Billet V. Lasting the Course VI. Starting Afresh VII. Shepherding the Flock VIII. Comforting the Dying IX. Burying the Dead X. Eclipse XI Epitaph Retreat : A Story of 1918 Excerpt: . . . Brigade Head-quarters spent the night in Rouv-le-Petit, since Voyennes proved impossible. They spent it, too, just as they were, lying down on the floor of a small farm-house but lately repaired and made habitable. When they arrived both Madame and Monsieur were there, hastily crowding together a few portable belongings. She offered no objections to their presence. Like Warne she was beyond objecting to anything. She appeared not to see them. Only Monsieur did that, and he kept on touching his grey forelock and mumbling words they could not understand. They did not try. Keeping up a high-pitched moan, ceaselessly wringing her hands, the old lady wandered to and fro between her couple of rooms, vainly endeavouring to decide what she could carry away, while her aged husband, decrepit and bent, loaded the handcart outside. ' Can't we gag her ? ' groaned Dalgith, and Warne groaned, too, though for a different reason. Cheyne entered, walking like a man suffering from locomotor ataxia. Somehow he contrived to reach the opposite corner of the room, and then his knees appeared to sag. He subsided, rather than fell, as a flabby blancmange will subside in hot weather. He lay without moving, curiously twisted and huddled. With a shock Warne realized he was asleep. Dalgith tore down the blind that shielded the solitary window, and tossed it to Warne, who watched him with kind of stupefied horror. It crumpled up like a newspaper and rested against his legs. ' Do for a blanket, Padre,' Dalgith muttered, and stretched himself on the floor. He cushioned his head in his arm. He, too, was asleep. A faint wheeze from O'Reilly : ' Use your haversack for a pillow, Padre. You'll be o' righ------' Heavy breathing began to fill the tiny French living-room. From the adjoining one came the continual swish of Madame's skirts and her unceasing moans. The Colonel, rolled in his trench coat, said : ' Put out the candle when you're ready, Padre.' And then Warne moved. He looked round at his companions curled up on the floor, and saw them as so many weary animals seeking rest, indifferent alike to God, Man and the Devil. Two days ' in the line,' and it had come to this ! Despairingly he asked himself what would be the end, and found no answer. He glanced at his watch. The hour was nearly two-thirty. They were moving at dawn. He blew out the candle and lay down, but he did not sleep. Had Bidderwill's pre-war tranquillity embraced him the cold hard bricks would have kept him awake. As it was, his entire consciousness fell little short of an emotional maelstrom. If he changed his position once, he did so a hundred times, without securing the relief he sought. A temporary respite and then the cramped, hard pain somewhere else. Soon the cold penetrated into his very bones. . . . Shortly after five he dozed off. Madame had gone by then. He had listened to the creak of the old handcart and the crunching of its wheels in the stones outside as she and her husband had moved off. The high-pitched moaning had grown fainter and fainter until it had died away altogether. But he slept only to dream of God's creatures who were spread-eagled under gravity like spokes in a rimless wheel, and rained down from Heaven amid chariots of fire. They crashed about him Ultimately one fell on him, and he started up with a cry. O'Reilly said: ' Time to get up, Padre,' and straightened his back. ' Sleep well ? ' He said this, but he saw at a glance that Warne had hardly slept at all. Those dark rings under the eyes. The whole strained expression. That start into wakefulness. . . . ' If you last out the course-----' he speculated. ' But what the devil I'm to do with you I don't know.' ' Gets the hip if you're not used to it,' he said. Warne managed a faint smile. After that Warne became aware of many things. There was a candle burning in the room, and a wan light stealing through the blindless window. His companions were already up. Keller was shaving. The Colonel and Cheyne were busy over a map. Dalgith was talking to Bell about breakfast. He became aware, too, of his own leaden heaviness, of a dull pain at the back of the eyes. He felt his brow. It was hot. Only with an effort he got to his feet. O'Reilly brought him some shaving water. Dalgith, foraging, came upon eggs, and these they had for breakfast. Stiff limbs were stretched; circulation restored; hot tea swallowed. Morale shot up. And before the eggs were eaten, Dalgith was nodding at Warne and saying: 'The bad old man! Heard what he did last night" Got off with a wench !' Keller guffawed. ' Yes. And if I hadn't been there to stop him he would have got off with her grandmother, her mother, herself, her daughter, her granddaughter, her great-' Laughter drowned Dalgith who, with admirable solemnity, was counting off the generations on his fingers. ' The old Mormon ! ' ' But that is so, isn't it, Padre ? ' persisted Dalgith. And to his own surprise Warne found himself accepting this untimely ribaldry as part of his new life. It did not pain him, as it would have done overnight. It did not even bore him. It just happened, like rain and sunshine. He sought for a reply, and hesitated : ' Well—I— hardly------' ' There you are ! ' shrieked Dalgith triumphantly. ' He can't deny it. He pleads guilty to-' The Colonel cut in, searching Warne with a glance. ' Come, Padre,' he laughed. ' What's behind all this ? ' ' Well, I-' ' Fell for a dame,' completed Dalgith. More laughter, at the end of which Cheyne growled i ' Stow it, you infant.' O'Reilly, looking at Cheyne, raised an eyebrow. ' I think,' stammered Warne, ' it would be more accurate to say she fell for me.' ' Oh, you naughty old Don Juan ! ' roared Dalgith. ' Unfrock him,' hooted Keller. And when Warne gazed appealingly round they laughed the more. Take his pulse, Doc,' gurgled Dalgith. ' Perhaps I ought,' reflected O'Reilly. After that they went out. A beaten army was fighting for its life. (4) That day the centre of the Fifth Army stayed the German advance on the banks of the Somme, and with one exception Warne did not see his companions again until nightfall. The exception was Keller who arrived hurriedly about midday with Sergeant Dalton and a few signallers, and having extracted a couple of reels of telephone cable from the stores, ordered the ' 30 cwt.' on to Manicourt. ' The old Hun got across at Canizy and Voyennes, but they've driven him back,' he said, and went off with his party. So Warne clambered into the front seat of the ' 30 cwt.' and took his place alongside the detested Bass ; and although Manicourt was not far—barely four miles as the crow flies, and only a mile or two more by the circuitous route through the little town of Nesle which a blown-up bridge imposed—it is conceivable that with any other driver at the wheel he would have extracted some tiny grain of comfort from the journey on that gorgeous spring morning. But he found none. Instead, Bass's almost incessant chatter with its faintly disguised obscenities and its inhuman profanities, bade fair to drive him crazy. Bass, whose attention was held mainly by the road ahead, rarely glanced at him and therefore gabbled away without the slightest thought of the pain he was causing . . . Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour. In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity. U.K. buyers: To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the postage figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from postage and packaging. Postage can be combined for multiple purchases. Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams Postage and payment options to U.K. addresses: Details of the various postage options can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above). Payment can be made by: debit card, credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex), cheque (payable to "G Miller", please), or PayPal. Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item. Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (postage, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me. International buyers: To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from shipping and handling. Shipping can usually be combined for multiple purchases (to a maximum of 5 kilograms in any one parcel with the exception of Canada, where the limit is 2 kilograms). Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams International Shipping options: Details of the postage options to various countries (via Air Mail) can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above) and then selecting your country of residence from the drop-down list. For destinations not shown or other requirements, please contact me before buying. Due to the extreme length of time now taken for deliveries, surface mail is no longer a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items. I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule. Payment options for international buyers: Payment can be made by: credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. 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Prospective international buyers should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or pay by PayPal within 7 days from the end of the listing (or inform me that they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). Thank you. (please note that the book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this listing) Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height. Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth. Fine Books for Fine Minds I value your custom (and my feedback rating) but I am also a bibliophile : I want books to arrive in the same condition in which they were dispatched. For this reason, all books are securely wrapped in tissue and a protective covering and are then posted in a cardboard container. If any book is significantly not as described, I will offer a full refund. Unless the size of the book precludes this, hardback books with a dust-jacket are usually provided with a clear film protective cover, while hardback books without a dust-jacket are usually provided with a rigid clear cover. The Royal Mail, in my experience, offers an excellent service, but things can occasionally go wrong. However, I believe it is my responsibility to guarantee delivery. If any book is lost or damaged in transit, I will offer a full refund. Thank you for looking. Please also view my other listings for a range of interesting books and feel free to contact me if you require any additional information Design and content © Geoffrey Miller
Price: 39.99 GBP
Location: Flamborough, Bridlington
End Time: 2024-05-17T15:47:27.000Z
Shipping Cost: 23.93 GBP
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Item Specifics
Returns Accepted: Returns Accepted
After receiving the item, your buyer should cancel the purchase within: 30 days
Return policy details: If any book is significantly not as described, I will offer a full refund, including return postage. All books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard container.
Return postage will be paid by: Buyer
Year Printed: 1930
Fiction Subject: War Fiction
Binding: Hardback
Author: Charles R. Benstead
Language: English
Publisher: Methuen & Co. Ltd
Place of Publication: London
