Charles Yale Harrison

Generals Die in Bed Charles Yale Harrison

A new edition of the classic novel about the frontlines of World War I.

"Unique among the novels of its day, it has stood the test of time."
-Author and historian Pierre Berton

All war is hell -- but for troops serving in World War I, it was the bloodiest trench warfare ever known. Generals Die in Bed is a first-hand account of one young man catapulted from new recruit to walking wounded on the Western Front.

From day one, he is surrounded by mud and fear. Artillery whistles down without warning. Boys, barely men, cry out for their mothers. Close combat is worse: sudden frenzied scrambles with German soldiers, and bayonets that don't come out smoothly from their victims.

Regular rotation takes them away from the front, and the weary combatants scramble for wine, women or whatever else will help them forget they'll have to go back. This harrowing spiral continues until an ill-fated hill charge leads to a gushing leg wound and release papers home.

A new introduction to this edition places Harrison's novel alongside its literary contemporaries -- All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms. Originally published in 1930 and acclaimed as "the best of the war books" by the New York Evening Standard, Generals Die in Bed remains an unforgettable book.