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Vera BrittainA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Vera Brittain, author of Testament to Youth, interweaves her memories with passages from her diaries and letters, and the combined effect is authentic and personal. She commits to writing a book about herself and the four men whose friendships mean the most to her soon after the start of World War I, realizing quickly that the war they all regard idealistically will soon be the cause of great suffering. Brittain’s astute literary judgment in this decision is typical of her instinct to write expansively about what she knows; her first novel The Dark Tide is based on her time at Oxford University and her book Testament of Friendship documents the relationship between herself and Winifred Holtby, with whom she lived after they both completed their degrees at Oxford the same year.
Brittain’s voice is reliable, matter-of-fact, and self-deprecating at times. As befits an autobiography based on wartime experience, Testament of Youth is humorless and emotional. Brittain’s honesty is raw, as evidenced by her detailed descriptions of grim realities like her nursing work, her youthful snobberies, and her emotional breakdown after the Armistice. The vulnerability of her tone makes for an interesting contrast when Brittain becomes involved with the League of Nations Union and the Six Points Group towards the end of the autobiography; the sensitive young woman with literary ambitions has transformed into a formidable voice of the people. Brittain’s transformation from ardent war supporter to pacifist is just as remarkable; having lost so many loved ones to the war, Brittain’s grief and anger is mitigated by her work as a V.A.D. nurse, during which she opines that a dying man has no nationality.
At Uppingham School, Edward Brittain, Brittain’s younger brother by two years, joins the Officers’ Training Corps, according to the militaristic expectations of all English public school boys; he is steeped in the idealism and the pro-war attitudes of this particular environment, so as the war in Europe becomes inevitable, Edward prepares to volunteer alongside his friends Roland Leighton and Victor Richardson, the three of whom Roland’s mother describes as the “Three Musketeers.”
Edward is an unlikely military hero, though his education has instilled in him a desire to be heroic. His great passion is his violin, and his sensitive nature seems more suited to quiet environments that enable him to dream and compose music in his head. Brittain’s imaginings of Edward in the trenches, replete with mud and violence, worry her deeply, as she believes Edward to be too tender-hearted to be able to cope with the circumstances no matter how they much glory they promise. Unexpectedly, Edward is awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during the Battle of the Somme, and his fellow military men express sincere admiration for his bravery and steadfastness during a crisis. Edward dies in Italy in June 1918, fighting the Austrians. Brittain learns later that his death may have been a suicide as he had learned the day before he died that the military police had read his letters; this evidence of his sexual relationships with men in his company were sure to lead to an inquiry and court-martial.
Roland Leighton, a talented student and enthusiastic color-sergeant of Uppingham School’s Officers’ Training Corp, meets Brittain during his Easter holiday when Edward invites Roland to his home to stay. Brittain notices that she and Roland are alike, and their mutual attraction grows into love. They are engaged to be married after the war, though both of them resisted the conventionality of this commonplace wartime arrangement; Roland and Brittain share a somewhat iconoclastic view of marriage and domesticity, romanticizing instead their deep connection over philosophical matters like death and the afterlife and poetry. Roland and Brittain spent a total of 17 days together before his death, and they exchanged numerous letters until Roland dies of a wound to the stomach on December 23, 1915, just as he was due home for Christmas.
Victor Richardson, the third Musketeer, plans to attend Cambridge to become a doctor when war breaks out. While training in January 1915, Victor falls ill with meningitis, and he miraculously survives his illness. His recovery delays his transfer to the front, and during this time, Roland dies and Victor offers emotional support to Brittain; the inevitable soon happens, however, and Victor dies of a head wound after the Battle of Arras. Victor’s friendship with Edward and Roland is so significant that he and Edward are the first people to know the news of Roland and Brittain’s engagement. Brittain’s hope that she might marry Victor and look after him is poignant; not only is Victor a close friend of hers to whom she feels she owes support, but he is also a tie to Roland. By marrying Victor, Brittain can be married as well to a shared memory of Roland, made all the more richer for Victor’s attachment to Brittain’s fiancé.
Geoffrey Thurlow is a friend of Edward’s from training, and one scholar suggests that their relationship may have gone beyond the realm of friendship. Geoffrey and Edward are both artistic and sensitive with plans to attend Oxford University; while Edward rises to the occasion while in the trenches, however, performing acts of bravery so impressive he is awarded the Military Cross, Geoffrey’s shell-shock weakens him. Despite his deteriorated mental state, Geoffrey tries to put on a patriotic face, demonstrating the power of the pro-war messaging he and many other young men received at this time in English history. Brittain receives news of Geoffrey’s death while she is in Malta.
Winifred Holtby, a former member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, meets Brittain under inauspicious terms at Oxford. Fortunately, Brittain recovers from the humiliating debate with Winifred at Somerville College, and the two women become inseparable. Their interests and talents are so aligned that they can stand in for one another; after Brittain becomes a lecturer for the League of Nations Union, Winifred does too, and when Brittain cannot manage a political campaign, Winifred steps in to take the job. They both write novels, articles, and feminist tracts, establishing themselves as important voices in politics in post-war England. Their friendship lasts until Winifred’s early death at the age of 37 from kidney disease.
At several points throughout the autobiography, Brittain mentions an unnamed political scientist rifleman, whose activities she traces without explaining why. In the final chapter of Testament of Youth, the identity of this young man is revealed as “G.”, or George Catlin, Brittain’s husband whom she marries in 1925. He begins courting Brittain through a fan letter he sends her after the publication of her novel The Dark Tide, and much of their relationship develops through letters as he is based at Cornell University in New York while Brittain works in London.