Jacques de Lacretelle: War’s atavistic brigands

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Jacques de Lacretelle
From Silbermann (1922)
Translated by Brian Lunn

“…They occur when the inherited nature of a distant noble ancestor, a leader of bands of adventurers, suddenly breaks out and tries to find expression in times which are no longer those of crusaders and the great robbers. Hard and violent by birth, despising thought, and averse from any occupation, these people throw themselves into any quarrel, however sinister and treacherous it may be, and finally, finding nothing to do in our civilization, they go and get killed in Africa.”

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