Paths of Glory

by Humphrey Cobb, David L. Simon (Foreword), James H. Meredith (Introduction)

The anti-war masterpiece that became an iconic motion picture-now with a foreword by the creator of the acclaimed HBO(tm) series The Wire

Familiar to many as the Stanley Kubrick film starring Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory explores the perilous complications involved in what nations demand of their soldiers in wartime. Humphrey Cobb's protagonists are Frenchmen during the First World War whose nightmare in the trenches takes a new and terrible turn when they are ordered to assault a German position deemed all but invulnerable. When the attack fails, an inquiry into allegations of cowardice indicts a small handful of lower-ranked scapegoats whose trial exposes the farce of ordering ordinary men to risk their lives in an impossible cause. A chilling portrait of injustice, this novel offers insight into the tragedies of war in any age.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Fiction, War, World War I, Historical Fiction, Classics, 20th Century, Military Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Humphrey Cobb was a screenwriter and novelist. He is best known for writing the novel Paths of Glory, which was made into an acclaimed 1957 movie by Stanley Kubrick. Cobb was also the lead screenwriter on the 1937 movie San Quentin, starring Humphrey Bogart.

Reviews

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review contains spoilers)

A young Stanley Kubrick read this book and was impressed enough to return to it years later,and to turn it into one of the best antiwar films ever made.Kirk Douglas fought to bring it to the screen,putting up his own money.

It ruffled some feathers,it did not endear them to the French army.But it is an awe inspiring film,and it is an unforgettable book.

To the author,a great antiwar novel is one which depicts bodies,the more butchered and mutilated,the better.He focuses on the dehumanising effects of modern warfare,where a million deaths become merely a statistic.

The ambitions and vanities of generals must be satisfied and the common soldier must pay the price.Soldiers were led to their deaths by men they barely knew.Shooting by armies of their own soldiers for cowardice was often resorted to,during World War I.The battle depicted in the book resembles Verdun,with its wholesale slaughter.

A regiment is ordered to charge through a barrage of machine gun fire.The fire is so intense that they cannot advance and are mowed down near their own trenches.

The commanding general is not satisfied,and orders his own artillery to fire at their positions to get them to move forward.The artillery commander refuses in the absence of a written order.

As the attack fails,the general wants a section from each company to be executed for cowardice.It finally comes down to the selection of one man from each company to be executed.

One is chosen by drawing lots,one for being a social undesirable and one because of his troubles with a lieutenant.

The condemned men are given a sham trial,there is no hope for them.The account of their last moments is poignant as they rail against the sheer injustice of it all.Both the film and the book are masterful in their depiction of their hopelessness and their execution.But the film,in particular,gave me goosebumps.

This book is a masterpiece and a classic,one which deserves to be as well known as All Quiet on the Western Front.

[B0nnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The paths of glory lead but to the grave...

Paths of Glory is one of the most perfect movies ever made. Watch it on a nice large screen TV, in Blu-ray. If you don't have that, go out and get it. Now! It's worth it for this movie alone .

Paths of Glory, the book on which the movie is based, is a very fine book - more moving in many ways than the movie - but stumbles a bit in some heavy-handed scenes. That can be forgiven though, as the book succeeds in putting the reader in the trench on the western front - and in the shoes of three soldiers in particular who are condemned to die in a most unjust fashion. It is a close look at the general injustice that happens to any soldier in war. That statement is a pun, but true (a musical accompaniment: Masters Of War or With God on our Side ).

The writing is simple and direct, ironical but not distancing and many times humourous. Here's a passage from a letter that one of the prisoners writes to his wife,

How I love you, my only one. The pocket-book you gave me is in my hand. I touch it. It is something you have touched. It will be sent to you. I kiss it all over, a sad attempt to communicate some kisses to you. Poor, worn, greasy little piece of leather. What a surge of love pours from me upon this forlorn object, the only tragic personal link I have with you. Tears rise and I cannot hold them back. They pour upon the pocket-book, make it more limp and ugly than ever.

There are beautiful scenes in this book, haunting and terrible, that you will never forget. Imagine a dying man on the battlefield in the bottom of a chalk pit, the reflection of the moon in a black stagnate pool of water. The smell of horse dung, rats scurrying about. The slow realization what has happened to his body, the shrieks of terror. The final insult that nature offers.

The penguin classic edition has a forward by David Simon, most famous now for The Wire,

It is a general’s ambition. It is a colonel’s sense of duty. It is a lieutenant’s cowardice. And it is a sergeant’s inability to refuse the most amoral order. It is all of these things, operating simultaneously, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in concert, each small part of the killing mechanism playing its role and no more. But in the end, the death of innocents is the fixed outcome.

To write his great tragedy, Cobb needed no archvillains, no great evils. As the machine guns and poison gas of the new century bring forward the possibilities of mass extermination, the story requires only ordinary ambitions and commonplace vanities in order for good men to die. And it is not so much a solitary and vile decision by any one scoundrel that condemns the innocent, but the absence of a decision by so many others. The inertia of the modern, layered bureaucracy is immutable. The institution demands blood, and then, by and large, the individuals that comprise that institution simply shrug, incapable of resistance or rebellion.

This edition has a good introduction. It gives an explanation of the book's historical and moral background; also some history of WWI; the influence of Paths of Glory on Faulkner's A Fable; comparison to the movie; and some information and excerpts from Cobb's war diary.

[Sweetwilliam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this novel because I've read a few history books about the French in WWI including Alistair Horne's The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 and Richard Watts' Dare Call it Treason and I saw the classic 1957 movie Paths of Glory staring Kirk Douglas and directed by Stanley Kubrick. I thought the movie "nailed it" it terms of putting their finger on what was wrong with the French Military in WWI. I figured that all good movies are based on even better books and I was right.

The story is about a failed French assault on an impenetrable German position. The French Divisional Commander is outraged and wants to shoot a significant portion of the unit that made the assault for mutiny. The old man is crazy and should have been shot himself.

The book is a mere 265 pages and divided into three parts. Part I is the introduction to the tired unit, the 181st that was just pulled out of the line two days prior. Instead of rest and refitting, the unit is turned around and sent back to the front to attack what is understood to be a nearly impenetrable position called the Pimple. Part II is the failed assault of the Pimple and Part III is the summary court martial. By the time I got to part III, I couldn't put the book down.

Paths of Glory is fiction. The names of the French soldiers, the units, the objective, and the battles mentioned are all fictitious. The gist of the story is all too true and it happened over and over again in the French Army and it led to a near mutiny in 1917. In fact the author sites three French publications and a New York Times article regarding incidents that happened that were very similar to this story. A quick internet search indicates that the French will admit to slaughtering 600-650 of their own by firing squad and the British and Commonwealth troops another~300. I believe that the French count may be low. The records of the French to subdue their own mutiny of 1917 were sealed for one hundred years and to my knowledge, have yet to be made public. Experts agree that there are probably more executions yet to be added to that figure above. The firing squad was considered "good tonic" for the morale of the men at that time.

I sometimes wonder if the French fought so poorly in WWII because of the seeds that were sown in WWI.

[George K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Βαθμολογία: 9/10

Η αναγνωστική χρονιά ξεκινά με τον καλύτερο δυνατό τρόπο, διαβάζοντας ένα από τα καλύτερα αντιπολεμικά έργα εκεί έξω, βάση για μια από τις κορυφαίες ταινίες του είδους, αυτή του 1957, σε σκηνοθεσία Στάνλεϊ Κιούμπρικ. Την ταινία την έχω δει μια φορά, νομίζω όταν ακόμα πήγαινα Λύκειο, ενώ το 2012 βρήκα την ελληνική έκδοση του βιβλίου, σ'ένα από τα γνωστά μου βιβλιοσαφάρι. Ναι, τότε που είδα την ταινία δεν ήξερα ότι βασιζόταν σε βιβλίο - δεν είμαι τύπος που συνηθίζει να βλέπει πρώτα την ταινία και μετά να διαβάζει το βιβλίο. Μην με παρεξηγήσετε, είναι κάτι που σπάνια κάνω!

Λοιπόν, τι έλεγα; Α, ναι! Το βιβλίο είναι εξαιρετικό. Κυνικό, ωμό, τραγικά ρεαλιστικό, κάργα αντιπολεμικό αν το καλοσκεφτεί κανείς, περιγράφει με τον πιο σκληρό τρόπο την αθλιότητα του πολέμου, τις διάφορες στρατιωτικές διαδικασίες, την συμπεριφορά των ανωτέρων προς τα φανταράκια, και πάει λέγοντας. Α' Παγκόσμιος Πόλεμος, Δυτικό Μέτωπο, Γάλλοι εναντίον Γερμανών, χαρακώματα, αέρια, πτώματα παντού, ηλίθιοι αξιωματικοί και κακομοίρηδες φαντάροι, στρατηγικά λάθη, τιμωρίες, στρατιωτικές δίκες για γέλια και για κλάματα, δειλοί που παίρνουν το ένα μετάλλιο μετά το άλλο και γενναίοι που γίνονται τροφή για τα σκουλήκια, και άλλα κλασικά εικονογραφημένα.

Δεν είναι βιβλίο για τις γιορτές, γιατί μπορεί να σου μαυρίσει την ψυχή με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο, όμως προσωπικά απόλαυσα την κάθε σελίδα. Ο τρόπος γραφής κυνικός και κατά βάθος ειρωνικός, οι περιγραφές εξαιρετικές, η όλη ατμόσφαιρα της ιστορίας κάπως μουντή. Είναι ένα βιβλίο που έχει επισκιαστεί από την ομότιτλη ταινία, και είναι κρίμα. Φυσικά η ταινία είναι φοβερή και τρομερή, αλλά εξίσου φοβερό και τρομερό είναι κατά τη γνώμη μου και το βιβλίο. Είναι ένα βιβλίο που είχα πάρει δυο-τρεις φορές στο παρελθόν σε καλοκαιρινές ή χειμερινές διακοπές, αλλά έτσι όπως το έπαιρνα, έτσι το έφερνα πίσω. Φέτος ήταν η χρονιά του όμως! Και, ω Θεοί, τι έχανα τόσο καιρό.

Υ.Γ. Η μετάφραση δείχνει τα σχεδόν εξήντα χρόνια της, αλλά μου φάνηκε αρκούντως γλαφυρή και τελικά ικανοποιητική. Κάποιες επιλογές λέξεων και εκφράσεων μπορεί να ξενίσουν, αλλά μιλάμε για έκδοση του 1961!

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paths of Glory, the basis for the powerful Stanley Kubrick movie starring Kirk Douglas, is a fact based novel about an injustice in the French front lines during The Great War. Told from multiple points of view Cobb paints a portrait of the stupid and evil things that men are drawn to do during wartime, not necessarily deliberately but through laziness, or vanity or just plain thoughtlessness, as well as the bureaucracy that stifles clarity of thought and sends innocent men to their death.

“That spot on the road was the place where he had ceased to be a boy,” he thought to himself.

Having seen the movie a lot of the impact of Cobb's story was diminished, as Kubrick and Jim Thompson combined to present a slick, bleak observation, but also excising Cobb's penchant for having characters talk to themselves, a trait he seems to have utilised as an excuse to put his deep insights on the absurdity of war in to the text in as craftless a way as possible.

“Rarely," said Dax to himself, "does a soldier see with naked eyes. He is nearly always looking through lenses, lenses which are made of the insignia of his rank.”

It's a book worth its place on the list of important war fiction, especially as comparatively little fiction that isn't boys own adventure type stuff seems to have been written on WWI.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 5 out of 5]

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:—
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

From Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
by Thomas Gray

Because I sample broadly across the written word, when I read something of actual literary merit the effect can be that much more powerful. Humphrey Cobb’s Paths of Glory is literature. Cobb had served in WWI , as an American Soldier, but was inspired by actual events that happened something like his plot, but in the French Army. It matters not if his facts are historically accurate, Cobb is writing fiction and in fictions facts are plastic to be shaped as required.

Other reviews feel bound to compare the book to either the famous Stanly Kubrick movie or the more recent television version. I cannot. The introductory material compares it to contemporary novels, All’s Quiet on the Western Front, and A farewell to Arms. At least one reviewer compares this with the longer Parade’s End. Both books are about WWI, but Parade’s End is almost incidentally about the war and a lot more about the people outside of the war.

Cobb’s less than 200 pages, in my Penguin edition, are about a few people in a specific place and time. His soldiers are tired, under manned, loyal fighters, given insufficient time between battles, under the lead of a terrible general and made to pay for his failures. Cobb is building on one of the several beliefs that came out of WWI. While the Germans held to the betrayal of the Army as their version of what happened, the Allies decided that theirs was an army of lions, lead by donkeys.

We will certainly see how a trained soldier can minimize losses and achieve the assigned mission. Drunken or incompetent leaders can get target focused while failing to consider human cost. Meantime war kills indiscriminately and as often a cruel lingering death as an immediate one.

At the time of publication, 1935 the Countries like England and France had not recovered from the losses and suffering of WWI. As such they were hesitant to even prepare for the looming threat of a newly militarized Germany. America had never had to seriously consider what a war with machine guns and long-range artillery bombardment does to entire generations. Hence Paths of Glory would have had a strong effect on what was an isolationist and (then) anti- military body politic. In 2024 we wear our cynicism as readily as a sports fan wears a favored player’s jersey

The emotional power, the humanist morality and the fine writing make Paths to Glory a must read.

[Mary Slowik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgive me for beginning with a long excerpt:

"'...And then they call the business of going with a woman the instinct of self-reproduction, when all it is is the instinct of going with a woman. Do you want a child every time you tear off a piece? You do not, and you take good care not to have one. It's the finest indoor and outdoor sport there is and there's no need for any further justification of it. Why do people have to go round trying to make it a noble thing by saying they are reproducing their species when all they're doing is having some fun?'
'Well, if they acted the way you talk, the race would die out.'
'All right, and who'd be the worse off for that? Plenty of races have died out and nobody seems to be mourning them. Ours will too, and I can bet the animals will be delighted when the day comes.'
'What about the unborn children?'
'What about them? I wish I was an unborn child this minute. . .'
'That's because we're going to attack tomorrow.'
'D'you think you're doing anybody a favour by creating them out of nothing for the very doubtful joy of living a life of misery and pain in the world of men, the most savage of the predatory animals?'
'It's nature's law. I've got nothing to do with it.'
'Take this war,' Langlois continued. 'Do you think our parents would have had us if they had foreseen the things they were sentencing us to?'"

As brilliant as this book is, I still have to place it on my the-movie-is-better shelf. The changes made by Jim Thompson and Stanley Kubrick in adapting it were intelligent ones, except perhaps for dropping that anti-natalist dialogue.

Having said that, Paths of Glory is a beautifully grim anti-war novel of World War One, much more powerful and enjoyable (and shorter) than Parade's End, which I recently tackled. It has a deliciously pessimistic tone throughout, with a light dose of moral outrage thrown in, and it holds up a lot better than I expected. It has aged well, in other words, which is the exact opposite fate to that of Parade's End. The blasphemous, atheistic scene of the priest's visit also makes it feel more modern, a book before its time.

My borrowed copy was pretty old and dusty-- dog-ears breaking off-- but the text itself was sparkling. Highly recommended.

[Brian Bess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paths of justification

I suspect that many people who are familiar with Stanley Kubrick's classic film 'Paths of Glory' are unaware that it was based upon a novel by an author who is mostly forgotten. Humphrey Cobb was born to American parents, talked his way into the Canadian army and fought in World War I in 1915, two years before the U.S. entered the war. 'Paths of Glory,' like 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' was written by someone who actually survived that war. Published in 1935, five years after 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' Cobb's novel contained a cynicism that probably did not sit very well with Americans that were just recovering from that war only to contemplate the even greater, looming threat of Hitler and the Nazis.

The narrator is omniscient and, God-like, enters the minds of multiple characters and renders the mental processes and rationalizations that each character tells himself, even the vainglorious commander who dreams up the insane idea of attacking an impregnable German fortification—the 'Pimple'. In that sense he is much like Tolstoy, in 'War and Peace, who similarly rendered very vividly the subjective experience of various participants in war. The Commander, Assolant, hopes that this attack will bolster his reputation and convince French soldiers that they are breaking a stalemate in the fighting. Meanwhile, the ones more directly involved in the fighting i.e. those further down the chain of command, have a more realistic impression of what is really at stake. Colonel Dax, the commander of the regiment, lodges a futile protest, but must follow orders and lead the attack. As expected, the assault is suicidal. As though beating a horse with a broken leg and ordering him to get up and keep galloping, Assolant urges French artillerymen to fire shells on their own men, to spur them into action. As a way to avoid taking responsibility and bearing the shame of failure, Assolant contends that the men were cowards. If the fort was really impregnable, the dead bodies of all of them would be the proof. The fact that soldiers survive is evidence that they were cowards and did not press the attack.

The wave of bureaucratic buck-passing results in an order for company commanders to select one person from each unit to be charged and tried for cowardice. Cobb delves into the consciousness of each of these company commanders to explore the labyrinths of their mental processes for determining who they would submit as a sacrifice for the company. One commander refuses to comply, stating that none of his men were cowards and all acted bravely. His punishment for refusal is never explored but we know that he will pay for his defiance in some way. This leaves three men. The account of how each of them is chosen is fascinating and leads into a rumination on how each commander handles 'playing God.' To put it simply, chance, personal vendetta and existential reasoning all contribute to the decision-making.

Unsurprisingly, the trial is a farce. One decision Kubrick made with his film which not only rendered the story more cinematic but streamlined the plot and allowed the viewer to follow one protagonist, was by making Dax both reluctant commander of the assault and defense attorney for the accused. In the novel, the attorney is another character, Etienne, who says all the things Dax says in the film, pulls out all his defense strategies, realizes he has fought a lost cause and disappears from the action.

The Christian overtones of an innocent being sacrificed are not lost on Cobb. The parallels with a crucifixion are noted by one of the condemned as he sees that there are three posts resembling crosses to which each man will be tied and executed by the firing squad. This is no spoiler to anyone who has seen the film or knows much at all about this story. The inevitable conclusion becomes apparent as soon as Assolant tries to justify his decision and gets support from upper level command to conduct a court-martial for cowardice.

I am mystified as to why this novel not only fell out of print but failed to be considered an existential meditation on a level of 'The Stranger' or 'The Trial'. I don't know enough about its publishing history or its author to speculate intelligently about the lack of enthusiasm for this powerful novel, especially in the wake of the highly acclaimed film. It certainly deserves to continue to be read by anyone who feels drawn to consider the convolutions of military reasoning that is universal regardless of a specific war.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than the film, which was good in it's own right. However, the film tried to build up the character of Col. Dax in order to give the film a hero. The book is freed from this necessity. Also, the book doesn't feel the need to offer any small measures of justice or redemption. A powerful book.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A game designer I admire, Ted Raicer, has a specialty in World War I designs and has named two of my favorites after anti-war movies. Grand Illusion is based on Jean Renoir’s 1937 classic, La Grande Illusion, and Paths of Glory is based on both Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 classic, Paths of Glory which, in turn, is based on Humphrey Cobb’s 1935 novel of the same name. Cobb’s Paths of Glory could easily be renamed Paths of Gory because it is not afraid to describe the ugliest parts of war. Of course, for me the ugliest part of World War I may be the obstinacy and arrogance of the French officer corps and Cobb demonstrates that in fiction in much the same way as Barbara Tuchman did in her non-fictional, Guns of August.

To be sure, there is physical gore such as Lt. Paolacci being simultaneously shredded by an incoming shell and thrown back into a chalk pit such that his leg folded diagonally beneath him. When he smelled horse dung, he discovered that it was on his own boot resting close to his face (p. 53). At another point, one the same page, a rat starts to devour the under lip of a corpse. Morbid humor accentuates the horror when a trench named Boyau des Perdues (either “Courage of…” or “Intestine of the Lost.”) is explained to be the site of a heroic emasculation by a shell and with the missing word “Couilles” for “Intestine of the Lost Balls.” (p. 83). The slaughter of men who had bunched together in fear of the shelling (the opposite of the logical) was said to be, “The fatally gregarious instinct of troops in the face of the enemy.” (p. 81) Even the dreaded venereal infection was invoked in a brief reference to the use of permanganate of potash for prevention of venereal disease and the “dry guillotine” with its reference to self-injury to avoid continuing active duty (p. 111).

The horrors of bureaucracy are introduced as one general orders an artillery officer to fire on his own trench lines because, in the opinion of the former, the regiment had refused to advance. When the artillery officer refuses to do so without a signed, written order, he is relieved of command. But, when the charge fails, the artillery officer who was relieved becomes a scapegoat for the general who ordered the barrage against his own troops but refused to sign for it (pp. 149-150). As one of the enlisted men who survived the failed assault observed, “It’s the officers. Are we safe from them?” (p. 151) When subordinate commanders are ordered to choose one man to be summarily court-martialed, one officer considers consigning his rival (a soldier passed over for the promotion this officer received undeservedly) to this fate: “The fly in this ointment is that my personal wishes coincide too closely with my duty.” (p. 170)

I really liked the response to the pretentious officer who considered this as an intellectual exercise of “playing God.” “You speak of yourself and God as if you were messmates. It’s in poor taste, to say the least. And after all, the role is not an unusual one. Every officer who has commanded troops in the line has been responsible for the fate of his men at one time or another.” (p. 172) While mentioning life or death issues, there is one (there’s always one) character early in the book who not only states that he isn’t afraid of death (In his words, “I’m not afraid of dying, only of getting killed.” (p. 113)) but when a companion says that nobody wants to die, he asserts otherwise. “Personally, I’d rather like to. It’s the only absolute thing in life. It has a mystery and perfection all its own. I have a strong curiosity about it. So strong at times that I’ve thought quite seriously of suicide.” (p. 115) Later, his resolve is tested and he isn’t quite as sure. But that’s something readers will need to discover on their own.

There is an abominable miscarriage of justice in Paths of Glory and, even though the characters and military units are fictitious, the events and the discovery (decades later) of that miscarriage of justice were true (as noted in the afterward). Paths of Glory is truly about the horrors of war. Unfortunately, some of the enemies are supposed to be on our side.

[Alfonso D'agostino · Rating 5 out of 5]

La storia è quanto di più paradigmatico si possa immaginare: il fallito assalto ad una (inespugnabile) fortificazione tedesca deve essere giustificato dall’ambizioso generale al comando del Corpo d’Armata, e la strada scelta è la più semplice e brutale: fucilare dei soldati accusandoli di viltà di fronte al nemico.

“Sì – rispose il Generale – ma il punto è che gli uomini non sono andati avanti. Avrebbero dovuto farsi uccidere fuori dalle trincee, non dentro”

La scelta degli uomini da punire mostra la vera condanna dell’autore: non tanto – o non soltanto – della guerra, ma dei meccanismi del Potere in genere. Un soldato viene scelto per una precedente contrapposizione personale con il comando, un altro – dai precedenti civili criminali – paga un ragionamento “sociale”, un terzo viene addirittura estratto a sorte.

Il risultato è una sorta di Golgota moderno: i tre vengono fucilati abbarbicati a pali in un campo francese, e nella descrizione stessa dell’assassinio i riferimenti cristologici sono evidenti.

Dal romanzo è stata tratto il primo film di Stanley Kubrick (nota mentale: andare a comprare). Il titolo del romanzo è un omaggio a un verso della poesia di Gray “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” e fu scelto attraverso un concorso indetto dalla casa editrice: raramente una scelta popolare è stata altrettanto azzeccata.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
and all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

--- http://capitolo23.com/2016/08/14/oriz... ---

[Eric Mccutcheon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book totally surprised me. I found it at a used book store and didn't know anything about it. Honestly one, if not the best, book about war and its absurdities that I have read. There was nothing extraneous or unnecessary. I can't believe it was written as long ago as it was. Totally recommend.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb (Penguin Books 2019) (Fiction) (3687).

Humphrey Cobb has written a masterpiece of anti-war literature. First published in 1935 and based upon actual historical events in the First World War, this is the fictional story of a group of exhausted battle-hardened French combat soldiers who were court-martialed and executed for cowardice in WWI.

After taking massive casualties among their ranks, a battalion’s surviving combat veterans are marching toward a long overdue period of rest and recuperation behind the front lines. Before they have a chance to recover, the companies are ordered to the front once again. Their mission: to take an impregnable German hill fortification called “The Pimple.”

All prior Allied assaults on The Pimple have ended in disaster. The entire area at the base of the Pimple is strewn with the putrefying corpses of dead Frenchmen who had been cut to pieces by German machine gunners. The trench which the French control is the only refuge from the withering German fusillade, and the trench is filled with the bodies and the stench of dead French comrades. Though it is clear that further attacks upon the Pimple will be suicidal, when the exhausted French soldiers are ordered to charge, they bravely swarm out of the trenches and begin the assault.

This French attack upon the Pimple, like all of the prior charges, is a disaster. As soon as French soldiers begin to emerge from the trenches, they are shot to pieces. It is immediately clear that no human could withstand the withering German machine gun fire, and the French assault falters within moments. The surviving Frenchmen, who are completely pinned down by the German crossfire, have no choice but to crawl back into the trench. To move forward means certain - and pointless - death.

The French commanding officer who had planned and ordered the assault dreamed of glory and promotion accruing to himself as the victorious commander. He becomes irate and infuriated over the failed suicidal mission to overcome the Pimple. To save face, he claims that the assault’s failure was caused by cowardice on the part of the French infantry who failed to continue advancing into the murderous German fusillade.

Because of the battalion commander’s anger over the failed assault, he orders that each of the soldiers be charged with cowardice for failure to continue charging into what had proven to be the very face of death at the hands of German machine guns. He issues an order that summary courts martial take place that same day and that those found guilty be executed by firing squad the next morning (tomorrow). How this impasse plays out makes up the rest of this novel.

It is a beautiful and an awful story.

It certainly calls to the mind of this old baby boomer the well-deserved fury of the Vietnam-era anti-war protesters. (The hippies used to taunt then-President Lyndon Johnson with the chant, “Hey, Hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?”)

This book serves to remind readers that there is nothing new under the sun. The fact that the military–industrial complex had been proven to be mindless, soulless, and monstrous in 1935 had been largely forgotten by 1965.

I suppose that this has proven to be true throughout history.

Why should anyone expect anything to be different in 2022?

This book was made into a movie in 1957. It’s an excellent film (directed by Stanley Kubrick; oh boy!), but as is often the case, the film is nowhere near as good as the book.

My rating: 7.5/10, finished 10/5/22 (3687).

[Andyerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book all around. Very engaging and kinda hard to put down. Overall I enjoyed this very much

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action in this literary one-hit-wonder, written in 1935, takes place in the French army during World War I. An exhausted regiment is charged with the task of seizing an impregnable German stronghold. The mission fails, with 50% casualties, enraging the egomaniac general who promised victory to his superiors; three soldiers, as division representatives, are subsequently court-martialed and executed for "cowardice".

The book can be divided into two distinct parts, separated by the disastrous attack. During the first phase, the author presents different characters' back stories and points of view. We see the dreamy, and naive, aspirations of new recruits, the jaded perspective of seasoned veterans who have lost friends and family, and the officers' hunger for medals. War is ugly, random violence, showing no favor or discretion, and Cobb provides graphic descriptions of the wounded and dead.

The army's hierarchy is clearly established during the early portion of the book, and its machinery goes into action during the second part. Someone must pay for the the thwarting of the general's ambitions: everyone has a role to play in this drama, and they know it.

Stephen Tabachnick's afterword is an intriguing analysis of the book - praising both its intricate crafting and its cautionary message about the dangers of institutional power and control. Cobb had a somewhat embittered view of human nature and the armed forces that was clearly shared by other writers, victims of the same war:

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori." ~ Wilfred Owen

Excellent book.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

TheTrial + Catch 22+ The Things They Carried. This book sneaks up on you. As powerful a war book as I have ever read. If "Charge of the Light Brigade" were a whole book, this would be it.

[Phan Tùng · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sự tàn bạo của cái chết là đột ngột không thể nói với nhau nữa."

Chiến tranh luôn gắn với đau thương nhưng còn từ gì khủng khiếp hơn khi v/i/ê/n đ/ạ/n đó là từ nhân dân, đất nước của mình ? Không chỉ mô tả tàn khốc của chiến tranh mà còn bóc trần sự phi lý và bất công trong hệ thống q/u/â/n đ/ộ/i. Một giọng văn sắc bén, chân thực và mang đậm tính nhân văn.

Nói thật mình quá hạnh phúc và mãn nguyện khi đọc xong một kiệt tác văn học đầy sức nặng như này. Một lần nữa lại yêu Tao Đàn hơn 😁

Cốt truyện:
Câu chuyện xoay quanh cuộc sống của những người lính trong Thế chiến thứ nhất, đặc biệt là sự kiện một số binh sĩ bị kết án t/ử h/ì/n/h vì tội "p/h/ả/n l/o/ạ/n". Ở đây, công lý không tồn tại như một chuẩn mực mà bị bóp méo dưới áp lực của kỷ luật q/u/â/n đ/ộ/i. Liệu họ có thật sự "p/h/ả/n l/o/ạ/n" không hay là một thuyết âm mưu nào khác ?

“Ôi dào, nếu mày là tướng thì lãnh huân chương. Tướng luôn nhận huân chương, bất kể chuyện gì xảy ra. Nhưng nếu là lính, mày sẽ nhận cú đá vô mặt. Lính cũng sẽ lãnh đủ, bất kể chuyện gì xảy ra.”

“Có ai nói gì đến công lý đâu? Cái công lý đó không có. Nhưng bất công là một phần của cuộc sống giống như thời tiết, thế thôi.”

“Kỷ luật là đòi hỏi tiên quyết của quân đội. Một trong những cách để giữ kỷ luật là thỉnh thoảng bắn một người.”

Đặt ra câu hỏi lớn về giá trị của mạng sống con người trước những mục tiêu lớn hơn. bộc lộ sự lạnh lùng và phi nhân tính của c/h/i/ế/n t/r/a/n/h. Đường Vinh Quang còn là một tư liệu quý giá, dựa trên sự kiện có thật.

Humphrey Cobb không chỉ đơn thuần viết về chiến tranh, ông còn mổ xẻ những góc khuất của lòng người. Sự hào hùng của b/o/m đ/ạ/n, hồi hộp khi theo chân người lính trinh sát tiến vào cứ địa của địch, những bức thư cuối cùng không muốn chấm dứt vì thư là phương tiện cuối cùng để "anh được nói chuyện với em".
Đánh giá: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Đường Vinh Quang là một tác phẩm không thể bỏ qua cho bất kỳ ai muốn hiểu rõ hơn về chiến tranh, con người, và công lý. Cuốn sách để lại dấu ấn sâu sắc và ám ảnh, khiến người đọc không ngừng suy ngẫm ngay cả sau khi trang cuối cùng đã khép lại.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal.

[Carl Bacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bogen bag min yndlingsfilm. Den er rigtig god, på nogle punkter bedre end filmen, men så alligevel på flere andre falder den lidt bag filmen. Stadig en suveræn stærk bog.

[J.P. Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Humphrey Cobb knew his subject matter. Wounded while serving with the Canadian Army in World War I, his tale of a vain general, a failed attack, an unjust trial and the fate of three soldiers was compelling enough for filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to adapt into his classic film Paths of Glory.

Fast and compelling, Cobb's book captures the brutality and carnage of the Western Front as well as the army's indifference and passive obedience that allows the perpetuation of a cruel injustice.

Under three hundred pages, the book is told from multiple points of view, with grim details of trench warfare and the doomed outlook of the soldiers underscoring a dark tale of military injustice and the reduction of men to chips in a vast rigged game.

[Andrew Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. The author, Humphrey Cobb, fought with the Canadian army on the front lines in France in World War I. While he points out that the events of the novel are fiction, much of what he describes is obviously based on what he witnessed in the trenches, and the core of the book’s horrifying plot comes from actual historical events.

The book opens with two soldiers watching the tired march of a bedraggled infantry unit. Duval is fresh out of school and has not yet seen any action on the front lines. He’s excited to blaze a path to glory. Langlois is a veteran who has already served with this unit, the 181st Infantry. He has no illusions about the nature of the war.

The infantry appears headed for a rest, marching slowly to a quiet town far behind the front lines after a long period of heavy fighting. Duval and Langlois catch up just in time to hear the orders from above: the infantry is to return at once to the front. They don’t know it yet, but they’re about to be thrown into an ill-planned assault on an impregnable German position.

Cobb writes with a brutal, unsentimental realism that is more horrifying than most horror fiction. We get the first taste of the author’s narrative power when a German shell hits the French troops as they approach the trenches. Lieutenant Paolacci is blasted into a chalk pit as he tries to direct his soldiers through the barrage.

The field is so thick with the dead of the previous infantry, the Tirailleurs, that Paolacci’s men don’t bother to look for him. He’s simply gone, like so many hundreds of thousands of others, and we think we’ve seen the last him.

The narrator catches up with him, however, as he lies dying near the bottom of the chalk pit. Paolacci, half delirious, can’t understand why he keeps smelling horse dung. How could there be a horse deep in this pit of chalk? And what is the hard thing pressing into his cheek?

As the rats in the bottom of the pit begin to gather, Paolacci drifts in and out of his senses. He realizes at last that the shell has blasted through his pelvis, that his leg is folded backward underneath him, that his cheek is resting on the heel of his own boot, with his foot still in it. This is the source of the manure smell. He must have stepped in dung before the shell hit him.

Neither the reader nor Paolacci knows whether, in his delirium, he is truly calling for help or only imagines he’s calling for help. We assume he’s dead when a rat perches on his face and begins to eat his lower lip, but we can’t be sure of that either. Meanwhile, the soldiers above, his own men, rush around the lip of the chalk pit, unaware that he’s dying just beneath their feet.

There’s a lot of this kind of ugly, senseless death in Paths of Glory. The men have become inured to it, as much as is humanly possible. When they go on a nighttime scouting mission outside the trench, they have to crawl over the bodies of the Tirailleurs, staying as low as possible to avoid machine gun fire while trying to avoid the most putrid of the rotting corpses.

The story moves back and forth between the low-ranking soldiers in the trenches and the generals back at central command, who are totally out of touch with the reality of the war. This was Europe’s first mechanized war (the US had already fought one in the 1860s) and the generals, particularly the French and British, were trying to fight it like an old-style cavalry war with disastrous results. The first battle of the Marne saw over half a million casualties, while the battle of the Somme registered over a million.

Consider that for a moment. A million casualties in a single battle. Commanders on both sides were simply marching men into machine gun fire and then scratching their heads, wondering why their attacks made no progress.

Paths of Glory appears to take place during the first half of the war, when the clueless generals were still practicing this utterly destructive and ineffective form of warfare.

Back at headquarters, behind the lines, a young and ambitious General named Assolant is given the assignment to take “The Pimple,” a huge stone hill that the Germans have been using to hold the core of their front line. A mistaken communique, accidentally released to the press, claimed the French had already taken the Pimple, which would have been a major victory.

Since they’ve already announced they took it, they’d better go out and actually take it, just to save face with the public. Assolant welcomes the assignment, figuring it will earn him a coveted medal. He does some back-of-the-envelope math, figuring he’ll lose a certain percentage of his already-exhausted troops as they cross the barbed wire of no man’s land. The remainder of his forces will then easily push the Germans out of their fortified position. Assolant’s thinking represents nineteenth-century battle tactics that simply don’t apply to twentieth-century warfare.

Colonel Dax, the trench commander of the 181st, knows this plan is hopeless. He shows Assolant the mountains of dead Tirailleurs littering the barbed wire of no man’s land, brave soldiers whose corpses cannot even be retrieved for burial. Assolant is deeply offended at having this evidence of failure rubbed in his face. What has death got to do with him?

The general orders an all-out assault to begin in mere hours, and to be carried out by men who have had no rest. What’s the plan? Simple. Just march them directly into the German machine gun fire and hope enough of them get through to mount an assault. The infantry’s cook knows better. He takes a head count, then orders evening rations for half the number, knowing the other half will be dead or wounded beyond hope before the day is out.

The assault lasts all of ten minutes, as the French soldiers are simply shot to pieces before they can even leave the trenches. Soldiers going up the ladder toward the battlefield have to contend with the bodies of their comrades raining down on them.

Assolant, watching the action through a telescope, is furious. He sees his precious medal slipping away due to the cowardice of his soldiers. The fact that they haven’t made it out of the trenches proves they have no spirit. He calls the artillery commander behind the lines and orders him to train the big 75-millimeter guns on his own troops.

“Why?” asks the artillery commander.

“The soldiers won’t leave the trenches. If you fire on them, you’ll blast them out and they’ll have to fight.”

The artillery commander refuses the order. Assolant relieves him of his command and orders him to report for court martial. Deeply offended by what he sees as a failure of nerve, Assolant puts his entire infantry under arrest, and orders the commanders of the four lead companies to choose soldiers from their ranks to be executed for cowardice in the face of the enemy.

The events described in the book are loosely based on the Souain Corporals Affair of March 17, 1915, with the character of General Assolant representing the disgraced French general Géraud Réveilhac.

The story, horrifying as it has been up to this point, becomes even more horrifying as the army ranks coalesce to choose the victims of General Assolant’s wounded pride. The choice of soldiers to be tried ranges from arbitrary to vindictive. Langlois is chosen by lot to die. Didier is chosen out of spite and hatred by a cowardly alcoholic commanding officer who hates him for his competence and bravery.

The court martial is a joke, with Assolant ordering the judges ahead of time to produce the verdict he wants. The trial is so grossly unfair, the judges refuse to have a stenographer or any army record-keeper present to record the proceedings.

Captain Etienne, commander of the infantry’s seventh company, is ordered without notice to represent the defendants. He, like the reader, is appalled by the travesty of the hearing. He stands up to the judges, making an eloquent and impassioned defense of men he knows to be innocent.

The prosecutor’s response is simply, “I’m not as eloquent as the defendants' council, but I don’t need to be because the men are plainly guilty.”

The defendants are convicted, and thus Assolant saves his all-important reputation. The failure wasn’t his, it was theirs. The other soldiers of the 181st infantry are forced to execute their own men, men who fought bravely beside them in a doomed and hopeless battle.

Can you imagine anything more demoralizing?

My copy of the book, a 1987 reprint from the University of Georgia press, includes an afterword by English professor Stephen A. Tabachnick. Apparently, fifty years after its initial publication, this book was out of print. Tabachnick asks how that could be. And why isn’t Cobb’s book, which “presents one of the harshest and most uncompromising exposures and analyses of human and institutional failure ever written”, taught in English departments throughout the US?

I don’t know. I had heard of the book only because Stanley Kubrik made a film version. If not for that, I never would have picked this up. Kubrik’s film, which I haven’t yet seen, apparently softens the harshness of Cobb’s book to make it more palatable for theater audiences. That seems like a betrayal.

If you can find a copy of this book, buy it and read it. And don’t get it confused with the book of the same title by the man with an almost identical name. Irvin S. Cobb’s Paths of Glory is not the same book! Penguin Classics finally brought this book back into print in 2010, and you can find copies online or through your local bookstore.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book--it's a new favorite that I'll definitely re-read. First of all, I have to say that I fell in love with the actual book (the physical object) before I read it. Its shape is more square than typical paperbacks, the paper is thicker and the cover is good. (I realize that's a vague and subjective thing to say. I just liked the cover!)

I'm not giving away anything when I say this is "the story of three men executed to save a general's dignity." That's quoted from the first sentence on the back of the book. It's based on real events in the French army during WWI. In an author's note at the end, Cobb points to several reports (mostly in French) that detail actual occurrences that I can't believe happened.

Part of the power of this story is that you know what's going to happen (though you're not sure exactly how) from the get-go. Especially if you read the blurb on the back. You know that three men are going to be killed for absolutely no reason at all, and you have to watch it happen. It's like investing yourself in a relationship that you know is going to end very soon. The thing is, I liked getting to know these guys. I didn't feel like it was a waste of time. And of course, I was curious to learn how/why they would be executed. There are a few twists along the way, so it isn't entirely straight-forward. At the beginning of the novel, we have no idea who the three men will be. As the novel progresses, the possibilities narrow and the reader has to watch the traps around them tighten as their escapes are closed shut. It's painful.

Excellent book! I'm so glad I picked it up. Because I was so impressed with it, I read the afterword, which had some helpful information in it (e.g., a chart of the units in this particular corps). Mostly, the afterword was a defense of the novel's literary credit--which I wholeheartedly agree with. I'm looking forward to re-reading it.

Update: Just re-read this, and it's still a favorite! I watched the 1957 film adaptation of the novel and enjoyed it, but it made me want to re-read the book. I'm no war buff or enthusiast, but this book hits the spot.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

War is an inherently depressing topic, so it is not surprising that realistic books about war are depressing as well. But the latter are absolutely necessary, lest misplaced patriotic fervor obscure the awful realities that are sure to result from the next call to battle. First published in 1935, Humprey Cobb's World War I novel Paths of Glory admirably serves that purpose. Loosely inspired by the Battle of Verdun, Cobb fictionalizes a face-off between French and German troops, in which the French are ordered to launch an assault that could not possibly succeed. After suffering widespread casualties, the surviving French soldiers retreat to their camp, only to be accused by their commander of cowardice. In order to teach his troops a lesson, the commander issues an order that four soldiers are to be randomly chosen for a field court martial, from which a guilty verdict will obviously result in their execution. The selection process is absurd, the court martial is a sham, and the outcome is predictable. There's plenty of blame to go around in this tale of military bureaucratic bungling, but the title is ironic: There is no real glory to be found; instead, waste and carnage abound.

In 1957 Cobb's novel was made into a film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas. I haven't seen this highly-regarded movie, but I would not want to have watched it prior to reading the book. Cobb's spare language packs a real punch, leaving indelible images that should first be conjured up by prose rather than a theater screen. In addition, Kubrick made some alterations to the novel, which -- according to James H. Meredith's introduction -- reduced some of Cobb's bitterness, while simplifying the storyline and creating a hero/villain dichotomy where none had previously existed. It appears that Kubrick's changes reflected not only artistic decisions, but also the political temper of his time.

Thanks to Amy for putting this book in my hands.

[Eric C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb is a great book. Paths of Glory is mainly about how the soldiers are dealing with the war and how awful the war is. This book was so exciting I could not put it down. In one part of the book, two men [an officer and a soldier] were arguing about if some soldiers left the trench to charge the enemy trench or not. The officer claimed they did not leave the trench and ordered 10 men from each section to be shot for cowardly actions. The soldier claimed that the men were under very heavy fire and were not able to advance or it would be sure suicide. As the tension between them increased, the soldier convinced the officer to only execute 1 man from each section. That was my favorite part in the book because it showed how brave the soldier was to argue against an officer and save a lot of soldiers lives. This book was interesting to me because it was different from other books I have read because there is no main character; there are over 10 characters in the story. Also, there are only three chapters and every chapter starts with new people who haven't been introduced into the story yet. Even though Paths of Glory was tough to read, it was the best book I have ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn a little more about trench warfare.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was required to read this out-of-print masterpiece for a class in my final semester of law school entitled, “Law and Literature.” The class was a general survey as to the 20th Century with each book representing a particular time frame. This book quote obviously represented the period of World War I.

The French Army is ordered to take a small hill called “the Pimple,” but fails and suffers heavy casualties. Believing that his men are in mutiny, a muckety-muck orders a commander to fire on his men, which he refuses. A court martial is held where each of the four attacking sections are to send one man to face the charges. As you might imagine, there is really not much of a defense with the court martial refusing to consider defense witnesses or to allow testimony of past bravery.

I distinctly remember the more interesting elements of the novel being the manner in which each regiment selected a representative and the Kangaroo Court nature of the court martial. I know this book was designed to teach us rather lofty ideals of justice and the sometimes absurdity of following orders, but mainly it just reinforced a belief I already had that war is a pretty awful thing.

[Fabiano Parmesan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forse il più bel libro sulla assurdità della guerra e su come paghino sempre gli umili.Trasposto cinematograficamente, ma il libro è un'altra storia.

[Jessica Brockmole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hopeless mission, an obstinate general, three blindsided soldiers. PATHS OF GLORY is a powerful little novel about WWI and the futility of war. After a botched attack on a hopeless section of trench, the general is looking to salvage his dignity (but none of the blame) and orders an execution. The order, given in fury but received down through the ranks with silence, causes the men, from the officers carrying it out to the innocent soldiers waiting in prison, to rethink what it means to be brave and what it means to be unlucky in battle.

Drawing upon his own wartime experiences, Humphrey Cobb delivers a stark, unvarnished account of morality and mortality on the Western Front. Though a novel, it's based on real incidents in the French army. Highly recommended.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read during a high school English class in conjuncture with "All Quiet on the Western Front." A somewhat haunting tale of a group of French soldiers from WW I that are selected at randomn to be sent before a firing squad for cowardice and refusing to follow orders. In reality, their group had been place in a total no-win situation, and were being punished by generals who were looking to place blame for poor planning and horrible judgement by those in charge. Taken from a true story. A story that truly sticks with you. Sadly, turned into a poor movie by Stanley Kubrick. Skip the movie....read the book.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...instinct which impels men to talk themselves out of a situation by talking themselves into it." (158)

I personally fell prey to this psychological drive as I finished up Paths of Glory. Having not seen Stanley Kubrick's movie of the same title, I expected a novel akin to Catch-22 or All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, I was shocked into a devastating tale of absurd authoritarian zeal to conceal they're own mistakes by taking as victims those below them sworn to abide by their orders.

An incredibly haunting tale that strikes me as a precautionary tale not just against war, but against arbitrary rules and swearing to serve those in obscene displays of mock authority.

[Jonathan Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book, and like many books written in the past, its relevance remains pertinent in the present. This book reminded me a great deal of another fantastic novel that poignantly exposed the absurdity of militarised minds, Joseph Heller's, Catch-22; however, where Heller utilised dark, piercing humour, Cobb managed to show the absurdity without a single joke or clever characterisation; in the end, both authors, through their talents managed to come to the same frightening conclusion, that while war is indeed awful, the dark, insane, ridiculous places it pushes people toward could be considered far worse.