Chldr of the Sun

by Martin Burgess Green

Book Overview

Children of the Sun is a story of brilliant and later famous young people who deliberately chose decadence as an alternative lifestyle. The setting is England between World War I and World War II. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465010407
• ISBN13: 9780465010400
• Release Date: February 1976
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 454 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

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Children of the Sun...

The mind of this Martin Green is beautiful to experience. If you enjoy historical ideas and the drama of the mind, you'll love this book. He writes about the period in English intellectual history stretching from the late Victorian period through WWI and into the 30's and 40's. What was the effect of the horrors of WWI on the discriminating intellectuals of that period? That's what the author illuminates the conflicts between the Victorian and Edwardian fathers and and the post war sons, between the fathers who started the war and sons who had to fight. Fascinating, compelling and elevating. A masterpiece of intellectual history.

The Gallery of the Underread and Underreviewed

You have never heard of this book unless you are a nitpicker and a history nut or just plain lucky. The theme is why British men beginning in the 1920s all seemed so 1. gay 2. feminine 3.fussy. English characters went from Bulldog Drummond to Lord Peter - or Hercule Poirot. Green traces a generation of upper classmen - and style dictotors - who believed masculinity and male aggressivenes was the cause of all wars esp. WW1. They redefined manhood - rejecting "Father Gods" such as the King, Lord Kitchener et al. How and why and how it failed is an incredible history. They were not gay but feminized believing it to be more civilized. England especially valued maleness of the Lord Nelson or Wellington, Britsh bulldog type but the first world war killed it - temporarily. It appears James Bond brought it bacj in the 50s. I loved the book because it explained why so many fictional heroes of the 20s, 30s even 40s seemed in England so understated. And how a rigid class system could impose such behavior even as it was collapsing.