The General has achieved a recent notoriety as the book White House Chief of Staff (for now) General John Kelley reads after every promotion. And since I'm a long-time fan of Forester's Horatio Hornblower books, I decided to check it out. What we have is a lean, ironic, and acerbic picture of an exemplar of British military leadership during the First World War. Our protagonist, Curzon, is a cavalry officer of the old school: Red-faced, energetic, stiffly honorable, utterly unimaginative. Sent into line at the Battle of Mons, Major Curzon distinguishes himself through unyielding defense and is promoted to Major-General. He marries a duke's daughter, trains a new division of Kitchener's Army, and is promoted to Corps level. At Ypres, at the Somme, at Arras, he proceeds in the best tradition of the British Army, sending thousands of Tommies to their deaths in the trenches in futile attacks. Curzon is untroubled by the slaughter, by innovations like gas and tanks, unable to see victory beyond brutal attrition. He participates in intrigues at G.H.Q. and the dining table, until at the end of the war, his lines broken by new German stormtrooper tactics, he rides out to meet his fate, and loses a leg to a random shell. Death before comprehension, for this general.

The kindle edition has a solid introduction by Max Hasting, placing it in historiographic context of interpreting the first World War, the popularity of generals like Haig at the time, and their subsequent erasure as donkeys and butchers. Two passages, the description of Curzon in the beginning, and the metaphor of the general staff trying to win offensives like someone who had never seen a screw before try and remove one by pulling, are legendary. The book as a whole is a strong contribution to military literature, and a fascinating character study of a vanished breed.