SOURCE: Hewett-Thayer, Harvey W. “The Novel of the Great War.” In The Modern German Novel: A Series of Studies and Appreciations, pp. 214-53. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1924.

In the following essay, Hewett-Thayer provides a survey of German World War I novels and short fiction, asserting that the fiction of period offers valuable insight into the German nationalistic psychology.

In discussing contemporary affairs it is far easier to be diverting than to be comprehensive or penetrating. This circumstance lends support to the familiar saying that criticism of current literature is merely “conversation.” Any attempt at critical evaluation of current work becomes peculiarly presuming when conditions in the world at large tend to produce a torrent of partisanship which engulfs author, reader, and critic. The possible few who stand aside are incapable of valid judgments; an aloofness which would permit the requisite perspective would at the same time betoken an...