Témoin privilégié de la vie des tranchées, Ferdinand retrace, dans un récit plein d'esprit, ses années de rat combattant au côté du soldat Juvenet qui l'a pris sous sa protection. De l'arrière au feu de Verdun, il partage le quotidien des poilus, les changements d'affectation, les offensives, mais aussi les permissions, l'attente d'informations, la solitude et surtout la peur. Un tableau vivant, nourri de réflexions sur la guerre qui, profitant de leur forme fantaisiste, se permettent d'en souligner les absurdités et l'horreur. Un ton parfois moqueur, souvent amusé ou perplexe, mais jamais cynique, donne à ces mémoires toute leur force d'évocation d'une expérience ineffable.

La Grande Guerre - on l'appelle ainsi dès 1915 - constitue un événement qui non seulement résiste au temps mais bénéficie aujourd'hui d'un vif regain d'intérêt, au moment où est commémoré son Centenaire. Ainsi, loin d'être reléguée aux archives de la mémoire collective, la Première Guerre mondiale continue d'être présente, au sens plein du terme, dans les sociétés occidentales contemporaines. Les changements d'orientation des recherches historiennes participent de cette étonnante "survie" historique : l'histoire nationale, militaire et événementielle de la guerre de 1914-1918 est aujourd'hui achevée ; restait à écrire une histoire internationale et totale de la Grande Guerre, et l'ambition de cette encyclopédie est d'y contribuer. Cet ouvrage est le fruit d'un travail collectif de plusieurs années. Il rassemble une centaine d'articles signés par les meilleurs spécialistes mondiaux du sujet et entièrement actualisés, écrits dans la perspective d'une approche nouvelle de la guerre. L'ambition est ici de couvrir tous ses aspects (militaire, politique, économique, social, technique, religieux, artistique, et plus largement culturel) afin de donner au lecteur une compréhension exhaustive de cet immense événement qui fut la matrice du XXe siècle. Cette encyclopédie s'accompagne d'une cartographie abondante et offre une iconographie pour l'essentiel inédite, tirée des fonds de l'Historial de la Grande Guerre de Péronne.

"No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story. We have been constrained by unwritten rules not to do so, by the robes of tradition and by the sanctity of our exclusive calling...But I feel it is time to speak out." Celebrated as the most successful geisha of her generation, Mineko Iwasaki was only five years old when she left her parents' home for the world of the geisha. For the next twenty-five years, she would live a life filled with extraordinary professional demands and rich rewards. She would learn the formal customs and language of the geisha, and study the ancient arts of Japanese dance and music. She would enchant kings and princes, captains of industry, and titans of the entertainment world, some of whom would become her dearest friends. Through great pride and determination, she would be hailed as one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, and one of the last great practitioners of this now fading art form. In Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki tells her story, from her warm early childhood, to her intense yet privileged upbringing in the Iwasaki okiya (household), to her years as a renowned geisha, and finally, to her decision at the age of twenty-nine to retire and marry, a move that would mirror the demise of geisha culture. Mineko brings to life the beauty and wonder of Gion Kobu, a place that "existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past." She illustrates how it coexisted within post-World War II Japan at a time when the country was undergoing its radical transformation from a post-feudal society to a modern one. "There is much mystery and misunderstanding about what it means to be a geisha. I hope this story will help explain what it is really like and also serve as a record of this unique component of Japan's cultural history," writes Mineko Iwasaki. Geisha, a Life is the first of its kind, as it delicately unfolds the fabric of a geisha's development. Told with great wisdom and sensitivity, it is a true story of beauty and heroism, and of a time and culture rarely revealed to the Western world.

"No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story. We have been constrained by unwritten rules not to do so, by the robes of tradition and by the sanctity of our exclusive calling...But I feel it is time to speak out." Celebrated as the most successful geisha of her generation, Mineko Iwasaki was only five years old when she left her parents' home for the world of the geisha. For the next twenty-five years, she would live a life filled with extraordinary professional demands and rich rewards. She would learn the formal customs and language of the geisha, and study the ancient arts of Japanese dance and music. She would enchant kings and princes, captains of industry, and titans of the entertainment world, some of whom would become her dearest friends. Through great pride and determination, she would be hailed as one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, and one of the last great practitioners of this now fading art form. In Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki tells her story, from her warm early childhood, to her intense yet privileged upbringing in the Iwasaki okiya (household), to her years as a renowned geisha, and finally, to her decision at the age of twenty-nine to retire and marry, a move that would mirror the demise of geisha culture. Mineko brings to life the beauty and wonder of Gion Kobu, a place that "existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past." She illustrates how it coexisted within post-World War II Japan at a time when the country was undergoing its radical transformation from a post-feudal society to a modern one. "There is much mystery and misunderstanding about what it means to be a geisha. I hope this story will help explain what it is really like and also serve as a record of this unique component of Japan's cultural history," writes Mineko Iwasaki. Geisha, a Life is the first of its kind, as it delicately unfolds the fabric of a geisha's development. Told with great wisdom and sensitivity, it is a true story of beauty and heroism, and of a time and culture rarely revealed to the Western world.

The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women. As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.