Love, loss, and isolation in Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong

Sebastian Faulk's novel, "Birdsong" is and engaging and compelling story of the struggles that the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford endures in Europe during the time of the First World War. The novel touches on the themes of love and loss, and ultimately moves on to a harrowing description of his experiences in the trenches of the War. Stephen's granddaughter struggles to understand her grandfather's actions over fifty years after the Great War has ended.

At the beginning of the novel, young Stephen Wraysford moves to France to work. He lives in the home of the factory owner, and falls in love with the married lady of the house. The two ultimately act on their passionate feelings, and feel the social ramifications of their forbidden romance as their lives collapse around them.

Stephen and his lover run off together, but ultimately part ways. Faulk does an excellent job of conveying how the grind of day-to-day existence dulls and destroys romantic love and lust. Further, he shows how guilt, and concern over social station eventually pull the lovers apart The novel then moves forward in time to Stephen's service in the Great War. He is an officer who has moved up through the ranks and fights in the horror of the trenches. Faulk's depiction of the trenches is brutal and disturbing, "There was a man beside him missing part of his face, but walking in the same dreamlike state, his rifle pressing for- ward. His nose dangled and Stephen could see his teeth through the missing cheek. The noise was unlike anything he had heard before. It lay against his skin, shaking his bones" (Faulk).