War Horse is a children's novel by the English writer Michael Morpurgo. It was first published in the UK by Kaye & amp; Ward in 1982. The story tells of Joey's experiences, a horse purchased by the Army for service in World War I France and the efforts of young Albert, the previous owner, to bring him home safely. It forms the basis of both award-winning games (2007) and the acknowledged adaptation of the film (2011) by Steven Spielberg.
Video War Horse (novel)
Genesis
After meeting a World War I veteran, Wilfred Ellis, who drank at a local pub in Iddesleigh and who was once in Devon Yeomanry working with horses, Morpurgo began thinking to tell the story of universal suffering from the Great War through his horse point of view, but was not sure that he could do it. He also met another villager, Captain Budgett, who had been in the cavalry in the Great War, and a third villager, Albert Weeks, who remembered the Army coming to the village to buy horses. Morpurgo thanked these three people in the dedication of this book.
Together with his wife, Morpurgo founded Farms for City Children, a charity where children in downtown live and work in rural farms for a week. Interviewed by Fi Glover on Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010, Morpurgo recounted events convincing him that he could write a book:
One of the children who came to the ranch from Birmingham, a boy named Billy, the teachers warned me that he had stammered and told me not to ask him a direct question because it would scare him if he had to be made to speak because he did not speak... I came in the last evening into the yard behind the Victorian house where they all lived, and there he was, Billy, standing with his slippers near the stable door and the lantern over his head, talking. Speaking, talking, talking, with horses. And the horse, Hebe, had his head just above the top of the cage, and he listened; that's what I noticed, that the ears will go away, and I know he knows that he has to stay there while this is going on, because this kid wants to talk, and the horse wants to listen - it is a two-way thing.. I go and get the teachers , and took them through the vegetable garden, and we stood there in the shadows, and we listened to Billy talk, and they really amazed how this boy who could not utter a word - the words just flowed. All the fear has been lost, and there is something about the intimacy of this relationship, the confidence that builds up between boys and horses, which I find very touching, and I think: Yes, you can write stories about the First World War through horse eyes, and yes , the horse does not understand every word, but he knows it's important for him to stand there and be there for this boy. "
Another inspiration for this book, after meeting the veterans and seeing Billy with Hebe's horse, is an old oil painting left by Morpurgo's wife Clare: "It is a very scary and worrying painting, not the kind you want to hang on the wall. shows the horses during the First World War rammed into a barbed wire fence that haunts me. "The painting was by FW Reed and dated 1917, and shows the British cavalry charge on the German line, with a barbed wire horse. Morpurgo wrote the fictional version of this painting in his "Author's Note" at the beginning of this book. In his version, the painting shows a red bay with a white cross on his forehead, and the painting contains a legend: "Joey, painted by Captain James Nicholls, autumn 1914." :)
Maps War Horse (novel)
Plot
One day, a man named Ted Narracott bought a young horse for 39 guineas when he was supposed to buy a calf at auction. Ted's son, Albert, named the horse Joey and grew to love him and protect the young horse from Ted when he was drunk and took care of Joey. While with Narracotts, Joey also meets a horse named Zoey, which is a source of comfort for Joey, and whose name partially inspired his name.
Soon, Ted sold Joey to the army in exchange for money, before Albert could stop him. Albert tries to register for the army, but he's too young but promises to be back for Joey. Joey was trained for soldiers by Corporal Perkins, and Captain James Nicholls was his original rider, leading an infantry unit installed. Joey soon befriended Topthorn, the horse driven by James Stewart. However, during the indictment against a group of Germans, Nicholls was killed. Stewart commissioned Trooper Warren, a nervous young man who rode heavier but good enough, to ride Joey.
During another count, Topthorn and Joey took Warren and Stewart to enemy lines, and only two of them, but they were captured by the Germans. They used Joey and Topthorn to pull an ambulance train to the hospital, where the two horses were famous and respected for saving the lives of many. The Germans allow Emilie and her grandfather, who live in a field near the front, to care for Joey and Topthorn. Emilie grew up to love Joey and Topthorn like Albert loved Joey, took care of every injury they gave and fed them every night. Soon, the Germans moved their hospital to another place because there was a battle there, and Emilie and her grandfather were allowed to keep Joey and Topthorn, which they used for their farm. Topthorn was not raised to plow, but learned quickly from Joey, who has the experience of the Narracott farm.
Soon, however, a group of German artillery passed their farm, and they took Joey and Topthorn to pull their artillery trains. The two horses meet Friedrich, who befriends them and tries to care for them as much as he can, grows to love Topthorn and tells them that he does not want to be a soldier. Joey and Topthorn are two of the last few survivors of a team that attracts artillery. One day, after drinking water with Joey, Topthorn died of heart failure. Allied Artillery began firing just after Germany and Friedrich were killed. After seeing the Allied tanks for the first time, Joey ran scared and wounded by barbed wire before breaking away. Both the Allied armies and the Central Power soldiers saw the wounded Joey in the no man's land, and an Allied soldier won possession of Joey by flipping a coin with a Central Power soldier and winning. However, a few minutes their friendly peace created a bond between the two before they parted, and both wonder what should have happened if not for war.
While being treated by an Allied animal hospital, Joey is handled by Albert, who works for the hospital and has a friend named David. Albert realizes that Joey is his old horse after seeing what he looks like and how he responds to Albert's whistle. Albert started treating Joey again as he used to. Toward the end of the war, David and two horses from the veterinary hospital were killed by a wild shell, placing Albert in a depressed state, because David had taken care of him like a father. At the end of the war, Major Martin announced that they would auction off all horses, despite protests from Sgt Thunder and the other soldiers. During the auction Sergeant Thunder lost a butcher to Joey, but an old man defeated the butcher and revealed that he was the grandfather of Emilie, who was looking for Joey. Grandpa Emilie tells Albert about how Joey and Topthorn came to their farm, and that Emilie had lost the desire to live after Joey and Topthorn were taken from their farm, with Emilie fading and dying at the age of 15. Grandfather Emilie sells Joey to Albert at a low price, in exchange for telling people about Emilie, or else "he'll just be the name on the headstone that no one will read". Albert and Joey return to England, where they live in peace and Joey meets girlfriend Albert, Maisie.
Awards
The book became runner-up for the Whitbread Book Award in 1982.
Adaptations
This book has also been made into a drama adapted by Nick Stafford. The drama, also called War Horse, was performed at Olivier Theater, National Theater in London. Production opened on October 17, 2007 and was greeted with critical acclaim - the use of human-sized horse dolls from Handspring Puppet Company won the Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Theater Award, and the Circle Theater Award London Critics for design. In February 2010 it was revealed that the game would be transferred to Broadway in New York City, and has since been seen in separate productions and tours in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Japan, as well as translations into German ( GefÃÆ'¤ hrten ) and Chinese ( ?? ). This drama continues to work all over the world.
In May 2010, it was announced Steven Spielberg would direct the film's adaptation with Richard Curtis and Lee Hall writing scenarios. Jeremy Irvine plays the main role. The full cast was revealed on June 17, 2010. The song was released on December 25, 2011.
A radio adaptation of the book was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on November 8, 2008. It featured Timothy Spall starring as Albert's voice, Brenda Blethyn as Mother and Bob Hoskins as Sgt. Thunder. The radio drama was relaunched on BBC Radio 4 Extra on November 11, 2011 as part of a special Remembrance sequence.
More information
War Horse is one of five war-related children's books featured in a special exhibit entitled Once Upon a Wartime - Classic War Crisis for Kids at Imperial War The museum in London, which runs from February 11 to October 30, 2011. The exhibition details the historical setting of the story, and the exhibits include pages from the original draft of the Morpurgo novel.
In the first publication in 1982 the book was translated only into 'a handful' of languages. As a side effect of interest in the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg, the publisher of the book was recently "inundated" with a request for translation rights for the book to coincide with the release of the film at the end of 2011.
The painting mentioned in the preface of the book, a portrait of Joey painted by Captain Nicholls and now hanging in the Village Hall (an unnamed village), is Morpurgo's fiction. However, especially since the success of the stage version of this book, so many tourists came to the village of Iddesleigh, where Morpurgo lived, and asked to see the painting in the village hall, that in 2011 Morpurgo commissioned an artist to paint only. Such oil paintings to hang there. She uses foreign artist Ali Bannister, who acts as head of "horse and make-up" artist in Steven Spielberg and also sketches the Joey sketch seen in the film.
An exhibition titled War Horse: Fact & amp; Fiction opened in October 2011 at the National Army Museum exploring the novel alongside the real-life stories of horses involved in the war and the people who depend on them, as well as drawing on novel drama and film adaptations.
Sequel
Morpurgo wrote a sequel called Farm Boy , released in October 1997.
References
External links
- Morpurgo wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 2007 about the origins of this book
- Morpurgo wrote in The Observer in 2010 about the origin of the book
- 2011 interviewed Morpurgo about the book
- Warrior Real War Horse
- The Mighty Warrior - An expanded story of Canada's cavalry horse
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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