Description

While the majority of the novel concentrates on Stephen's life in France before and during the war, the novel also focuses on the life of Stephen's granddaughter, Elizabeth, and her attempts to find out more about her grandfather's experiences in World War I. The story is split into seven sections which cover three different time periods.


Birdsong has an episodic structure which moves between three different periods of time before, during and after the war.
Throughout the novel there are echos of several war poets such as; Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (1918)

[edit] France 1910

The first stage is set before the war in Amiens, France where Stephen Wraysford goes to learn about the manufacturing process at the Azaire's textile factory. He stays with the Azaire family (René, Isabelle, Lisette and Grégoire) and spends the early part of the novel visiting René’s place of work.

It is revealed that René is embarrassed by his inability to father a child and beats his wife in anger. Lisette, a 16 year old girl from Azaire’s first marriage, makes suggestive remarks to Stephen throughout the first section of the novel however Stephen does not share these feelings. René’s friends Bérard, Madame Bérard and Aunt Elise come round for dinner on occasion and occasional visits out.

Lucien Lebrun, one of Azaire’s workers, gives food to the families of workers which he gets from Isabelle. This occurs behind René’s back, due to a threatened strike which eventually happens in the novel but is insignificant to the plot.

Stephen and Isabelle conduct a passionate affair. When René finds out he tells Stephen that he will go to hell. Stephen and Isabelle run away together but Isabelle eventually returns to her sister Jeanne as she finds out she is pregnant and doesn’t know how Stephen will react. It is afterwards revealed that Isabelle’s and Jeanne’s father made a deal with Azaire for Isabelle’s return to the family after feeling guilty for leaving René and the children. Isabelle is forgiven by the family. She later in the novel goes on to raise her child (a girl called Françoise) with a German soldier called Max.

[edit] France 1916

We rejoin Stephen some years later as a Lieutenant in the British Army and through his eyes, Faulks tells about the Battle of the Somme and Messines Ridge at Ypres in the following year. The energetic character described in the first chapter of the novel contrasts with the depiction of Stephen hardened by his experiences of war. During his time in the trenches, we learn of Stephen's mental attitude to the war and the guarded comradeship he feels for his friend Captain Michael Weir and the rest of his men. However, Wraysford is regarded as a cold and distant officer by his men. Stephen refuses all offers of leave; so committed is he to fighting and staying involved with the war.

His story is paralleled with that of Jack Firebrace, a former miner, employed in the British trenches to listen for the enemy and plant mines under the German trenches. Jack is particularly motivated to fight because of the love he has for his son John back home. Faulks describes how a soldier called Hunt is terrified of going underground as an exploding shell could trap the soldiers underground causing them to suffocate. Stephen is injured in this chapter but survives.

The troops are told to make an attack on the Hawthorne Ridge but the attack seems doomed to fail with the senior officers being blamed. Gray states that Stephen should not tell his men that the attack will fail but to pray for them instead.

Stephen feels lonely and writes to Isabelle, feeling that he has no one else that he can express his feelings to. He writes about his fears that he will die, and confess that he has only ever loved her. This section of the novel ends with a bombardment leaving many soldiers in no man's land.

[edit] England 1978

Alongside the main story, there is the inquisitive narrative of Stephen's pregnant granddaugh