The Sherston trilogy is a series of books by the English poet and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

, Siegfried Sassoon, consisting of ''

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man ''Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English litera ...

'', '' Memoirs of an Infantry Officer'', and ''

Sherston's Progress ''Sherston's Progress'' is the final book of Siegfried Sassoon's semi-autobiographical trilogy. It is preceded by ''Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' and '' Memoirs of an Infantry Officer''. Synopsis The book starts with his arrival at 'Slateford ...

''. They are named after the protagonist, George Sherston - a young Englishman of the upper middle-class, living immediately before and during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The books are, in fact, ' fictionalised autobiography', wherein the only truly fictional things are the names of the characters. Sassoon himself is represented by Sherston. A comparison of the Sherston memoirs to Sassoon's later, undiluted autobiographical trilogy (''The Old Century'', ''The Weald of Youth'', and ''Siegfried's Journey'') shows their strict similarity, and it is generally accepted that all six books constitute a composite portrait of the author, and of his life as a young man. (Sassoon remarked, however, that his alter-ego personified only one-fifth of his actual personality. Unlike his author, Sherston has no poetic inclinations; nor does he deal with

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, which was illegal at the time Sassoon was writing.) The Sherston trilogy won high acclaim, and ''

'' took the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...

for Literature for 1928. The three books were printed together in one volume, ''The Memoirs of George Sherston'', in 1937.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherston Trilogy Literary trilogies