I thought I’d take a break from outing the darker, more insane or unknown sides of the authors of some of the best known classics. One can only dip into their lives for so long before beginning to think that madness was perhaps a common characteristic among them. This week for the classic corner I thought I’d focus on one author’s depressing and yet inspiring story.
“This is a remarkable book. Written by a young – and the young are not afraid of telling the truth – it is one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read. Anne Frank’ account of the changes wrought upon eight people hiding out from the Nazis for two years during the occupation of Holland, living in constant fear and isolation, imprisoned not only by the terrible outward circumstances of war but inwardly by themselves, made me intimately and shockingly aware of war’s greatest evil – the degradation of the human spirit.
At the same time, Anne’s diary makes poignantly clear the ultimate shining nobility of that spirit. Despite the horror and the humiliation of their daily lives, these people never gave up… reading it is a rich and rewarding experience.”
