Author

Henri Barbusse

Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) was a French novelist and journalist, best known for Under Fire (Le Feu, 1916), his searing novel of the trenches which won the Prix Goncourt. Born in Asnieres-sur-Seine, he was a committed pacifist and, later, a communist. Hell (L'Enfer, 1908) preceded his war writing.

Title at Skomlin

Hell

Henri Barbusse

From a Paris boarding-house room, a young man watches the lives next door through a hole in the wall - love, marriage, adultery, death. Barbusse's scandalous 1908 novel asks what becomes of the man who sees too much.