The Centurions

This is the first of two novels (the second was The Praetorians) dealing with the French war in Algeria, a highly contentious subject at the time of publication. Larteguy, a pseudonym, had served with the Free French during the Second World War and had been decorated several times. After the war he served as a foreign correspondent and witnessed the collapse of the French colonial empire first-hand. His novel reflects the dilemmas faced by French soldiers in Algeria following their defeat in Indochina and also deals with the gradual process of demoralisation and loss of faith among men who feel themselves to be holding the lines of ‘civilisation’ against ‘barbarism’.