William Faulkner reads from his novel A Fable <br /><br />"Don't be afraid," the corporal said. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Nothing worth it."<br /><br />For a moment the old general didn't seem to have heard the corporal at all, standing a head below the other's high mountain one...<br /><br />The novel is set in France except for one episode in the United States.<br /><br />World War I is raging.<br /><br />The story shifts among many characters.<br /><br />A central event is a French regiment's refusal to attack. It is mutnity.<br /><br />There is a consequent lull on the front, both sides sensing that men might will insist on peace. <br /><br />This spirit of nonviolence is brought about by a mysterious corporal who resembles Jesus.<br /><br />The corporal is executed--again, like Jesus.<br /><br />It is May 1918—six months before the end of World War I.<br /><br />Generals on both sides unexpectedly see “the vast cumbrous machinery of war grinding to its clumsy halt” quite independent of them. <br /><br />At dawn when a French regiment is ordered to attack, every man declines to follow that order and stays in the trench. <br /><br />The Germans, having seen the mutiny, make no expected counter-attack. <br /><br />By noon the entire French front and the Germans facing it are silent. Three hours later, the American and English fronts and the facing German ones stop fighting also.<br /><br />The rebel French regiment, including the corporal and his squad, is arrested and placed in a stockade. <br /><br />There they remain while the Allied generals confer with the German generals about how to get the war started again. <br /><br />On a Thursday morning an unarmed British battalion leave trenches, going across no-man’s land to meet similar unarmed German soldiers. <br /><br />On Friday morning the corporal is tied to a post, between two men charged with robbery and murder, and is shot dead.
