The Birds Fall Down Author:Rebecca West "This novel is founded on a historical event: perhaps the most momentous conversation ever to take place on a moving railway train.. ..making its way up through Northern France at the very beginning of the twentieth century, just after the close of the South African War... ..it is true that because of this conversation the morale of the powerful... more » terroist wing of the revolutionary party crumbled, and the cool-headed Lenin found the reins in his hands. It is also true that the Russian bureaucracy found the affair gravely disillusioning."« less