Because bird song and regeneration were both written in the 1990s we see that there is a different atmosphere to some of the earlier works from such authors such as D.H. Lawrence and W. Somerset Maugham.

The moods in these two novels are very different to that of "La Tendresse" the two novels are some what more political and cover wider themes such as physiological, political fall out of war however in both regeneration and in Birdsong horrors of front line battle and difficulty of coping with times are also covered. In La Tendresse the mood is much more obvious that it is at the heart of the war because the mood is lyrical, poignant, romantic scenes contrasted with ones of intense physical and emotional suffering which at most times is a lot more detailed than the works or Faulks and Barker. I assume that Barker and Faulks were not able to create the intensity that Strauss constructs throughout his novel because this diary of events is in fact real life and not fictitious such as these two novels although these two extracts are believable the reality of La Tendresse is much greater due to it being from the war years.

The 20th century ended with a collection of new novels firmly located in the Great War a number of key novels written earlier in the century were also re issued or published for the first time. In birdsong we have a close man to man bonding relationships and this is quite similar in Regeneration with the soldiers and the doctors however in the two novels we do not really see any heterosexual bonding this may be to show the masculinity that the authors have tried to create. In a birdsong we see that there is a distant lover this maybe to get a feeling of the other soldier's homes where as in La Tendresse the main characters are the doctor and his lovers and his lovers' lovers.

The plots in the two novels are that of definite differences in a birdsong the story is of the two battle fields Somme and Passchendaele this means that the plot is obviously of classic blood and gore but still manages to have that love in war storyline. This is quite similar to all quiet on the western front this plot is mainly set up at the front line once the class mates have passed there training although this does not hold much love for the opposite sex of course there is his mother which is dieing. In regeneration Pat barker does not have as much an in depth plot as birdsong and all quiet on the western front this is due to this novel being about life after the trenches the only time the reader gets a chance to visit the frontline in this story is when one of the patients at Criaglockheart hospital has a flashback. I feel because birdsong is so easy to read and has being described as like a 'page turning thriller' it has a much easier captivated audience this novel will captivate Sebastian Faulks fans or the world war 1 readers but action oriented people will read this story too as well as people who love war stories. Because Pat Barker is not quite as graphic as Faulks she uses long dense long dialogue and a lot of historical background this is why this story mainly captures university educated English literary classes because it has a lot more two it than a basic action novel.