What It’s Like Falling in Love During WW1: In the Old Times

A female and male soldier sharing their love with a rose | ImageFX

Falling in love during WW1 was a challenging time. The experience was not all about romance. It was about connection, hope, and laughter amidst the world’s challenges.

If you’ve been alive during the First World War, life could have been different than what you know today. Falling in love during WW1 is a journey that is marked by uncertainty, urgency, and emotional depth. Most of the time, lovers during this period would send and receive letters, which became the lifeline of their romance as it kept the relationship alive. The Great War has become both a poetic and perilous time as long-distance affairs can take place, even if it’s hard to maintain its strength.

Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s Dick and Jane Go to War is a World War One aviation comedy, love, and fantasy book that completely merges different genres of stories. It lets readers embark on a journey of romance, historical fiction, and satire in one unpredictable ride.

In this story, you will learn about two distinctively different individuals, Dick and Jane, as they navigate their romance through Auslender’s reimagined wartime love story. These characters would get entangled in a series of weird encounters that help strengthen their delivery of love, adventure, and comedy.

The Old-Fashioned Anatomy of Love

Back in the 1900s, falling in love was an entirely different ritual. Courtship followed strict codes of etiquette. A gentleman’s letter was formal yet poetic. For example, a woman’s glance at a train station could ignite hopes for the man that he would have someone to look forward to during his next trips on the train.

Falling in love during WW1 lets one navigate the uncertainties on their way. This was the time when “I’ll come back” was a powerful sentence. It is more of a prayer than a promise.

During World War 1, many couples experienced separation. Soldiers were deployed in different parts of the world. Some were stationed in bodies of water, while others took to the skies in primitive aircraft. Medical assistants and nurses would be assigned to work in hospitals.

Even so, these separations let them nurture their love through letters, postcards, telegrams, and scribbles. These acts of immortalizing love help their relationships to bloom despite the threats of global destruction.

The Role of Humor and Fantasy in Wartime Romance

Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s novel is a perfect example of how humor can add nuance to falling in love during WW1. While war novels often lean toward tragedy, Dick and Jane Go to War employs fantasy and slapstick to remind us that absurdity was also part of wartime existence. His characters don’t just dodge bullets—they dodge logic, convention, and sometimes even gravity. Through this lens, romance isn’t just something that survives war—it transforms it.

The book’s strength lies in its unpredictability. One moment, you’re in a dogfight above the Western Front; the next, you’re witnessing an awkward but heartfelt exchange between characters trying to define affection amid chaos. In doing so, Auslender gives us WW1 love stories worth telling—ones that highlight resilience, laughter, and human connection without sugarcoating the danger.

“Dear Jane…” – Letters That Kept Hearts Beating

Romance and promises during World War 1 were stronger and more sacred because a person’s words were immortalized in letters. These words are read every day by their loved ones, which makes romance alive through the ink and the memories that come with the words. Some of these letters even have scents from their favorite perfumes, which would remind the reader about the hope that is just sitting in the shadow. You might have noticed in some media that soldiers tuck in photos and letters of their loved ones in their breast pockets to draw strength from them during the war.

Jane’s role in Auslender’s novel nods to this. Her presence—equal parts grounded and whimsical—mirrors the real women who balanced waiting, working, and wondering. Through humor, the author acknowledges the silent sacrifices of the home front, where love was expressed not through declarations but through endurance.

The Aviation Angle: Love in the Clouds

WW1 aviation was still in its infancy. Planes were fragile, open to the elements, and held together by little more than canvas, wood, and courage. Pilots were often romanticized as knights of the sky, and for good reason: they soared, quite literally, above the mud-soaked misery of trench warfare.

In “Dick and Jane Go to War,” the aviation backdrop adds a layer of chaos and possibility to the romance. The air becomes both a battleground and a stage for comedic entanglements. It’s no accident that love stories set against the clouds have an ethereal quality—half-grounded, half-dream. That duality reflects the emotional reality of falling in love during WW1: suspended between hope and despair, grounded by longing but lifted by imagination.

When Love Was an Act of Rebellion

In the face of global destruction, people can still choose love as their driver of defiance. Some people still say, “We believe in tomorrow,” which allows others to hope and pray for a better day. These individuals still maintain a positive outlook, despite the world conveying danger and hopelessness to others. This statement still lets others reclaim humanity.

Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s whimsical reimagining doesn’t diminish this truth; it reframes it. His novel doesn’t ask us to ignore the pain of war, but to remember that even amid absurdity, love remained a serious business. Even laughter had gravity. And every surreal plot twist echoed the unpredictability of real wartime romance.

Why Old-Time Love Still Speaks Today

You might think that falling in love in the 1900s is so far away from the modern era of instant messaging and dating apps. You should know that the emotional stakes remain the same. With long-distance relationships, some people still experience the same weight of love in romances they try to nurture.

Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s Dick and Jane Go to War helps us think about the past and reimagine what happened. With this, we get to experience scenarios that form part of the mosaic of moments, which tell stories of tragedy, comedy, and humanity. Stories like this remind us that even in the darkest hours of history, someone still falls in love, someone still dreams, and someone still waits.

A Final Word on Love in Wartime

From vintage postcards to modern-day reimaginings, the tale of falling in love during WW1 continues to captivate us. It’s not just about history—it’s about heart. It’s about the people who dared to feel deeply when the world gave them every reason not to.

Get a copy of Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s Dick and Jane Go to War today!

And that’s what Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s novel invites us to remember. That love, whether scribbled in a letter, whispered at a train station, or floated above the clouds in a biplane—has always found a way.