Qui croit si peu aux discours glorieux sur la guerre, qui la voit comme issue de la « nuit » de l’humanité, qui estime que le seul « progrès moral » accompli depuis les temps primitifs a été l’accroissement des coûts, ne peut faire de la guerre qu’une peinture monochrome : en noir.
Henri Barbusse n’en finit pas, dans Le Feu (1916) et Clarté (1919), de raconter des épisodes nocturnes. The Shadow-Line n’en finit pas de s’enfoncer dans l’ombre (présente dès le titre même) et dans la nuit : « ‘How does it look outside ?’ I asked him. ‘Very black indeed, sir. There is something in it for certain.’ ‘In what quarter ?’ ‘All around, sir.’ » (Conrad 1916a, p.286) ; « I moved forward too, outside the circle of light into the darkness that stood in front of me like a wall. In one stride I had penetrated it. Such must have been the darkness before creation. It had closed behind me. » « everything was blotted out in the dreadful smoothness of that absolute night. » (p.290) 114 .
« The darkness had risen around the ship like a mysterious emanation from the dumb and lonely waters » (p.262) ; « The only light in the ship at night was that of the compass-lamps […] ; for the rest we were lost in the darkness » (p.279) ; « I noticed then the broad shadow on the horizon extinguishing the low stars completely, while those overhead, when I looked up, seemed to shine down on us through a veil of smoke. » (p.284) ; « There is something going on in the sky like a decomposition, like a corruption of the air, which remains as still as ever. After all, mere clouds. » (p.285) ; « When the time came the blackness would overwhelm silently the bit of starlight falling upon the ship, and the end of all things would come without a sigh, stir, or murmur of any kind, and all our hearts would cease to beat like run-down clocks. » (p.287).