The Return of the Soldier Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Rebecca West, Samuel Hynes: Books

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3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most certainly a classic, 23 Jan 2004

By	"devey2001" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Return of the Soldier (Virago modern classics) (Paperback)

Every now and then I will read a novel that makes me wonder why I don't try to cut down on the other things in my life and dedicate more time to reading. The Return of the Soldier is one such book. It is to be frank a masterpiece which will greatly affect how you look upon the world and reflect on your own attitudes to life and love.

The story is simple but the book is far from a simple story. It tells of a shell shocked soldier Chris who escapes the horrors of Flanders by blotting out the last fifteen years of his life and returning to a passionate love affair of the past. He has no recollection of what has occurred since, of his marriage to the gloriously shallow and vain Kitty, of his having to take on the responsibilities of providing the wealth to allow his family to continue their affluent existence, to furnish Baldry Court with beautiful things, of the death of his father and of his own son.

But the story is not his; it belongs to the three women of his life: Kitty his wife, Jenny his childhood friend who has always loved him, and the now dowdy Margaret whose subsequent hardships in life since he left hers fifteen years ago have taken their toll on her. But more than anything it is the story of class attitudes, of England when a stiff upper lip was the order of the day and when “duty” mattered. A story of the contrasts between those who are not able to do as they wish and those sheltered from the realities of life by having all the comforts of life provided to them. It’s a story about those who have “partaken of the inalienable dignity of a requited love”, of those who have known the love of another and those whose souls have been left bitter by the lack of such. It’s a bygone age when England countryside really was the garden of Eden and the full realities of the 20th Century had not been realised.

The book is full of wonderful insights and memorable passages such as when Kitty is to meet the doctor who will “cure” Chris and return him not only to the present but also back to Flanders and the horrors of the war. It is Jenny who as she begins to see the ugliness of Kitty’s sole reflects, “Beautiful women of her type lose, in this matter of admiration alone, their tremendous sense of class distinction: they are obscurely aware that it is their mission to flash the jewel of their beauty before all men, so that they desire it and work to get the wealth to buy it. And thus be seduced by a present appetite to a tilling of the earth that serves the future.” The novel is short but it is a big story and one I have no hesitation in recommending.

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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Return of the Soldier, 4 Aug 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Return of the Soldier (Virago modern classics) (Paperback)

I read this book in order to prepare for teaching the A2 level English Literature course. Most of the texts we teach focus on the experience of life in the front. I was interested in this text because it focuses on the lives of the women at home. Ideas about what it means to be 'male' are addressed, as is the subject of shellshock. When West wrote this novel in 1919 she was clearly aware of the embarrassment and shame associated with mental health problems: the returning soldier's wife's reaction to his 'illness' is devoid of any sympathy for him; she's totally focused on how it affects her.
There are 3 women in the novel who all love the soldier: they come from differing social backgrounds; West makes much of the snobbery and patronising attitude that existed in the war years. The final irony, though, is that it is the woman from the lower class who can 'cure' the soldier.
It is a short book but still packs an emotional punch. Good for anyone interested in relationships; particularly so for students of English A level who need a quick read but plenty to write about in terms of structure and style.

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0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A short read, yet it drags on forever, 4 Nov 2008

By	Laura Morris "Perfection doesn't exist, that'... (West Midlands, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Return of the Soldier (Virago modern classics) (Paperback)

I am 17 and have just started studying A Level English Literature and the first topic I am studying is WW1 Literature. This was the first books I read and I was highly disapointed as I so desperately wanted it to be good, as a lot of the highly acclaimed WW1 literature is from a male point of view. I found a lot of it hard to follow and what I thought would be a short read turned out to be the total opposite as I was forever re-reading paragraphs because I didn't understand them. I strongly feel that the language needs to be updated for the modern audience as the overall plot is good but the prose is very hard going, especially for a young A Level student like myself.

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The Return of the Soldier (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

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