The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home on the crest of the Harrow-weald. Margaret Allington, his first and long-forgotten love, is nearby in the dreary suburb of Wealdstone. But the soldier is shell-shocked and can only remember the Margaret he loved fifteen years before, when he was a young man and she an inn-keeper's daughter. His cousin he remembers only as a childhood playmate; his wife he remembers not at all. The women have a choice - to leave him where he wishes to be, or to 'cure' him. It is Margaret who reveals a love so great that she can make the final sacrifice.
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Rebecca West - highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind - was a great woman (VICTORIA GLENDINNING )
Book Description
This is a masterful novel about a shell-shocked, amnesiac soldier returning from WWI to the three women who love him.
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First Sentence
"Ah, don't begin to fuss!" wailed Kitty. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
"Ah, don't begin to fuss!" wailed Kitty. Read the first page
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
By "devey2001"
Format: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.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Booklover
Format:Paperback
I'm 14 but although I struggled with the language, The Return of the Soldierhas to be one of the best books I've read in the last four months. The morals behind the tale are unforgettable and really thought provoking as well. The last page had me almost in tears and I reread it just to ascertain that I had the end correct. I haven't been able to get it out of my head all this past week and I doubt I ever will. It isn't the easier of books but if you concentrate on the storyline, you soon forget the language and are drawn into the tale. I would recommend it for anyone of all ages.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This bittersweet novel has a deceptively simple story which is brought to life through prose which is more like poetry at times; rich and full and evocative without ever being purple or pompous. It is charged with emotion, both amusing and heartbreaking, and I'm green with envy that Rebecca West wrote this when she was only twenty-four. It may be a quick read, but it's a very intense one.
It's not a word I use often, but the writing is just perfect. The snobbery with which Kitty and Jenny greet Margaret is sometimes cruel: 'She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two is repulsive when the chambermaid retrieves it from the dust and fluff.' (p. 25) However, it is also funny, reflecting on Kitty and Jenny rather than Margaret. I couldn't help but laugh when Jenny remarks on `her deplorable umbrella, her unpardonable raincoat` (p. 33). Her writing is equally insightful and direct when emotional matters are in focus: 'There was to be a finality about his happiness which usually belongs only to loss and calamity; he was to be as happy as a ring cast into the sea is lost, as a man whose coffin has lain for centuries beneath the sod is dead.' (p. 180)
Rebecca West's use of pronouns is masterful: before Chris returns home having lost all memory of the past fifteen years, Jenny always uses `we' to refer to Kitty and herself. Even though Kitty is his wife and Jenny his cousin, both women seem to occupy the same role in making life happy and comfortable and beautiful for Chris, as they are united in their love for him. After Chris returns, Jenny talks about herself separately from Kitty, so not only is the bond between Kitty and her husband severed but also that between Kitty and Jenny. This cleverly emphasises the loneliness and isolation of Chris' erstwhile wife as, without the narrator's `we', she almost disappears from the novel, leaving the reader feeling as guilty and compassionate as Margaret does when we see her standing mournfully outside the nursery clutching her little dog, looking in at the woman her husband loves. In fact, I started out wanting to see more of Kitty and wishing her character would develop, but I very quickly realised that I wasn't supposed to know her and her absence and immaturity were deliberate and perfectly calculated.
It's not a word I use often, but the writing is just perfect. The snobbery with which Kitty and Jenny greet Margaret is sometimes cruel: 'She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two is repulsive when the chambermaid retrieves it from the dust and fluff.' (p. 25) However, it is also funny, reflecting on Kitty and Jenny rather than Margaret. I couldn't help but laugh when Jenny remarks on `her deplorable umbrella, her unpardonable raincoat` (p. 33). Her writing is equally insightful and direct when emotional matters are in focus: 'There was to be a finality about his happiness which usually belongs only to loss and calamity; he was to be as happy as a ring cast into the sea is lost, as a man whose coffin has lain for centuries beneath the sod is dead.' (p. 180)
Rebecca West's use of pronouns is masterful: before Chris returns home having lost all memory of the past fifteen years, Jenny always uses `we' to refer to Kitty and herself. Even though Kitty is his wife and Jenny his cousin, both women seem to occupy the same role in making life happy and comfortable and beautiful for Chris, as they are united in their love for him. After Chris returns, Jenny talks about herself separately from Kitty, so not only is the bond between Kitty and her husband severed but also that between Kitty and Jenny. This cleverly emphasises the loneliness and isolation of Chris' erstwhile wife as, without the narrator's `we', she almost disappears from the novel, leaving the reader feeling as guilty and compassionate as Margaret does when we see her standing mournfully outside the nursery clutching her little dog, looking in at the woman her husband loves. In fact, I started out wanting to see more of Kitty and wishing her character would develop, but I very quickly realised that I wasn't supposed to know her and her absence and immaturity were deliberate and perfectly calculated.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent value
Book arrived promptly. Intriguing story. Read it twice as it had quite an unusual style. Have recommended book to others.
Published 1 month ago by MEP
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK
Some of the prose is incredible but I didn't like the ending.
Brilliant idea, well executed. The end......just answered none of my questions. Read more
Brilliant idea, well executed. The end......just answered none of my questions. Read more
Published 2 months ago by HELEN JONES
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!
I absolutely loved this book! Had to read it for a seminar and i found the simplistic form and style of it all and the plot really enjoyable. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tahmina Rahman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heart breaking
A strange tale that took me a while to get into but once engaged with the text I felt it rip at my heart with furious emotion. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Heather
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good
Loved it. Great read. Women's lives in early twentieth century and glimpses into attitudes to class. Gentle and empathic . Ok
Published 4 months ago by pat snape
4.0 out of 5 stars
Short but intense
A cracking little novel full of intense prose that requires full concentration. The ending is rush and too happy ever after. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Aleks Budimir
4.0 out of 5 stars
Living in another world.
Written in 1918, this is a very tender and rather poetic account of the return of Chris, a shell-shocked soldier from World War One to the world of weath and luxury created by his... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. J King
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Return of the Soldier - stunning!
I had never read this author before, and faced with its precise twentieth century prose I wasn't sure that this was for me. Read more
Published 5 months ago by greenmonapia
4.0 out of 5 stars
the return of the soldier
I think this book was a good book even though I had to read it I have to use it for my A level English course about world war one it being a short book made it a better read.
Published 14 months ago by tricia
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book, enthralling story, powerful language
I had to read this novel for a university course on First World War Literature, and I have to say I'm very glad that I did. Read more
Published 15 months ago by AMH1191
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