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The Return of the Soldier
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.
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.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
Rebecca West
120 books412 followersCicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,008 reviews
October 11, 2018
"I heard, amazed, his step ring strong upon the stone, for I had felt his absence as a kind of death from which he would emerge ghostlike, impalpable."
Two women await the return of a soldier, Chris, from World War I. His wife, Kitty, is an upper-class woman, still mourning the death of their child. Jenny, his cousin, serves as narrator for this beautifully written novella by Rebecca West. I felt this wasn’t so much a commentary about the war itself as it was a critique of the social classes and expectations of the day as well as an examination of truth and love. You see, Chris has suffered from shell-shock and has summarily wiped away all memory of the past fifteen years of his life. Kitty is a stranger to him, and Jenny remains as a young childhood companion. The one memory that rushes back and impresses most upon his mind is that of a first love, Margaret. Many prejudices of the upper class towards the lower class are revealed as we witness the reactions of both Kitty and Jenny towards Margaret. Jenny is so assured that she and Kitty have secured Chris’s happiness through their material wealth and beauty. "This house, this life with us, was the core of his heart." Jenny cannot imagine that the old flame could ever be rekindled with a woman as plain and simple, even offensive in her eyes, as Margaret. "She isn't beautiful any longer. She's drearily married. She's seamed and scored and ravaged by squalid circumstances. You can't love her when you see her."
I will refrain from saying too much more about the plot. It is fascinating to watch the interactions between the three women and Chris. Does truth lead to happiness? What duties do these women have towards Chris? What motivates them to act as they do? I observed Jenny’s bit of growth despite the short length of this story, and it left me hopeful. To me, Jenny was the true protagonist in this story, not simply narrating the happenings around her. This experience has changed her awareness of love and life ; what she will do with this growth… well, we can only speculate. "I felt, indeed, a cold intellectual pride in his refusal to remember his prosperous maturity and his determined dwelling in the time of his first love, for it showed him so much saner than the rest of us, who take life as it comes, loaded with the unessential and the irritating."
This was a wonderful introduction to West’s very lyrical writing. It’s a very quick read and one that certainly makes you think; the ending was very moving. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this one, and I look forward to reading more of Rebecca West.
Two women await the return of a soldier, Chris, from World War I. His wife, Kitty, is an upper-class woman, still mourning the death of their child. Jenny, his cousin, serves as narrator for this beautifully written novella by Rebecca West. I felt this wasn’t so much a commentary about the war itself as it was a critique of the social classes and expectations of the day as well as an examination of truth and love. You see, Chris has suffered from shell-shock and has summarily wiped away all memory of the past fifteen years of his life. Kitty is a stranger to him, and Jenny remains as a young childhood companion. The one memory that rushes back and impresses most upon his mind is that of a first love, Margaret. Many prejudices of the upper class towards the lower class are revealed as we witness the reactions of both Kitty and Jenny towards Margaret. Jenny is so assured that she and Kitty have secured Chris’s happiness through their material wealth and beauty. "This house, this life with us, was the core of his heart." Jenny cannot imagine that the old flame could ever be rekindled with a woman as plain and simple, even offensive in her eyes, as Margaret. "She isn't beautiful any longer. She's drearily married. She's seamed and scored and ravaged by squalid circumstances. You can't love her when you see her."
I will refrain from saying too much more about the plot. It is fascinating to watch the interactions between the three women and Chris. Does truth lead to happiness? What duties do these women have towards Chris? What motivates them to act as they do? I observed Jenny’s bit of growth despite the short length of this story, and it left me hopeful. To me, Jenny was the true protagonist in this story, not simply narrating the happenings around her. This experience has changed her awareness of love and life ; what she will do with this growth… well, we can only speculate. "I felt, indeed, a cold intellectual pride in his refusal to remember his prosperous maturity and his determined dwelling in the time of his first love, for it showed him so much saner than the rest of us, who take life as it comes, loaded with the unessential and the irritating."
This was a wonderful introduction to West’s very lyrical writing. It’s a very quick read and one that certainly makes you think; the ending was very moving. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this one, and I look forward to reading more of Rebecca West.
July 20, 2017
I shudder to think of what soldiers have to witness whist taking to the battlefield, regardless of what war they were fighting in. Some return home bathed in glory, but for others mental anguish and post traumatic stress can be emotionally paralyzing. What though of shell shock?, unable to remember the horrors of war would surely be a blessing?, but then again not. For loved ones back at home have to pick up the fragmented pieces of someones lost memories, and welcome back a complete stranger.
Reading 'The return of the Soldier' was like diving into deep water, then watching the ripple effects as they drift away. Rebecca West was apparently the first woman to write of the Great War. And this taut short novel from 1918 tells of Chris, a young English soldier with memory loss, robbing him of the last 15 years. The narrative is told from the perspective not from the frontline but from the view point of three woman, Kitty the wife, cousin Jenny, and Margaret, Chris's first love, she is the one Chris remembers most, causing pain for Kitty that she is unknown to him. This in simple terms is a tale of loss, and those surviving the burdening wreckage back at home. It may have a tragic and sad premise, but it also contains some beautifully rendered passages of writing.
When Chris returns to the family’s estate, a home he shares with Kitty and his cousin, Jenny, they turn the home into a sort of castle for him, a place where he should feel at piece and be happy, but he can’t deal with his surroundings and believes he is still in love with his sweetheart Margaret from years before. Jenny, the book’s first-person narrator, recognizes his longing for the past and laments the loss of their close friendship. Kitty struggles with Chris's behaviour, and becomes cold and withdrawn, whist for Chris he insists that he simply must see Margaret (now married herself), his love from a bygone era.
There is hardly any mention of war once these four people start to tackle the problems they face, with much of the story devoted to Jenny’s observations of the British countryside. West gives the reader much to contemplate, and the story itself feels like ones distant dream. We also learn that Chris and Kitty once had a child, who sadly passed away, leading the story to be polished off in a tender and heartfelt manner.
Although I found the story itself interesting, it's short length didn't do the characters full justice, I wanted to spend more time with them, this is testament to West's poetic writing, which was so pleasing on the eye. But she doesn’t just lay it all out there on picnic blanket, you do have to read between the lines, work through observations, and ponder on gathered thoughts. West also tackles the idea of love, and how time can take it's toll on those involved directly, you do wonder if Chris and Kitty's relationship would survived, regardless of his shell shock.
Everything ends rather abruptly, I felt a little bit cheated, but that's only because I admired so much what went before.
Reading 'The return of the Soldier' was like diving into deep water, then watching the ripple effects as they drift away. Rebecca West was apparently the first woman to write of the Great War. And this taut short novel from 1918 tells of Chris, a young English soldier with memory loss, robbing him of the last 15 years. The narrative is told from the perspective not from the frontline but from the view point of three woman, Kitty the wife, cousin Jenny, and Margaret, Chris's first love, she is the one Chris remembers most, causing pain for Kitty that she is unknown to him. This in simple terms is a tale of loss, and those surviving the burdening wreckage back at home. It may have a tragic and sad premise, but it also contains some beautifully rendered passages of writing.
When Chris returns to the family’s estate, a home he shares with Kitty and his cousin, Jenny, they turn the home into a sort of castle for him, a place where he should feel at piece and be happy, but he can’t deal with his surroundings and believes he is still in love with his sweetheart Margaret from years before. Jenny, the book’s first-person narrator, recognizes his longing for the past and laments the loss of their close friendship. Kitty struggles with Chris's behaviour, and becomes cold and withdrawn, whist for Chris he insists that he simply must see Margaret (now married herself), his love from a bygone era.
There is hardly any mention of war once these four people start to tackle the problems they face, with much of the story devoted to Jenny’s observations of the British countryside. West gives the reader much to contemplate, and the story itself feels like ones distant dream. We also learn that Chris and Kitty once had a child, who sadly passed away, leading the story to be polished off in a tender and heartfelt manner.
Although I found the story itself interesting, it's short length didn't do the characters full justice, I wanted to spend more time with them, this is testament to West's poetic writing, which was so pleasing on the eye. But she doesn’t just lay it all out there on picnic blanket, you do have to read between the lines, work through observations, and ponder on gathered thoughts. West also tackles the idea of love, and how time can take it's toll on those involved directly, you do wonder if Chris and Kitty's relationship would survived, regardless of his shell shock.
Everything ends rather abruptly, I felt a little bit cheated, but that's only because I admired so much what went before.
September 29, 2024
Some books should come with a piece of wood to bite when they hurt this much. I felt like those cowboys getting bullets pulled out. I needed anaesthetic. All I had was a limp bookmark.
The return of the soldier thrusts three women together from different social and class spheres. Their footholds are shaken when he returns with amnesia. Partial amnesia, that is. What he remembers is what was good. What is not is a grief beyond words.
Read it to find out what I mean when I say this is a story about love, not a war, to remember. And it is well worth the hurt along the way.
The return of the soldier thrusts three women together from different social and class spheres. Their footholds are shaken when he returns with amnesia. Partial amnesia, that is. What he remembers is what was good. What is not is a grief beyond words.
Read it to find out what I mean when I say this is a story about love, not a war, to remember. And it is well worth the hurt along the way.
August 8, 2014
I'll tell you I think the Second World War was much more comfortable because in the First World War the position of women was so terrible, because there you were, not in danger. Men were going out and getting killed for you and you'd much prefer they weren't. […] There was a genuine humanitarian feeling of guilt about that in the first war. It was very curious, you see. There I sat on my balcony in Leigh-on-Sea and heard guns going in France. It was a most peculiar war. It was really better, in the Second World War, when the people at home got bombed. I found it a relief. You were taking your chance and you might be killed and you weren't in that pampered sort of unnatural state.—Rebecca West (in a 1981 interview with the Paris Review)
I kept thinking of this quote when I was reading The Return of the Soldier, because I feel like it's a novel that comes out of that mixture of anger and guilt that Rebecca West is talking about – anger at the complacency of civilians, and guilt at the idea that you are one of them. This is at least one way to explain the intense unlikeability of the central characters.
A slim parable set during the First World War, the book centres on two women in exactly that "pampered, unnatural state" that West complained about – passing their time in luxurious indolence at their country seat while they wait for the man of the house to return from the front. Against this background, West orchestrates a simple but diverting ethical dilemma: when Captain Chris Baldry does come back, he's shell-shocked and suffering from acute amnesia. He can't remember the last fifteen years of his life, he has no idea who his wife is, and he's demanding to see the woman he was in love with fifteen years ago.
It should be the set-up for a melodrama, but West instead uses it – rather unexpectedly – to make a quick, vicious exploration of class relations and the nature of authenticity. Mrs Grey – our soldier's old flame, long since married to someone else – is a working-class lady, and our upper-class narrator finds her uncongenial to a degree that leaves a modern reader breathless. Mrs Grey is described as being ‘repulsively furred with neglect and poverty’, her face ‘sour with thrift’, ‘a cancerous blot on the fair world’ – ‘not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty, like an open door in a mean house that lets out the smell of cooking cabbage and the screams of children’.
What this class horror boils down to is an instinctive feeling that Mrs Grey, and those like her, are somehow not quite human – not fully real. Like her tortoise-shell umbrella, she is ‘unveracious’ (a word that crops up twice). And this unpleasant impulse is played out against the struggle over what to do with Chris, whom shell-shock has now delivered into his own unveracious world – where, to his wife's consternation, he's perfectly happy.
Happiness may be important, but the argument made by this book is that truth is more important. It is ‘a draught that we must drink or not be fully human’. By the end of the novel the narrator has come to see that it's Chris's elegant wife, not his working-class ex, who is ‘the falsest thing on earth’, and she draws a sobering conclusion about her own cherished existence:
The whole truth about us lies in our material seeming.
This is what makes the war so effective as a backdrop: an unignorable reality that threatens to make all these interpersonal dramas seem false (‘pampered’, ‘unnatural’) in comparison.
This is the sort of book that makes me really appreciate the discipline of reviewing, because it's only as I've tried try to get my thoughts down in words that I realise quite how much is going on here, considering the whole thing can be read in a couple of hours. It would make an excellent companion read to JL Carr's A Month in the Country, another English novel exploring the effects of shell-shock. This was actually Rebecca West's first novel, written when she was just 24 (she was 89 when she gave the interview at the top of this review, and as sharp as ever), and there is perhaps a certain immaturity to the set-up. But you still feel that you're communing with a uniquely incisive mind, and with so many ideas fizzing around here, it represents extraordinary bang for your buck for 140 pages.
June 4, 2020
It’s a good news bad news kind of thing. Bad news is your husband has been away serving in the trenches in World War One and you haven't heard anything from him for a while. The good news is that you find out that your husband is physically well. Bad news is that he might have shell shock. Good news is that he’s coming back home next week! Bad news – when he arrives he can no longer remember the last 15 years. It’s like “so your name is Kitty and you’re my wife? Really?”
But what he can remember is his true love of 15 years ago, who turns out to be shock horror a working class girl called Margaret, who is now a dowdy married woman. He longs to see Margaret. So they go and fetch her.
How awkward is that.
The star of this show however is the narrator Jenny who is an extraordinarily uncomfortable creation. She is the unmarried cousin who lived with the fabulously rich couple in their country home and really you would have to say that she’s in love with her cousin Chris, the returned soldier, and also worships Kitty, his picture-perfect wife. There’s something murky going on here.
When Margaret is disinterred from the lower depths Jenny cannot control her feelings of loathing and disgust. For Jenny, this Margaret is
not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty, like an open door in a mean house that lets out the smell of cooking cabbage and the screams of children
Now usually, these upper class types are careful to conceal their horror of the working class from us behind a screen of bland genteel politeness, like you see when the Royal family meets the public. But the gloves are off when Margaret trudges up the drive.
Surely she must see that…no one accustomed to live here could help wincing at such external dinginess as hers
Jenny observes poor Margaret in the hallway standing next to a table with an exquisite objet d’art on it, and she comes out with this quite amazing sentence (This might be my sentence of the year so far) (note, the plumes are feathers on her hat):
Beside the pure black of the bowl her rusty plumes looked horrible; beside that white nymph, eternally innocent of all but the contemplation of beauty, her opaque skin and her suffering wre offensive; beside its air of being the coolly conceived and leisurely executed production of a hand and brain lifted by their rare quality to the service of the not absolutely necessary, her appearance of having but for the moment ceased to cope with a vexed and needy environment struck one as a cancerous blot on the fair world.
This novel is probably too much of a neat parable on the surface, but below the waterline there are enough festering dank weeds and mouths with teeth to make any psychologist smile grimly.
Pretty much recommended.
Oh yes, the other bad news is that Rebecca West wrote this when she was 24, further fracturing my rule that good novels can't be written by anyone under 30. I may have to abandon that rule.
But what he can remember is his true love of 15 years ago, who turns out to be shock horror a working class girl called Margaret, who is now a dowdy married woman. He longs to see Margaret. So they go and fetch her.
How awkward is that.
The star of this show however is the narrator Jenny who is an extraordinarily uncomfortable creation. She is the unmarried cousin who lived with the fabulously rich couple in their country home and really you would have to say that she’s in love with her cousin Chris, the returned soldier, and also worships Kitty, his picture-perfect wife. There’s something murky going on here.
When Margaret is disinterred from the lower depths Jenny cannot control her feelings of loathing and disgust. For Jenny, this Margaret is
not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty, like an open door in a mean house that lets out the smell of cooking cabbage and the screams of children
Now usually, these upper class types are careful to conceal their horror of the working class from us behind a screen of bland genteel politeness, like you see when the Royal family meets the public. But the gloves are off when Margaret trudges up the drive.
Surely she must see that…no one accustomed to live here could help wincing at such external dinginess as hers
Jenny observes poor Margaret in the hallway standing next to a table with an exquisite objet d’art on it, and she comes out with this quite amazing sentence (This might be my sentence of the year so far) (note, the plumes are feathers on her hat):
Beside the pure black of the bowl her rusty plumes looked horrible; beside that white nymph, eternally innocent of all but the contemplation of beauty, her opaque skin and her suffering wre offensive; beside its air of being the coolly conceived and leisurely executed production of a hand and brain lifted by their rare quality to the service of the not absolutely necessary, her appearance of having but for the moment ceased to cope with a vexed and needy environment struck one as a cancerous blot on the fair world.
This novel is probably too much of a neat parable on the surface, but below the waterline there are enough festering dank weeds and mouths with teeth to make any psychologist smile grimly.
Pretty much recommended.
Oh yes, the other bad news is that Rebecca West wrote this when she was 24, further fracturing my rule that good novels can't be written by anyone under 30. I may have to abandon that rule.
July 14, 2015
How could you not enjoy a book that includes the idea of "an over-confiding explanation made by a shabby visitor while using the door-mat almost too zealously"?
PLOT
In this slim novel set during WW1, Charles and Kitty live in tasteful opulence, along with his cousin Jenny, who tells the story of Charles' memory loss. He returns to England with no memory of the last 15 years, desperate to see his youthful (and lower class) love, Margaret, who is also now married to someone else.
The story is really about the three women, their relationship with Charles, each other and their attitude to his condition. Can and should they persuade him of the truth, when he seems so happy as he is?
It is enhanced by some significant, and no doubt deliberate, omissions. In particular, we never know the content of some letters and Jenny is not privy to all that passes between Charles and Margaret when he returns.
LYRICAL LANGUAGE
Sections of it read more like poetry: "The dusk flowed in wet and cool... as if to put out the fire of confusion... and the furniture, very visible through the soft evening opacity with the observant brightness of old well-polished wood, seemed terribly aware. Strangeness had come into the house and everything was appalled by it, even time."
There are dark but insightful asides ("desolate merriment of an inattentively played pianola") and dark themes.
MEMORY LOSS
The pain of confusion caused by memory loss is the most obvious: "all the inhabitants of this new tract of time were his enemies, all its circumstances his prison bars" and "his loss of memory was a triumph over the limitation of language which prevents the mass of men making explicit statement about their spiritual relationships".
More strangely, Jenny idolises Charles far too much for a platonic cousin, though oddly, it doesn't seem to cause any friction. She talks of her "frenzied love", his "amazing goodness", "our task of refreshing him" and "passion for Chris was our point of honour".
CLASS
There are nasty attitudes to the lower middle classes. Jenny finds Margaret physically repellent, though she tries to be outwardly polite. In her narration, she mentions the "squalor" of Margaret's home (though Margaret can afford a part-time maid), that she is "not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty" and that "it would have been such agony to the finger tips to touch any part of her apparel".
In contrast, Charles' ancestral home was "a vast piece of space partitioned off from the universe and decorated partly for beauty and partly to make our privacy more insolent". Despite, or more probably because of her more humble background, Margaret sees through this brittle and selfish beauty to reveal the burden of wealth, "It's a big place. How poor Chris must have worked to keep it up." Jenny's unspoken response is that "It had been our pretence that by... organising a costly life we had been the servants of his desire. But she revealed the truth".
I doubt modern readers will have much fondness for Kitty or Jenny, but it is a poignant and excellently written book.
PLOT
In this slim novel set during WW1, Charles and Kitty live in tasteful opulence, along with his cousin Jenny, who tells the story of Charles' memory loss. He returns to England with no memory of the last 15 years, desperate to see his youthful (and lower class) love, Margaret, who is also now married to someone else.
The story is really about the three women, their relationship with Charles, each other and their attitude to his condition. Can and should they persuade him of the truth, when he seems so happy as he is?
It is enhanced by some significant, and no doubt deliberate, omissions. In particular, we never know the content of some letters and Jenny is not privy to all that passes between Charles and Margaret when he returns.
LYRICAL LANGUAGE
Sections of it read more like poetry: "The dusk flowed in wet and cool... as if to put out the fire of confusion... and the furniture, very visible through the soft evening opacity with the observant brightness of old well-polished wood, seemed terribly aware. Strangeness had come into the house and everything was appalled by it, even time."
There are dark but insightful asides ("desolate merriment of an inattentively played pianola") and dark themes.
MEMORY LOSS
The pain of confusion caused by memory loss is the most obvious: "all the inhabitants of this new tract of time were his enemies, all its circumstances his prison bars" and "his loss of memory was a triumph over the limitation of language which prevents the mass of men making explicit statement about their spiritual relationships".
More strangely, Jenny idolises Charles far too much for a platonic cousin, though oddly, it doesn't seem to cause any friction. She talks of her "frenzied love", his "amazing goodness", "our task of refreshing him" and "passion for Chris was our point of honour".
CLASS
There are nasty attitudes to the lower middle classes. Jenny finds Margaret physically repellent, though she tries to be outwardly polite. In her narration, she mentions the "squalor" of Margaret's home (though Margaret can afford a part-time maid), that she is "not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty" and that "it would have been such agony to the finger tips to touch any part of her apparel".
In contrast, Charles' ancestral home was "a vast piece of space partitioned off from the universe and decorated partly for beauty and partly to make our privacy more insolent". Despite, or more probably because of her more humble background, Margaret sees through this brittle and selfish beauty to reveal the burden of wealth, "It's a big place. How poor Chris must have worked to keep it up." Jenny's unspoken response is that "It had been our pretence that by... organising a costly life we had been the servants of his desire. But she revealed the truth".
I doubt modern readers will have much fondness for Kitty or Jenny, but it is a poignant and excellently written book.
January 20, 2019
Fan de esta novela corta, especialmente por el estilo tan delicado, sutil y nostálgico que utiliza la autora.
He disfrutado muchísimo de cada página, además es increíble cómo logra atraparte con una historia tan sencilla gracias a la manera en que va desvelando las claves de la trama poco a poco y con mucha inteligencia.
En fin, una obra que me ha parecido extrañamente poética y original.
*Buscaré más cositas de Rebecca West
He disfrutado muchísimo de cada página, además es increíble cómo logra atraparte con una historia tan sencilla gracias a la manera en que va desvelando las claves de la trama poco a poco y con mucha inteligencia.
En fin, una obra que me ha parecido extrañamente poética y original.
*Buscaré más cositas de Rebecca West
April 2, 2019
3 stars
I can sum things up here with an oxymoron: This one was too much work and too leisurely for me. Plus I didn’t connect with three of the main characters. Sounds like a one star, doesn't it? Well, no.
Let me explain. By too much work, I mean this one required my full attention. No distractions allowed. Despite making sure I was in a quiet room, I had to reread lots of sections at least twice to get the gist. Sometimes I just gave up on the gist. To be fair, my concentration could have been off when I read it, but dang, it was too much work. And it was leisurely. The author took her time in describing the settings, which for me slowed the narrative. It gave too much leash for my mind to wander and then there went my concentration again. And I didn’t care much for Chris (way underdeveloped), Kitty, or even Jenny who was just okay.
But this is not a 1-star piece of writing. That would be a terrible insult to the author. To me, it’s a 3-star novella. Though there was far too much description and need for me to use my brain, Ms. West can really write! Her prose is lyrical and lush and just so beautiful. I got to look up and learn a few new words, which I always enjoy. And I did love the 4th main character of the book, Margaret. She is sweet and loving and oh so wise. This book is also very thought provoking. It has depth. It makes the reader think (but it crossed the line with me and made my head hurt). I also maintained a great interest in how it would end.
Though this bookette was tough on me, I can at least recognize that it is a very good novella that I bet most devoted literary fiction readers will absolutely love. It was written in 1918 so free copies are available.
October 2, 2022
2.5 stars
This is West’s first novel, published in 1918. It concerns a soldier, Chris Baldry, who is 36. He goes to war in France and as a result he is suffering from shellshock. This shellshock affects his memory and he believes he is twenty-one. This clearly has an impact on his family. He has a wife, Kitty, who he does not remember at all. His cousin Jenny, who narrates and who lives with the couple (in their rather large house, no working class slumming it here), he remembers. He returns believing he still loves Margaret, with whom he had a summer fling when he was twenty-one. She is a publican’s daughter and so is of a different class and is married to someone else. Chris does not even remember his son Oliver who died aged six. This is a novella and it’s a pretty quick read. The whole point is the working out of the problem whilst West makes a series of points and raises issues for the reader to ponder. Reviews were generally good at the time. It is obviously allegorical with Chris representing the establishment, Kitty and Jenny represent tradition and Margaret innocence lost.
There were roughly about eighty thousand cases of “shell shock” by the end of the war. This pushed mental health concerns high up the public agenda, probably for the first time. West’s critique of gender and class norms are well documented and the main reasons why the book is so revered and I would agree with that analysis. However I want to focus on another aspect of the novel, its approach to mental health and the then new science of psychoanalysis. West does provoke thought:
“If madness means liability to wild error about the world, Chris was not mad. It was our peculiar shame that he had rejected us when he had attained to something saner than sanity. His very loss of memory was a triumph over the limitations of language which prevent the mass of men from making explicit statements about their spiritual relationships…. I was even willing to admit that this choice of what was to him reality…, this adroit recovery of the dropped pearl of beauty, was the act of genius I had always expected from him.”
But the question of whether he is faking it also occurs:
"Either it means he's mad, our Chris, our splendid sane Chris, all broken and queer, not knowing us…I can't bear to think of that. It can't be true. But if he isn't…"
There is a period during the novel where West seems to embrace disability and madness and accepts human imperfection. However, and there are spoilers ahead, Chris must be cured.
"Why did her tears reveal to me what I had learned long ago, but had forgotten in my frenzied love, that there is a draught we must drink or not be fully human?"
This, of course, is the essence of ableism. Full humanity is not compatible with disability. West then brings in an almost religious sense:
“I knew that one must know the truth. I knew quite well that when one is adult one must raise to one's lips the wine of the truth, heedless that it is not sweet like milk, but draws the mouth with its strength, and celebrate communion with reality, or else walk forever queer and small like a dwarf. Thirst for this sacrament had made Chris strike away the cup of lies about life that Kitty's white hands held to him, and turn to Margaret with this vast trustful gesture of his loss of memory. And helped by me she had forgotten that it is the first concern of love to safeguard the dignity of the beloved, so that neither God in his skies nor the boy peering through the hedge should find in all time one possibility for contempt, and had handed him the trivial toy of happiness.”
Obviously by this point Chris does know he has lost a part of his memory, but the above passage infantilizes him by suggesting be is not in full communion with humanity. Of course if they did not cure him “he would not be quite a man”. A real man of course has to be able and sane and no doubt dominant. West seems to change direction at the end of the novel and decides Chris must be cured. She says so herself in a later essay:
“Now, there are drawbacks about following this course. It means that [Margaret] loses him: and it means that he has to go back to his wife Kitty, whom he does not like, and to the war. On the other hand, one does not want one's loved one to live in a land of illusion and infirmity. Nobody realises all this but Margaret. Now she might have turned this over and over in her heart, and suddenly been conquered by the latter and graver consideration. But I had been obliged to tell the story in the first person, in the character of Chris's cousin Jenny.”
I have a problem with this and am reminded of Szasz’s comments on the right to be ill. Someone with cancer has the right to refuse treatment, but the right to reject psychiatric treatment is much more limited. Chris is repeatedly described as ill and a cure must be imposed on him: a neat solution is required that will not upset tradition. I have focussed on this aspect of the novel rather than gender or class. Because this is an aspect less focussed on. The way of the cure is over simplistic and seems to be a plot device to bring the tale to an end and it’s rather cruel.
This is West’s first novel, published in 1918. It concerns a soldier, Chris Baldry, who is 36. He goes to war in France and as a result he is suffering from shellshock. This shellshock affects his memory and he believes he is twenty-one. This clearly has an impact on his family. He has a wife, Kitty, who he does not remember at all. His cousin Jenny, who narrates and who lives with the couple (in their rather large house, no working class slumming it here), he remembers. He returns believing he still loves Margaret, with whom he had a summer fling when he was twenty-one. She is a publican’s daughter and so is of a different class and is married to someone else. Chris does not even remember his son Oliver who died aged six. This is a novella and it’s a pretty quick read. The whole point is the working out of the problem whilst West makes a series of points and raises issues for the reader to ponder. Reviews were generally good at the time. It is obviously allegorical with Chris representing the establishment, Kitty and Jenny represent tradition and Margaret innocence lost.
There were roughly about eighty thousand cases of “shell shock” by the end of the war. This pushed mental health concerns high up the public agenda, probably for the first time. West’s critique of gender and class norms are well documented and the main reasons why the book is so revered and I would agree with that analysis. However I want to focus on another aspect of the novel, its approach to mental health and the then new science of psychoanalysis. West does provoke thought:
“If madness means liability to wild error about the world, Chris was not mad. It was our peculiar shame that he had rejected us when he had attained to something saner than sanity. His very loss of memory was a triumph over the limitations of language which prevent the mass of men from making explicit statements about their spiritual relationships…. I was even willing to admit that this choice of what was to him reality…, this adroit recovery of the dropped pearl of beauty, was the act of genius I had always expected from him.”
But the question of whether he is faking it also occurs:
"Either it means he's mad, our Chris, our splendid sane Chris, all broken and queer, not knowing us…I can't bear to think of that. It can't be true. But if he isn't…"
There is a period during the novel where West seems to embrace disability and madness and accepts human imperfection. However, and there are spoilers ahead, Chris must be cured.
"Why did her tears reveal to me what I had learned long ago, but had forgotten in my frenzied love, that there is a draught we must drink or not be fully human?"
This, of course, is the essence of ableism. Full humanity is not compatible with disability. West then brings in an almost religious sense:
“I knew that one must know the truth. I knew quite well that when one is adult one must raise to one's lips the wine of the truth, heedless that it is not sweet like milk, but draws the mouth with its strength, and celebrate communion with reality, or else walk forever queer and small like a dwarf. Thirst for this sacrament had made Chris strike away the cup of lies about life that Kitty's white hands held to him, and turn to Margaret with this vast trustful gesture of his loss of memory. And helped by me she had forgotten that it is the first concern of love to safeguard the dignity of the beloved, so that neither God in his skies nor the boy peering through the hedge should find in all time one possibility for contempt, and had handed him the trivial toy of happiness.”
Obviously by this point Chris does know he has lost a part of his memory, but the above passage infantilizes him by suggesting be is not in full communion with humanity. Of course if they did not cure him “he would not be quite a man”. A real man of course has to be able and sane and no doubt dominant. West seems to change direction at the end of the novel and decides Chris must be cured. She says so herself in a later essay:
“Now, there are drawbacks about following this course. It means that [Margaret] loses him: and it means that he has to go back to his wife Kitty, whom he does not like, and to the war. On the other hand, one does not want one's loved one to live in a land of illusion and infirmity. Nobody realises all this but Margaret. Now she might have turned this over and over in her heart, and suddenly been conquered by the latter and graver consideration. But I had been obliged to tell the story in the first person, in the character of Chris's cousin Jenny.”
I have a problem with this and am reminded of Szasz’s comments on the right to be ill. Someone with cancer has the right to refuse treatment, but the right to reject psychiatric treatment is much more limited. Chris is repeatedly described as ill and a cure must be imposed on him: a neat solution is required that will not upset tradition. I have focussed on this aspect of the novel rather than gender or class. Because this is an aspect less focussed on. The way of the cure is over simplistic and seems to be a plot device to bring the tale to an end and it’s rather cruel.
October 15, 2024
An enjoyable read.
The cover, a magnificent painting, and the author's pen, a discovery I'm relishing, won me over. The author's unique style, a blend of vivid imagery and profound insights, is a delight to experience.
Don't be fooled by the small number of pages. This short novel is dense and intense, and the descriptions and attention paid to the characters' psychology and feelings are impressive. The three women have very different characters, but how can you not be touched by each of them?
The conclusion is not just a culmination but a poignant and tragic revelation that gives the title its full significance. It's a moment that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
This book is not just a read; it's a beautiful discovery waiting to be made!
The cover, a magnificent painting, and the author's pen, a discovery I'm relishing, won me over. The author's unique style, a blend of vivid imagery and profound insights, is a delight to experience.
Don't be fooled by the small number of pages. This short novel is dense and intense, and the descriptions and attention paid to the characters' psychology and feelings are impressive. The three women have very different characters, but how can you not be touched by each of them?
The conclusion is not just a culmination but a poignant and tragic revelation that gives the title its full significance. It's a moment that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
This book is not just a read; it's a beautiful discovery waiting to be made!
August 22, 2016
This review contains spoilers.
Chris Baldry is the soldier in the novel, an English soldier returning from the battlefield of WWI, and he is suffering shell-shock which has erased the last 15 years of his memory. He is returning to three women; Kitty, his wife who he does not remember at all; Jenny, his cousin, who lives in the household, who he remembers as a younger girl; and Margaret, a girl he loved in his youth and believes now that he still loves. It seemed to me that two of the three women are in love with him, neither of them his wife. There is a little more involved and it's a bit convoluted, and it was difficult to decide how I wanted it to end, who to pull for so to speak. I wasn't crazy about the ending. I like my endings all nicely tied up with a big bow.
Chris Baldry is the soldier in the novel, an English soldier returning from the battlefield of WWI, and he is suffering shell-shock which has erased the last 15 years of his memory. He is returning to three women; Kitty, his wife who he does not remember at all; Jenny, his cousin, who lives in the household, who he remembers as a younger girl; and Margaret, a girl he loved in his youth and believes now that he still loves. It seemed to me that two of the three women are in love with him, neither of them his wife. There is a little more involved and it's a bit convoluted, and it was difficult to decide how I wanted it to end, who to pull for so to speak. I wasn't crazy about the ending. I like my endings all nicely tied up with a big bow.
June 26, 2018
Incidente di guerra
Primo romanzo di Rebecca West, allora (1918) ventiquattrenne.
Un libro che ha la freschezza e l'incanto propri della giovinezza, anche se con qualche limite di un'opera concepita quando non si è ancora al vertice della maturità.
Una scrittura fiorita ed emozionante che rappresenta l'innamoramento con un trasporto di cui solo gli innamorati sono capaci.
Al centro, un caso d'incidente di guerra che riguarda un giovane uomo, Chris. Intorno, tre donne : la moglie, la cugina (voce narrante) e un'altra signora. Tutte hanno a che fare col ritorno del soldato.
Il luogo è una magnifica dimora, dove le prime due figure femminili attendono l'agognato ritorno. Una di loro ci dà un ritratto di se stesse : "eravamo eleganti e squisite: non ci toccavano desideri né passioni, per quanto nobili, e le nostre testoline si chinavano assorte sui bianchi fiori del lusso adagiati nelle acque scure della vita" .
Molto diversa l'altra, Margaret, "la cui personalità risplendeva nello squallore, proprio come una bella voce che risuona in una stanza buia" ; "passava accanto andando verso il giardino, con le mani protese in avanti, come se portasse doni invisibili" .
L'incidente subìto dall'uomo diventa anche l'accorgimento letterario per smascherare la dimensione umana delle protagoniste poste di fronte alla 'prova del fuoco' , perché la potenza dell'amore (con la sua componente anche 'materna') giunge dove la scienza non arriva. Ed "è la prima preoccupazione dell'amore salvaguardare la dignità di chi si ama" .
Primo romanzo di Rebecca West, allora (1918) ventiquattrenne.
Un libro che ha la freschezza e l'incanto propri della giovinezza, anche se con qualche limite di un'opera concepita quando non si è ancora al vertice della maturità.
Una scrittura fiorita ed emozionante che rappresenta l'innamoramento con un trasporto di cui solo gli innamorati sono capaci.
Al centro, un caso d'incidente di guerra che riguarda un giovane uomo, Chris. Intorno, tre donne : la moglie, la cugina (voce narrante) e un'altra signora. Tutte hanno a che fare col ritorno del soldato.
Il luogo è una magnifica dimora, dove le prime due figure femminili attendono l'agognato ritorno. Una di loro ci dà un ritratto di se stesse : "eravamo eleganti e squisite: non ci toccavano desideri né passioni, per quanto nobili, e le nostre testoline si chinavano assorte sui bianchi fiori del lusso adagiati nelle acque scure della vita" .
Molto diversa l'altra, Margaret, "la cui personalità risplendeva nello squallore, proprio come una bella voce che risuona in una stanza buia" ; "passava accanto andando verso il giardino, con le mani protese in avanti, come se portasse doni invisibili" .
L'incidente subìto dall'uomo diventa anche l'accorgimento letterario per smascherare la dimensione umana delle protagoniste poste di fronte alla 'prova del fuoco' , perché la potenza dell'amore (con la sua componente anche 'materna') giunge dove la scienza non arriva. Ed "è la prima preoccupazione dell'amore salvaguardare la dignità di chi si ama" .
March 6, 2017
I knew immediately when I started this that I was hooked. The writing grabbed me from the start. Then later I marveled at how expertly the characters were drawn; what they did and said and thought all meshed perfectly. Finally what fascinated me was the theme, the book's central question. Do you force a person to recognize the truth even if that truth may lead to unhappiness? This is a perfect book to discuss in a book club. Discussion is sure to be lively.
I adore how Rebecca West draws places and scenes. The fields, the flowers, the trees, the River Thames. How a person holds their body, how a character juts out a chin, smiles, freezes with insecurity or envelops another in a warm embrace. West knows how people reveal their inner selves through movement. How those of one social class view those of another is shown through movements, through thoughts and through words. You do not need to see this played out at the cinema; you see it right before your eyes through the author’s words.
I do not want to tell you much about the central theme. I cannot do it justice. The beauty of the book is how perfectly West envelops the reader in the dilemma. I’ll only say that the story is about a soldier returned from the war with amnesia. He no longer remembers his wife. He does remember his first love and he does remember his childhood friend. Do we forget what we want to forget?
Wanda McCaddon narrates the audiobook, using here the alias Nadia May. I highly recommend listening to this read by McCaddon! This should be read just as she reads it. The three women are perfectly portrayed - one as a dear friend with a tinge of jealousy, one as the legitimate wife and one who cares and loves and is self-effacing. The reading is very British and true to the era. Just lovely.
It seems even I can really, really like short books! This one I totally enjoyed. Thank goodness I tried another by Rebecca West. I have given Black Lamb and Grey Falcon five stars and The Fountain Overflows a measly one star. Now The Return of the Soldier gets four!
I adore how Rebecca West draws places and scenes. The fields, the flowers, the trees, the River Thames. How a person holds their body, how a character juts out a chin, smiles, freezes with insecurity or envelops another in a warm embrace. West knows how people reveal their inner selves through movement. How those of one social class view those of another is shown through movements, through thoughts and through words. You do not need to see this played out at the cinema; you see it right before your eyes through the author’s words.
I do not want to tell you much about the central theme. I cannot do it justice. The beauty of the book is how perfectly West envelops the reader in the dilemma. I’ll only say that the story is about a soldier returned from the war with amnesia. He no longer remembers his wife. He does remember his first love and he does remember his childhood friend. Do we forget what we want to forget?
Wanda McCaddon narrates the audiobook, using here the alias Nadia May. I highly recommend listening to this read by McCaddon! This should be read just as she reads it. The three women are perfectly portrayed - one as a dear friend with a tinge of jealousy, one as the legitimate wife and one who cares and loves and is self-effacing. The reading is very British and true to the era. Just lovely.
It seems even I can really, really like short books! This one I totally enjoyed. Thank goodness I tried another by Rebecca West. I have given Black Lamb and Grey Falcon five stars and The Fountain Overflows a measly one star. Now The Return of the Soldier gets four!
December 21, 2021
La guerra cambia a los que toman parte en ella, a menudo de manera irreversible. Por eso, el retorno del soldado es un tema inagotable en la literatura. En algunos casos, la experiencia supone un corte tan brutal con la vida anterior que hay dificultad para reconocer a los que eran queridos. Tal es el caso de El Coronel Chabert de Balzac, a quien su mujer y su entorno no reconocen cuando tras muchas aventuras logra volver al hogar. En esta magnífica novela de Rebecca West, escrita cuando tan sólo tenía 24 años, es Chris Baldry, el soldado, quien no reconoce a su esposa porque su mente se ha desplazado 15 años atrás y ha olvidado todo lo referente a la guerra, a su matrimonio y al hijo que perdieron.
Está escrita en 1918, cuando la pérdida de memoria y otros traumas psicológicos ocasionados por la guerra - un síndrome conocido entonces como 'shell shock' y hoy en día como 'estrés postraumático' - llegaron a afectar a 80.000 hombres al final de la contienda. Por tanto era un tema de actualidad, así como las primeras terapias psicológicas que se popularizaron en la época por la obra de Sigmund Freud.
Pero lo más apasionante de esta novela son los personajes, ese cuadrilátero amoroso que la autora construye en torno al soldado y que le sirve para criticar y poner en evidencia las trampas de las relaciones entre los sexos y los diversos modos de hipocresía y escapismo. Está Kitty, la adorable y perfecta esposa que ha ayudado a Chris a remodelar la mansión familiar y a convertirla en un entorno perfecto, una bella burbuja de bienestar y confort desde la que contemplan satisfechos a los menos afortunados - que son casi todos. Con ellos vive Jenny, la prima de Chris y compañera de juegos de la infancia, que es la que nos narra la historia y en cuya voz intuimos muchas cosas que no son aparentes a primera vista. Como su amor por el primo y el desprecio que, bajo una relación fraternal, alberga hacia Kitty. Como la infelicidad que les ronda a todos ellos en su paraíso. Todo está sugerido con elegancia, como de pasada la autora nos va dando todas las piezas del puzzle con una manera de narrar ligera y suave, aparentemente simple, pero tan llena de contenido que a veces hay que releer algún fragmento.
La trama comienza cuando aparece Margaret, que había sido el amor de Chris quince años atrás, cuando él tenía 21 años y aún no había conocido a la que sería su esposa. Tanto Kitty como Jenny quedan horrorizadas al oír que Chris ha contactado con ella, especialmente al ver su aspecto, que delata un estatus social muy diferente al suyo. A partir de aquí, todo es ironía, cada frase está cargada de sentido y al mismo tiempo hay pasión arrebatadora: en la manera en que se describe el enamoramiento de Chris y Margaret, en el dolor soterrado por la pérdida del hijo. Rebecca hace compatible la frialdad en la disección de la sociedad y las relaciones entre los sexos con algunos fragmentos donde se desbordan los sentimientos con un lenguaje apasionado.
Las descripciones de las personas son estupendas, llenas de detalles originales, como cuando habla de Kitty, la esposa modelo:
She looked so like a girl on a magazine cover that one expected to find a large '15 cents' somewhere attached to her person.
En cambio, Margaret, la amada perteneciente a una clase social inferior, es contemplada con horror por las dos mujeres, ya que representa todo aquello de lo que han querido escapar:
She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped 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.
Creo que lo más interesante es la evolución de Jenny, la narradora, que va cambiando su perspectiva a lo largo de la historia y llega incluso a ver un sentido en la manera en que Chris se refugia en el pasado:
I was even willing to admit that this choice of what was to him reality out of all the appearances so copiously presented by the world, this adroit recovery of the dropped pearl of beauty, was the act of genius I had always expected from him.
El estilo es muy elaborado y a veces presenta alguna dificultad - hay frases excesivamente largas y un poco tortuosas - pero está tan cargado de sentido que la relectura lo mejora y siempre aporta matices nuevos. Es una obra para leer con calma, recreándose en todo el significado y las reflexiones que nos aporta la autora sobre temas muy diversos, aunque la trama nos arrastre y la impaciencia nos devore por conocer el final.
Está escrita en 1918, cuando la pérdida de memoria y otros traumas psicológicos ocasionados por la guerra - un síndrome conocido entonces como 'shell shock' y hoy en día como 'estrés postraumático' - llegaron a afectar a 80.000 hombres al final de la contienda. Por tanto era un tema de actualidad, así como las primeras terapias psicológicas que se popularizaron en la época por la obra de Sigmund Freud.
Pero lo más apasionante de esta novela son los personajes, ese cuadrilátero amoroso que la autora construye en torno al soldado y que le sirve para criticar y poner en evidencia las trampas de las relaciones entre los sexos y los diversos modos de hipocresía y escapismo. Está Kitty, la adorable y perfecta esposa que ha ayudado a Chris a remodelar la mansión familiar y a convertirla en un entorno perfecto, una bella burbuja de bienestar y confort desde la que contemplan satisfechos a los menos afortunados - que son casi todos. Con ellos vive Jenny, la prima de Chris y compañera de juegos de la infancia, que es la que nos narra la historia y en cuya voz intuimos muchas cosas que no son aparentes a primera vista. Como su amor por el primo y el desprecio que, bajo una relación fraternal, alberga hacia Kitty. Como la infelicidad que les ronda a todos ellos en su paraíso. Todo está sugerido con elegancia, como de pasada la autora nos va dando todas las piezas del puzzle con una manera de narrar ligera y suave, aparentemente simple, pero tan llena de contenido que a veces hay que releer algún fragmento.
La trama comienza cuando aparece Margaret, que había sido el amor de Chris quince años atrás, cuando él tenía 21 años y aún no había conocido a la que sería su esposa. Tanto Kitty como Jenny quedan horrorizadas al oír que Chris ha contactado con ella, especialmente al ver su aspecto, que delata un estatus social muy diferente al suyo. A partir de aquí, todo es ironía, cada frase está cargada de sentido y al mismo tiempo hay pasión arrebatadora: en la manera en que se describe el enamoramiento de Chris y Margaret, en el dolor soterrado por la pérdida del hijo. Rebecca hace compatible la frialdad en la disección de la sociedad y las relaciones entre los sexos con algunos fragmentos donde se desbordan los sentimientos con un lenguaje apasionado.
Las descripciones de las personas son estupendas, llenas de detalles originales, como cuando habla de Kitty, la esposa modelo:
She looked so like a girl on a magazine cover that one expected to find a large '15 cents' somewhere attached to her person.
En cambio, Margaret, la amada perteneciente a una clase social inferior, es contemplada con horror por las dos mujeres, ya que representa todo aquello de lo que han querido escapar:
She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped 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.
Creo que lo más interesante es la evolución de Jenny, la narradora, que va cambiando su perspectiva a lo largo de la historia y llega incluso a ver un sentido en la manera en que Chris se refugia en el pasado:
I was even willing to admit that this choice of what was to him reality out of all the appearances so copiously presented by the world, this adroit recovery of the dropped pearl of beauty, was the act of genius I had always expected from him.
El estilo es muy elaborado y a veces presenta alguna dificultad - hay frases excesivamente largas y un poco tortuosas - pero está tan cargado de sentido que la relectura lo mejora y siempre aporta matices nuevos. Es una obra para leer con calma, recreándose en todo el significado y las reflexiones que nos aporta la autora sobre temas muy diversos, aunque la trama nos arrastre y la impaciencia nos devore por conocer el final.
August 9, 2008
If there is such a thing as a “perfect” book, this is it. Rebecca West’s prose is like poetry — each word perfectly chosen, each phrase perfectly turned. It’s short enough to read during a pedicure, but the emotional wallop it packs demands a better setting — perhaps a conservatory . . . or a summerhouse?? (if only!) At any rate, I wouldn’t suggest the nail salon, where I just read it, or Highway 5, where I first listened to it on tape. Regardless of where you read it, though, it’s an absolutely haunting story.
Don’t read the back cover; it gives too much away. The basic premise is gripping enough: Captain Chris Baldry, serving somewhere in France, hasn’t written home in two weeks. Chris’s wife Kitty and his cousin Jenny receive an unusual visitor — Mrs. William Grey, a woman "repulsively furred with neglect and poverty". This unknown person, with her “unforgivable” raincoat, has come to inform them that Chris has been wounded and must be suffering from shell-shock. Inexplicably, he has cabled her, not his wife and cousin. This indignity causes Kitty more pain than the fact that her husband may be injured. A letter to cousin Jenny the following day confirms that Chris has indeed been wounded and is coming home to recover; the kicker is he’s suffering from amnesia and thinks it’s 15 years earlier.
You can imagine the implications — he remembers neither his glamorous wife nor the extensive changes to his house. But who is this woman, Mrs. Grey? And how is Chris to recover from such a strange ailment? And should he recover, when recovery means returning to the front?? Rarely have I read such a poignant exploration of love and sacrifice and a completely unexpected cost of war. Published in 1918, it was the only significant novel about the Great War written by a woman, and written while the end of the war still wasn’t in sight.
Don’t read the back cover; it gives too much away. The basic premise is gripping enough: Captain Chris Baldry, serving somewhere in France, hasn’t written home in two weeks. Chris’s wife Kitty and his cousin Jenny receive an unusual visitor — Mrs. William Grey, a woman "repulsively furred with neglect and poverty". This unknown person, with her “unforgivable” raincoat, has come to inform them that Chris has been wounded and must be suffering from shell-shock. Inexplicably, he has cabled her, not his wife and cousin. This indignity causes Kitty more pain than the fact that her husband may be injured. A letter to cousin Jenny the following day confirms that Chris has indeed been wounded and is coming home to recover; the kicker is he’s suffering from amnesia and thinks it’s 15 years earlier.
You can imagine the implications — he remembers neither his glamorous wife nor the extensive changes to his house. But who is this woman, Mrs. Grey? And how is Chris to recover from such a strange ailment? And should he recover, when recovery means returning to the front?? Rarely have I read such a poignant exploration of love and sacrifice and a completely unexpected cost of war. Published in 1918, it was the only significant novel about the Great War written by a woman, and written while the end of the war still wasn’t in sight.
March 15, 2021
This is an absolute gem. A short novel, exquisitely written, it is a paragon of the principle that one should cut out anything that does not contribute to the story.
A soldier is so pounded by shell-shock in the trenches of WW1 that the last 15 years of his life are wiped from his memory, blanking out the beautiful Kitty, his wife of ten years, and his devoted cousin, Jenny, our narrator. His last memory is of an earlier love affair with Margaret, a plain and dowdy woman who is also now married, and for whom he now expresses a deep and compelling love.
Rebecca West unfolds the pain, complexity and joy of this love triangle (square?) in beautiful, spare prose. She weaves in vanity, jealousy, breathtaking social snobbery, pure love and sacrifice. It is a sophisticated telling that belies the author’s young age (24) when she wrote it in 1918. There is also a splendid introduction in this Virago edition by Victoria Glendinning, which, as always, I read after finishing the novel.
Highly recommended.
A soldier is so pounded by shell-shock in the trenches of WW1 that the last 15 years of his life are wiped from his memory, blanking out the beautiful Kitty, his wife of ten years, and his devoted cousin, Jenny, our narrator. His last memory is of an earlier love affair with Margaret, a plain and dowdy woman who is also now married, and for whom he now expresses a deep and compelling love.
Rebecca West unfolds the pain, complexity and joy of this love triangle (square?) in beautiful, spare prose. She weaves in vanity, jealousy, breathtaking social snobbery, pure love and sacrifice. It is a sophisticated telling that belies the author’s young age (24) when she wrote it in 1918. There is also a splendid introduction in this Virago edition by Victoria Glendinning, which, as always, I read after finishing the novel.
Highly recommended.
November 16, 2018
Un libro que me ha gustado un montón. Trata acerca de Chris, un soldado con neurosis de guerra que padece amnesia y que cuando regresa a casa del frente durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, de su memoria ha borrado a su bella esposa, Kitty, con la que lleva conviviendo quince años, reconoce a su prima Jennie que vive con ellos pero como compañera de infancia, y solo recuerda claramente a Margaret, su primer amor, de quince años antes de haberse casado con Kitty, y con la que quiere estar. Chris vive en la creencia de tener veinte y no treinta y cinco años.
La voz narradora es la de la prima Jennie, que hace gala de tal grado de esnobismo en ciertas situaciones que me costó digerirlo. Lo mejor, sin duda, es adentrarse en la lectura lo más ignorante posible para llegar a ese apoteósico final, porque la escritura de Rebeca West es de tal belleza absorbente que se lee del tirón.
Una joyita estilística.
La voz narradora es la de la prima Jennie, que hace gala de tal grado de esnobismo en ciertas situaciones que me costó digerirlo. Lo mejor, sin duda, es adentrarse en la lectura lo más ignorante posible para llegar a ese apoteósico final, porque la escritura de Rebeca West es de tal belleza absorbente que se lee del tirón.
Una joyita estilística.
February 23, 2022
This wonderful and heartbreaking novella covers so much in under 100 pages. A soldier returns to his home from the trenches of the First World War unable to remember anything of the last 15years and wonders where his sweetheart is. His wife and sister in their stately home are shocked by his choice of first love, a lower class woman. So many themes from the effects of war on soldiers (shell shock), class, the roles and expectations of and for women, early psychiatry (the essential and superficial self), duty and responsibility, the truth and facing up to it, and how chance can change life experiences. So much to think about after reading it. The final sentences make such an impact! Very impressive writing.
May 1, 2019
Rereading this, I now take issue with my own assertions in my first-read review (below) that this is 'a simple and simply-told story': despite this being West's first novel, she chooses to tell the story via Jenny, Chris' cousin, secretly in love with him, and an interestingly limited narrator. She is perhaps the person who is most changed by events in the book moving from an unthinking, in-bred class prejudice that instinctually despises Margaret to something far more perceptive, open, and enlightened.
Chris, the eponymous 'soldier' is the least articulated of characters: not surprisingly, perhaps, West concentrates on the three women: pretty, vacuous Kitty; faded Margaret whose open-hearted graciousness becomes a form of sanctuary, if only temporary; and Jenny herself, the perpetual looker-on.
In lots of ways the war itself is almost unnecessary - there's no sense of privation at Baldry court, almost an oasis of calm and salvation, and Chris' amnesia could have been prompted in other circumstances. And yet, in other ways, this is a book which encapsulates how the war helped to break down social and class-based securities: Baldry Court is breached by Margaret with her shabby yellow raincoat, yet it embraces her, is enriched by her, and will be the poorer when she is exiled and when Kitty is, once more, its chatelaine.
So this is deceptively simple at first glance and easy to read - but the use of a limited 1st person narrator whose vision we don't always share (especially at the start) makes this technically skilled. A subtle, impressive novel, far more resonant than its slim pages might indicate.
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Set in 1916, Chris is wounded in France and, shell-shocked, loses his memory. Fifteen years are wiped out and he becomes again the twenty-one year old young man just graduated from university falling in love for the first time, rather than the thirty-six year old man with a wife and responsibilities which he really is. Told through the voice of his devoted cousin, this is a simple and simply-told story which yet is hugely resonant and deeply moving.
There are no literary tricks to the narration, no self-conscious flourishes: and, as readers, we are drawn close inside a detailed and intimate story, that is both emotionally-restrained and feels very true.
The three women - Kitty, the beautiful wife; Jenny, the devoted cousin; Margaret, the lower-class lover - are the focus of the book, and West dissects them and their social places with a scalpel, sharp and accurate.
The Freudian psychology which imbues the end of the story feels a little old-fashioned now, but would have been relatively fresh at the time of writing (1918-19).
Overall this is a much deeper story than appears on the simple surface: the return refers not just to the physical return of Chris, but also his return to his place in the social world of the time and the reassumption of all the responsibilities and privileges that go with that. And his reluctance and stoicism in the face of those is a sad indictment of what is meant (and means?) to be a man.
Chris, the eponymous 'soldier' is the least articulated of characters: not surprisingly, perhaps, West concentrates on the three women: pretty, vacuous Kitty; faded Margaret whose open-hearted graciousness becomes a form of sanctuary, if only temporary; and Jenny herself, the perpetual looker-on.
In lots of ways the war itself is almost unnecessary - there's no sense of privation at Baldry court, almost an oasis of calm and salvation, and Chris' amnesia could have been prompted in other circumstances. And yet, in other ways, this is a book which encapsulates how the war helped to break down social and class-based securities: Baldry Court is breached by Margaret with her shabby yellow raincoat, yet it embraces her, is enriched by her, and will be the poorer when she is exiled and when Kitty is, once more, its chatelaine.
So this is deceptively simple at first glance and easy to read - but the use of a limited 1st person narrator whose vision we don't always share (especially at the start) makes this technically skilled. A subtle, impressive novel, far more resonant than its slim pages might indicate.
------------------------------------------------
Set in 1916, Chris is wounded in France and, shell-shocked, loses his memory. Fifteen years are wiped out and he becomes again the twenty-one year old young man just graduated from university falling in love for the first time, rather than the thirty-six year old man with a wife and responsibilities which he really is. Told through the voice of his devoted cousin, this is a simple and simply-told story which yet is hugely resonant and deeply moving.
There are no literary tricks to the narration, no self-conscious flourishes: and, as readers, we are drawn close inside a detailed and intimate story, that is both emotionally-restrained and feels very true.
The three women - Kitty, the beautiful wife; Jenny, the devoted cousin; Margaret, the lower-class lover - are the focus of the book, and West dissects them and their social places with a scalpel, sharp and accurate.
The Freudian psychology which imbues the end of the story feels a little old-fashioned now, but would have been relatively fresh at the time of writing (1918-19).
Overall this is a much deeper story than appears on the simple surface: the return refers not just to the physical return of Chris, but also his return to his place in the social world of the time and the reassumption of all the responsibilities and privileges that go with that. And his reluctance and stoicism in the face of those is a sad indictment of what is meant (and means?) to be a man.
May 29, 2019
Chris Baldry, a British soldier in World War I, was sent home suffering from shell shock. Although he was not physically wounded, he had a fifteen year memory loss. He was remembering life as a young man at age 21. One wonders if he is better off in a mental state outside reality. If he is "cured", he will be sent back to the front--to flooded trenches, cannon fire, and dead bodies. Which situation is really a state of madness?
Rebecca West also reminds us that the families of the soldiers are deeply changed by war. Some families lose the people they love. For others, the person that marched off to war with visions of glory returns as a different person. "The Return of the Soldier" explores wealth and class, spiritual beauty versus physical beauty, and love as we see how three women react to Chris Baldry's situation. This novella can be read quickly, but contains lots of food for thought.
Rebecca West also reminds us that the families of the soldiers are deeply changed by war. Some families lose the people they love. For others, the person that marched off to war with visions of glory returns as a different person. "The Return of the Soldier" explores wealth and class, spiritual beauty versus physical beauty, and love as we see how three women react to Chris Baldry's situation. This novella can be read quickly, but contains lots of food for thought.
September 24, 2018
Meh. The writing was good but I was pretty disappointed in the ending.
Read
March 24, 2024Маленька повістинка 1918 року видання про солдата, який з амнезією повертається з фронту, і трьох жінок у його житті - дружину (яку він не пам'ятає), кузину і кохану його юності (яка через витівки провалів у пам'яті стає теперішньою коханою). Читається страшенно дивно, бо ти знаєш історію літератури і в тебе кінець Першої світової/повоєнний час уже асоціюється зі зрілим модернізмом - ну, потік свідомості, густий метафоризм, фрагментарність оповіді - а це маленька забавочка у стилі ранішого модернізму чи навіть передмодернізму (штибу Генрі Джеймса чи раннього Е.М. Форстера). Уявіть аристократичні заміські маєтки, які продовжують існувати, ніби навколо епоха регентства і Джейн Остін, а не невротичне едвардіанство (якісь такі соціоекономічні ситуації: "at his father's death he had been obliged to take over a business that was weighted by the needs of a mob of female relatives who were all useless either in the old way, with antimacassars, or in the new way, with golf-clubs"). Уявіть болісну соціальну ніяковість від зустрічі різних соціальних класів, коли ані для низів, ані для верхів інші не є повністю людьми, а є такою напіввигаданою умовністю ("she had fixed me with a certain wet, clear, patient gaze. It is the gift of animals and those of peasant stock"). Уявіть - навколо Іпр, Сомма, пекло окопної війни, крах віри в прогрес, крах усіх великих пояснювальних систем, крах віри в західну цивілізацію, а для оповідачки досі залишається трагічним і принизливим моментом життя у домі с��ромних статків, де треба перевзуватися в капці ("All her life long Margaret, who in her time had partaken of the supreme dignity of a requited love, had lived with men who wore carpet slippers in the house"). Типу альо бля, у споруді твоєї цивілізації бомбою знесло нахрін як мінімум дві стіни, а ти бавишся на цьому розфігаченому трупі цивілізації в порцелянові сервізики й чаювання за всіма правилами?
А потім починаєш підозрювати, що ця старосвітчина - це якийсь такий захисний вибір штибу "я в хатці, нічого поганого не діється". У головного героя амнезія, але завдяки цьому він не на фронті, а в безпеці. Оповідачці (кузині головного героя) соромно, що вона вже не та юна дівчина, яку він пам'ятає - але в цьому умовному часі всі в безпеці. Вони всі старі, культура навколо них стара, література навколо них стара, світ старий - але якщо бавитися в пасторальні ігри своєї юності і в літературні форми наївніших епох, то ти в хатці, де нічого поганого ще не відбувається. Тобто авторський вибір форми - це той самий вибір, який роблять її герої, гармонія форми і змісту. (Але ефект архаїки все одно дивний.)
А потім починаєш підозрювати, що ця старосвітчина - це якийсь такий захисний вибір штибу "я в хатці, нічого поганого не діється". У головного героя амнезія, але завдяки цьому він не на фронті, а в безпеці. Оповідачці (кузині головного героя) соромно, що вона вже не та юна дівчина, яку він пам'ятає - але в цьому умовному часі всі в безпеці. Вони всі старі, культура навколо них стара, література навколо них стара, світ старий - але якщо бавитися в пасторальні ігри своєї юності і в літературні форми наївніших епох, то ти в хатці, де нічого поганого ще не відбувається. Тобто авторський вибір форми - це той самий вибір, який роблять її герої, гармонія форми і змісту. (Але ефект архаїки все одно дивний.)
September 4, 2018
“…I sat in the hall and wrote letters and noticed how sad dance music has sounded ever since the war began.”
It’s World War I, and while the men go off to fight, the women engage in their own power struggles. Some assume that power is primarily in their attractiveness. Of course, things are not so simple.
Rebecca West, 24 when this was published in 1918, takes us into the homes and the personal histories of a man and three women, and shows us how the ravages of war reach beyond the battlefield, into their very beings.
It’s a simple but thought-provoking story, loaded with poetic phrases and multiple meanings. She explores how what is expected--by your country, your community, your family--is not always what is right.
“There’s a deep self in one, the essential self, that has its wishes. And if those wishes are suppressed by the superficial self—the self that makes, as you say, efforts and usually makes them with the sole idea of putting up a good show before the neighbours—it takes its revenge.”
It’s World War I, and while the men go off to fight, the women engage in their own power struggles. Some assume that power is primarily in their attractiveness. Of course, things are not so simple.
Rebecca West, 24 when this was published in 1918, takes us into the homes and the personal histories of a man and three women, and shows us how the ravages of war reach beyond the battlefield, into their very beings.
It’s a simple but thought-provoking story, loaded with poetic phrases and multiple meanings. She explores how what is expected--by your country, your community, your family--is not always what is right.
“There’s a deep self in one, the essential self, that has its wishes. And if those wishes are suppressed by the superficial self—the self that makes, as you say, efforts and usually makes them with the sole idea of putting up a good show before the neighbours—it takes its revenge.”
September 6, 2018
What a haunting novella this is and one in which the title takes on a completely different meaning as the story progresses. There is so much depth to this story. It can be seen as a treatise on what war does to those who fight it and those who await their return, a tale about the degrees of love people experience and the sacrifices they are willing (or unwilling) to make for the good of one another, or a tragedy about the irrevocable loss of youth and innocence and the longing of the soul to recapture that time.
It has often been said that no man returns from a war unchanged, and this is all too true, but Chris Baldry has found the one way to avoid that fate, and that is to wipe the war and the fifteen years that preceded it from his mind. In this state of regression, we are allowed to see the different faces of love and loss in Chris’ life--the wife who seems to love the idea of a perfect husband rather than the man himself, the cousin who loves the man but finds there is much about him that she does not know or understand, and the love of his youth who loves him purely and unconditionally.
Perhaps it is the experience of the war that enables Chris to see beyond the surface and the material and recognize the value of the loving, though less glamorous, Margaret. He has, after all, just come from the devastation and death of the battlefield. For our narrator, the cousin Jenny, who is still under the sway of the opulence of the things they own and the mansion they live in, it takes a while to see beyond Margaret’s ugly yellow coat and frumpy housewife demeanor and into the open heart that embraces this man for his soul, offering him peace through her presence. Chris’ wife, the cold and elegant Kitty, learns nothing from Margaret. In the end, she represents the rules of society--the ones that demand we marry a person of equal status and pretend to a perfect life, and the ones that send young men off to the horrors of war.
I do not generally like to give away any plot elements when I review a book, but I found this review impossible to write without including perhaps too much of its content. For such a short book, it carries a strong message and delivers it with beautifully structured sentences, brilliant descriptions, and forceful writing. I have no doubt that I will be thinking about it for some time.
It has often been said that no man returns from a war unchanged, and this is all too true, but Chris Baldry has found the one way to avoid that fate, and that is to wipe the war and the fifteen years that preceded it from his mind. In this state of regression, we are allowed to see the different faces of love and loss in Chris’ life--the wife who seems to love the idea of a perfect husband rather than the man himself, the cousin who loves the man but finds there is much about him that she does not know or understand, and the love of his youth who loves him purely and unconditionally.
Perhaps it is the experience of the war that enables Chris to see beyond the surface and the material and recognize the value of the loving, though less glamorous, Margaret. He has, after all, just come from the devastation and death of the battlefield. For our narrator, the cousin Jenny, who is still under the sway of the opulence of the things they own and the mansion they live in, it takes a while to see beyond Margaret’s ugly yellow coat and frumpy housewife demeanor and into the open heart that embraces this man for his soul, offering him peace through her presence. Chris’ wife, the cold and elegant Kitty, learns nothing from Margaret. In the end, she represents the rules of society--the ones that demand we marry a person of equal status and pretend to a perfect life, and the ones that send young men off to the horrors of war.
I do not generally like to give away any plot elements when I review a book, but I found this review impossible to write without including perhaps too much of its content. For such a short book, it carries a strong message and delivers it with beautifully structured sentences, brilliant descriptions, and forceful writing. I have no doubt that I will be thinking about it for some time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2018
The Return of the Soldier is a story of a soldier named Chris returning home with a memory loss due to a "shell-shock" and the three women who awaits his arrival - his wife, his cousin and his former love. The story develops on how these three women, while struggling with their emotional attachment to Chris, help him to bring his memory back.
Written as a third person narrative, the story talks of the life of Chris, shifting between past and present touching on his past relationship with his former love, Margaret, his present status of not remembering the last fifteen years of his life, his struggle to accept the changes that had taken place in the last fifteen years of his life, including his marriage and wife of which he has no memory. These were described subtly and emotionally with beautifully written prose that it was almost heartbreaking.
The other side of the story is of the three women who are involved in his life. His former love, Margaret, now married, struggles with her feelings for Chris, a love she has buried fifteen years ago which has re-emerged. His wife, Kitty who is fighting despair at her husband's non recognition of her and being jealous and resentful at Margaret, who is of a lower class according to her and to whom her husband has turned to with affection. His cousin Jenny, who is the narrator, struggles with her own dear feelings for Chris, whose primary desire is to see him happy.
The story woven between these characters is emotional and at times heart breaking. The reader immediately feels sympathy for Chris, Margaret and kitty. However a question arose in my mind while reading as to the reliability of the narrator, Jenny, through whom the whole story is said. I felt that the character descriptions and observations of Kitty and Margaret by Jenny was not a sincere account of them. Her own partiality to Chris has clouded her judgement of them.
The book is well written with its beautiful prose and use of metaphors. And the story was quite interesting, although it turned out to be something altogether different from what I imagined it to be. The better part of the story was clear and comprehensible but some parts of I could not follow.
Overall, however, it was a good read and I did enjoy it.
Written as a third person narrative, the story talks of the life of Chris, shifting between past and present touching on his past relationship with his former love, Margaret, his present status of not remembering the last fifteen years of his life, his struggle to accept the changes that had taken place in the last fifteen years of his life, including his marriage and wife of which he has no memory. These were described subtly and emotionally with beautifully written prose that it was almost heartbreaking.
The other side of the story is of the three women who are involved in his life. His former love, Margaret, now married, struggles with her feelings for Chris, a love she has buried fifteen years ago which has re-emerged. His wife, Kitty who is fighting despair at her husband's non recognition of her and being jealous and resentful at Margaret, who is of a lower class according to her and to whom her husband has turned to with affection. His cousin Jenny, who is the narrator, struggles with her own dear feelings for Chris, whose primary desire is to see him happy.
The story woven between these characters is emotional and at times heart breaking. The reader immediately feels sympathy for Chris, Margaret and kitty. However a question arose in my mind while reading as to the reliability of the narrator, Jenny, through whom the whole story is said. I felt that the character descriptions and observations of Kitty and Margaret by Jenny was not a sincere account of them. Her own partiality to Chris has clouded her judgement of them.
The book is well written with its beautiful prose and use of metaphors. And the story was quite interesting, although it turned out to be something altogether different from what I imagined it to be. The better part of the story was clear and comprehensible but some parts of I could not follow.
Overall, however, it was a good read and I did enjoy it.
November 8, 2018
What a wonderful moving book , one that will stay with me for a long time.
A re-read for Armistice 2018!
A re-read for Armistice 2018!
September 10, 2012
Rebecca West (1892-1983) was an English author, journalist, literary critic and travel author. Her real name was Cicely Isabel Fairfield and she got her alias when, as a struggling actress in London, she played the role of Romersholm, a play by Henrik Ibsen. In 1913, she wrote a provocative review of H. G. Wells' Marriage and Wells invited her to lunch. They fell in love and lived discreetly together for 10 years producing a son, Anthony West. Wells was into his second marriage then so he was not able to marry Rebecca. Wells married his first cousin, Isabel Mary Wells in 1891 but they agreed to separate when Wells fell in love with his student Jane Robbins who gave him two sons: George Philip (known as "Gip") and Frank Richard. Their marriage lasted until Wells' death in 1927.
So, Rebecca West was H. G. Wells' mistress for 10 years (1913-1923). This book was first publish in 1918 when they were having an illicit affair. This was West's first novel.
The story is about Captain Chris Baldry who has to come home from trenches of World War I because he is shell-shocked. Prior to his return, he wrote a letter to his former sweetheart Margaret and a former friend. Both of them he knew 15 years ago. The friend reminded him that he is married to his rich wife Kitty but the poor captain could not remember it. Apparently, he lost his memory and the only ones we could recall were those times that happened 15 years ago. The narration is told in first person by Chris' cousin, Jenny who is secretly in love with him. Chris only remembers Jenny when they were young playing together also fifteen years ago.
This novella's plot is very simple. However, what I really liked about the book is its lyrical narration. When the characters speak, their words are plain and wordy. But when West narrates, you can't help but be mesmerized and swoon:
It seems like a simple love story using shell shock (or amnesia due to war) as an excuse to provide a textured drama. However, if you dig deeper, it is also about social prejudice (Kitty is rich, Margaret is poor and Chris, being poor himself, is not used to Kitty's wealth) and the sorrow of a father for having just lost a son. I like these kinds of stories when you have be deduce what is the underlying themes or motivations of the characters for behaving this way or that way.
As an added bonus, however, I also suspected that West wrote this from the point of view of Jenny who was like a bystander (mistress) watching the Chris (Wells) having to choose between his former sweetheart (first wife Isabel Mary) and wife (second wife Jane Robbins). I think this is the reason why West narration is heartfelt. She drew out the emotion of the narrator, Jenny, from her own heartaches.
I will definitely hunt for other Rebecca West's books.
So, Rebecca West was H. G. Wells' mistress for 10 years (1913-1923). This book was first publish in 1918 when they were having an illicit affair. This was West's first novel.
The story is about Captain Chris Baldry who has to come home from trenches of World War I because he is shell-shocked. Prior to his return, he wrote a letter to his former sweetheart Margaret and a former friend. Both of them he knew 15 years ago. The friend reminded him that he is married to his rich wife Kitty but the poor captain could not remember it. Apparently, he lost his memory and the only ones we could recall were those times that happened 15 years ago. The narration is told in first person by Chris' cousin, Jenny who is secretly in love with him. Chris only remembers Jenny when they were young playing together also fifteen years ago.
This novella's plot is very simple. However, what I really liked about the book is its lyrical narration. When the characters speak, their words are plain and wordy. But when West narrates, you can't help but be mesmerized and swoon:
"That day its beauty was an affront to me, because like most Englishwomen of my time, I was wishing for the return of a soldier. Disregarding the national interest and everything except the keen prehensile gesture of our hearts towards him, I wanted to snatch my cousin Christopher from the wars and seal him in this green pleasantness his wife and I now looked upon. Of late I had had bad dreams about him. By night I saw Chris running across the brown rottenness of No Man's Land, starring back here because he trod upon a hand, not even looking there because of the awfulness of an unburied head, and not till my dream was packed full of horror did I see him pitch forward on his knees as he reached safety - if it was that. For on the war-films I have seen men slip down as softly from the trench parapet, and not but the grimmer philosophers would say that they had reached safety by their fall. And when I escaped into wakefulness it was only to lie stiff and think of stories I had heard in the boyish voice, that rings indomitable yet has most of its gay tones flattened, of the modern subaltern."This book is only 110 pages but it took me the whole day yesterday to finish this. The prose is simply beautiful. Reading it is like having a woman caressing your heart.
It seems like a simple love story using shell shock (or amnesia due to war) as an excuse to provide a textured drama. However, if you dig deeper, it is also about social prejudice (Kitty is rich, Margaret is poor and Chris, being poor himself, is not used to Kitty's wealth) and the sorrow of a father for having just lost a son. I like these kinds of stories when you have be deduce what is the underlying themes or motivations of the characters for behaving this way or that way.
As an added bonus, however, I also suspected that West wrote this from the point of view of Jenny who was like a bystander (mistress) watching the Chris (Wells) having to choose between his former sweetheart (first wife Isabel Mary) and wife (second wife Jane Robbins). I think this is the reason why West narration is heartfelt. She drew out the emotion of the narrator, Jenny, from her own heartaches.
I will definitely hunt for other Rebecca West's books.
November 30, 2020
A very emotional book, and through it all I kept asking myself...What would I do in a certain situation? All of which are not easy questions to answer.
I’ve just reread this and changed my rating from 4 to 5. I think this is a fabulous book. Every time I read it I get something else out of it. There’s so much going on in such a short work. I also love her description style, it’s so brilliant. It’s chock full, but for me it doesn’t overwhelm it just adds depth.
This is a book fraught with emotions, our main characters all seem to be walking a tight rope. I really feel for all of them. The first reading i really thought Jenny was commendable and a voice of reason, perhaps the glue for the rest. Reading it again I’ve really got a different opinion of Jenny and now am looking at Kitty as somewhat the heroine. Of course this is all told from Jenny’s viewpoint, so is it skewed?
The themes of class and shell shock are so well told. I just love that this book has really opened up many thoughts and discussions. It’s a book that haunts me. I wish there were 2 or 3 other versions told through the other characters. But I’ve got to settle with Jenny’s narration and wonder.
I’ve just reread this and changed my rating from 4 to 5. I think this is a fabulous book. Every time I read it I get something else out of it. There’s so much going on in such a short work. I also love her description style, it’s so brilliant. It’s chock full, but for me it doesn’t overwhelm it just adds depth.
This is a book fraught with emotions, our main characters all seem to be walking a tight rope. I really feel for all of them. The first reading i really thought Jenny was commendable and a voice of reason, perhaps the glue for the rest. Reading it again I’ve really got a different opinion of Jenny and now am looking at Kitty as somewhat the heroine. Of course this is all told from Jenny’s viewpoint, so is it skewed?
The themes of class and shell shock are so well told. I just love that this book has really opened up many thoughts and discussions. It’s a book that haunts me. I wish there were 2 or 3 other versions told through the other characters. But I’ve got to settle with Jenny’s narration and wonder.
October 30, 2019
Le veo el mérito y a la vez me ha dejado un poco fría esta historia sobre la memoria, la felicidad, el deber y, muy de fondo, la Primera Guerra Mundial. Me ha dado la sensación de tener un aire a Henry James (pero en menos ampulosa), con esa narradora que cuenta todo de una forma indirecta. La descripción de los paisajes unida a las soterradas emociones de los personajes, casi como si se tratara de una pintura impresionista.
Es más denso de lo que parece, dado su número de páginas, y me ha dado la impresión de, más que tener un punto nostálgico, es decididamente pesimista. Lo que ocurrió no puede deshacerse, lo que se perdió no puede recuperarse. Los hombres adultos deben hacer frente a sus responsabilidades aunque sea a la fuerza, aunque los haga infelices. Los hombres adultos deben ir a la guerra. Así son las cosas.
Es más denso de lo que parece, dado su número de páginas, y me ha dado la impresión de, más que tener un punto nostálgico, es decididamente pesimista. Lo que ocurrió no puede deshacerse, lo que se perdió no puede recuperarse. Los hombres adultos deben hacer frente a sus responsabilidades aunque sea a la fuerza, aunque los haga infelices. Los hombres adultos deben ir a la guerra. Así son las cosas.
September 15, 2022
This wasn’t that long a book (140 pp), but the laboriously-constructed sentences made it seem that way. I thought the plot line was extremely clever, however. I’ve read three other books by Ms. West and I liked one of them (The Fountain Overflows, 1956) and either disliked (Harriet Hume, 1929) or was meh (This Real Night, published posthumously 1984) about the others. Having said that, I probably should continue to read her for William Shawn, then editor-in-chief of the New Yorker when learning about her death said this “Rebecca West was one of the giants and will have a lasting place in English literature. No one in this century wrote more dazzling prose, or had more wit, or looked at the intricacies of human character and the ways of the world more intelligently”.
This was a novel about World War One and a soldier who came home from it, having been wounded and suffering from profound amnesia. He can’t remember his wife, Kitty, he can barely remember his cousin, the narrator of the book, Jenny, but he can remember his first love from 15 years ago, who predated Kitty, Margaret. And he still loves her. The last sentence of the synopsis on the back of the book (reissue by Virago Modern Classics): ‘The women have a choice: to leave him as he is or to ‘cure’ him...’
Sadie Jones wrote the Afterword of this novel. I have her first book, ‘The Outcast’, short-listed for the Orange Prize of 2008. Now I just have to read it.
Reviews:
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...
• https://femalescriblerian.com/2018/06...
• (actually this is a journal article on the novel)... http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/artic...
This was a novel about World War One and a soldier who came home from it, having been wounded and suffering from profound amnesia. He can’t remember his wife, Kitty, he can barely remember his cousin, the narrator of the book, Jenny, but he can remember his first love from 15 years ago, who predated Kitty, Margaret. And he still loves her. The last sentence of the synopsis on the back of the book (reissue by Virago Modern Classics): ‘The women have a choice: to leave him as he is or to ‘cure’ him...’
Sadie Jones wrote the Afterword of this novel. I have her first book, ‘The Outcast’, short-listed for the Orange Prize of 2008. Now I just have to read it.
Reviews:
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...
• https://femalescriblerian.com/2018/06...
• (actually this is a journal article on the novel)... http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/artic...
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