Description
The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home on the crest of the Harrow-weald. Margaret Allington, his first and long-forgotten love, is nearby in the dreary suburb of Wealdstone. But the soldier is shell-shocked and can only remember the Margaret he loved fifteen years before, when he was a young man and she an inn-keeper's daughter. His cousin he remembers only as a childhood playmate; his wife he remembers not at all. The women have a choice - to leave him where he wishes to be, or to 'cure' him. It is Margaret who reveals a love so great that she can make the final sacrifice.
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About the Author
Rebecca West (1892-1983) was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield, taking her pen name from an Ibsen play. A feminist and social reformer, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1959. Her only son, Anthony West, is the son of author H.G. Wells.
Reviews
When Chris Baldry returns from the trenches so badly traumatized that the last fifteen years of his life have been expunged from his memory, the three women who love him most are forced into a radical re-examination of their own past lives. Courageous and compassionate, The Return of the Soldier delineates the long-term consequences of war in ways that are as relevant today as they were in 1918 when the book first appeared. Ultimately - and without ever lapsing into easy sentiment - Rebecca West paints a portrait of the redeeming power of love -- Pat Barker
Rebecca West - highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind - was a great woman -- Victoria Glendinning
Spellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction * Sunday Times *
The Return of the Soldier is a profound, resonant book. It tells its moving story with emotional integrity, at the same time meditating upon the nature of love, the punishing but necessary cruelty of reality and our responsibility towards one another -- Sadie Jones
Book Information
ISBN 9781844086986
Author Rebecca West
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 131g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm
* website activity
About the Author
Rebecca West (1892-1983) was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield, taking her pen name from an Ibsen play. A feminist and social reformer, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1959. Her only son, Anthony West, is the son of author H.G. Wells.
Reviews
When Chris Baldry returns from the trenches so badly traumatized that the last fifteen years of his life have been expunged from his memory, the three women who love him most are forced into a radical re-examination of their own past lives. Courageous and compassionate, The Return of the Soldier delineates the long-term consequences of war in ways that are as relevant today as they were in 1918 when the book first appeared. Ultimately - and without ever lapsing into easy sentiment - Rebecca West paints a portrait of the redeeming power of love -- Pat Barker
Rebecca West - highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind - was a great woman -- Victoria Glendinning
Spellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction * Sunday Times *
The Return of the Soldier is a profound, resonant book. It tells its moving story with emotional integrity, at the same time meditating upon the nature of love, the punishing but necessary cruelty of reality and our responsibility towards one another -- Sadie Jones
Book Information
ISBN 9781844086986
Author Rebecca West
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 131g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm
