The Return Of The Soldier (Paperback)
Rebecca West (author), Sadie Jones (author of introduction)Published: 03/05/2018
'Spellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction' - Sunday TimesThe 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.Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349010380
Number of pages: 160
Weight: 140 g
Dimensions: 194 x 129 x 12 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Rebecca West - highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind - was a great woman - VICTORIA GLENDINNINGWhen 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 loveRebecca West - highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind - was a great womanSpellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction - Sunday TimesThe 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
You may also be interested in...
“A quiet, beautifully told story of love and war”
Kitty and Jenny sit at home, awaiting the end of the war and the return of Chris, Kitty’s husband and Jenny’s cousin. However he returns to them sooner, suffering amnesia from shell-shock. He can remember Jenny and... More
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?