| The Return of the Soldier Contributor(s): West, Rebecca (Author), Dean, Michelle (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0812971221 ISBN-13: 9780812971224 Publisher: Modern Library OUR PRICE: $12.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2004 Annotation: Set during World War I on an isolated country estate just outside London, Rebecca West's haunting novel The Return of the Soldier follows Chris Baldry, a shell-shocked captain suffering from amnesia, as he makes a bittersweet homecoming to the three women who have helped shape his life. Will the devoted wife he can no longer recollect, the favorite cousin he remembers only as a childhood friend, and the poor innkeeper's daughter he once courted leave Chris to languish in a safe, dreamy past--or will they help him recover his memory so that he can return to the front? The answer is revealed through a heartwrenching, unexpected sacrifice. The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the first American edition, published in 1918, and features original illustrations by Norman Price. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Historical - World War I - Fiction | War & Military |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2003068602 |
| Series: Modern Library Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.3" H x 5.2" W x 7.8" (0.20 lbs) 112 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1900-1919 - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A soldier returns home transformed by World War I, sending shock waves through the lives of three women, in Rebecca West's groundbreaking debut novel Jenny has been waiting for the return of her cousin, Lieutenant Chris Baldry, from the faraway front lines of the war in France. She has kept vigil alongside Chris's wife, Kitty, who has also been mourning the death of their first child. However, when Chris returns to their isolated estate outside of London, he is a man transformed, suffering from shell shock and believing he is still twenty years old. He is baffled by his surroundings, which have somehow aged beyond his memory, and he's hopelessly, obsessively in love with a woman. Except--the woman he's in love with is not his wife. He doesn't even remember her, or the son they lost. Instead, he declares his undying love for Margaret, a poor innkeeper's daughter with whom he shared a passionate summer romance fifteen years prior. Rebecca West published her often-overlooked debut novel at the age of only twenty-six during the height of World War I, and was one of the first writers to explore the impact of posttraumatic stress in literature. The result is a tense, gripping portrait of sacrifice, regret, and the transformative power of war to alter our understanding of ourselves. |