The Return of the Soldier is the powerful debut novel of the prolific English novelist Rebecca West. First published in 1918, the novel opens with the return of the shell-shocked Captain Chris Baldry from the trenches of the First World War, and grapples with the devastation of mental trauma from that war and its effects on families.
Recounted from the perspective of his cousin Jenny, the story examines the relationship between Chris and the three women in his life. Against the backdrop of an enclosed world roiled by public events, the novel also reveals shifts in England’s class structures at the beginning of the twentieth century.
A haunting and poignant story of love, loss and sacrifice, The Return of the Soldier has been described as one of the earliest attempts by a writer to examine the psychological effects on the soldiers who survived that monumental early 20th century conflict.
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“Brilliant…[West was] an artist who wrote wonderful prose, who took chances with language and cadence, and who wrote poetically, even of prosaic subjects.”
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New Republic