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Title: The Return of the Soldier

Author: Rebecca West

Narrator: Flo Gibson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-14

Publisher: Audio Book Contractors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Chris' "shell shock" blocks out fifteen years of his life as he returns home to his wife, only to remember and revisit Margaret, the earlier love of his life. The plot of this book takes place during World War I, but the consequences of battle are just as devastating today.

Members Reviews:

A Very Enjoyable And Interesting, Post Victorian Short Novel

This is the debut novel of Rebecca West. It was composed during World War I and set in World War I. It is about a soldier returning home having suffered from "shell shock". As one can imagine his family suffers along with him.

The narrator is a female cousin who has very high regard for the soldier. The style is Early Post Victorian, and there is no crass language whatsoever. A modern American reader may find the style somewhat dated. Personally I very much like Victorian and Post Victorian literature and really enjoyed this novel.

I purchased both and audiobook and read along on Kindle. The audiobook was more descriptive than the Kindle. They were very similar but not identical and I much preferred the audiobook.

The narrator of my audiobook was Nadia May. Nadia May happens to be one of my favorite narrators and is my favorite narrator for George Eliot Novels. The reason I mention this is that this novel really reminds me of George Eliot, who is my favorite author. I cannot help but wonder if my perception is affected by Nadia May being the narrator.

The novel also reminds me of the early novels of Virginia Wolff. Specifically I am thinking of "The Voyage Out", "Night And Day", and "Jacob's Room". In that Rebecca West reminded me of both George Eliot and Virginia Wolff, I absolutely intend to study her further and read more of her works. Thank You...

A Bit Over the Top

This book, Rebecca West's first novel, was published in 1918 and has been called "the only book written by a woman about the war during the war". Given its interesting provenance and its status as at least a near classic, I had expected to enjoy it very much, but was a bit disappointed.

The problem is not the story, which pulls the reader right along. Two women, the soldier's wife and his cousin, await his return from the war. Before the war he was a wealthy businessman; they are very comfortably established, and very much of the upper class. They learn from a distinctly non-upper class caller that the hero has been wounded, and has woken up in hospital with no memory of anything later than 1906 -- including his marriage. It turns out that in 1906 he and the non-upper class caller were deeply in love. He returns home, and events unfold.

Nor is the writing an issue. Indeed, it is sometimes very beautiful. Ms. West's description of nature -- of changing light and moving water, of vegetation and the way it grows -- are precise, but also emotionally evocative. They made me think of Whistler's paintings, which are not at all precise, because they so strongly evoke moods as well as images. And the structure of the novel is complex but not confusing, involving multiple timelines, one principal narrator but several shifts in narration, and a point of view that shifts over time.

I suppose that what bothered me about the novel is the characters; I did not at the end find them convincing enough to draw me in emotionally as well as aesthetically.