It would be a crime to give away even the barest outline of Rebecca West's apparently simple, always agonizing first novel. We shall say only that The Return of the Soldier concerns the title character and three very different women to whom he is linked in very different ways--by blood, by marriage, and by love. It is also an imaginative study (one drenched in realism) of intimacy and illusion, possession and a terrible, destructive snobbery. On one estate outside London, even as the Great War and familial loss are taking their toll, the inhabitants strive for a measured, outwardly exquisite existence. All must remain as it was while their Chris is at war: each person, each object in its proper place. "You probably know the beauty of that view," the narrator buttonholes us, looking out the nursery window:
In the remainder of this brief, perfect novel, a vanished (or repressed) past and its lost prospect of happiness comes to the fore. Rebecca West is best remembered for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941), but she displays the same vision--and a similar degree of realism--in her charged 1916 novel. Many readers will passionately regret the book's last twist, even as they know it to be artistically as well as historically true. --Kerry Fried
For when Chris rebuilt Baldry Court after his marriage, he handed it over to architects who had not so much the wild eye of the artist as the knowing wink of the manicurist, and between them they massaged the dear old place into matter for innumerable photos in the illustrated papers.But of late this universe unto itself cannot quite keep out an England altered by ambition and industry. Only a few miles away a "red suburban stain," Wealdstone, has somehow cropped up. And one day all is permanently altered--or, rather, revealed--when a Wealdstone resident comes bearing news of Captain Baldry. Mrs. William Gray is clearly not of Chris's wife Kitty and his cousin Jenny's class, as Kitty in particular makes her aware. "Again her gray eyes brimmed," Jenny observes. "People are rude to one, she visibly said, but surely not nice people like this." How is it, then, that this dreary, "dingy" woman knows Chris and knows that something has happened to him? And how is it that Jenny soon comes to see her as someone "whose personality was sounding through her squalor like a beautiful voice singing in a darkened room"?
In the remainder of this brief, perfect novel, a vanished (or repressed) past and its lost prospect of happiness comes to the fore. Rebecca West is best remembered for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941), but she displays the same vision--and a similar degree of realism--in her charged 1916 novel. Many readers will passionately regret the book's last twist, even as they know it to be artistically as well as historically true. --Kerry Fried
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Used availability for Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier
See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
Hardback Editions
July 2007 : Hardback
| Title: The Return Of The Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-548-22512-5 / 978-0-548-22512-7 (USA edition) Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
May 2000 : Hardback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-7531-6283-0 / 978-0-7531-6283-5 (UK edition) Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
1996 : Hardback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West Publisher: CENTURY CO Availability: Amazon More details... |
1949 : Hardback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West Publisher: Daily Express Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
1940 : Hardback
| Title: The Return Of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West Publisher: Daily Express Fiction lIbrary Availability: Amazon More details... |
1930 : Hardback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West Publisher: Daily Express Fiction Library, c Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
Paperback Editions
January 2008 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 1-4209-3122-9 / 978-1-4209-3122-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Digireads.com Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 2007 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 1-4325-4695-3 / 978-1-4325-4695-3 Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
2006 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-7607-7908-2 / 978-0-7607-7908-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Barnes & Noble Availability: Amazon More details... |
June 2004 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-8129-7122-1 / 978-0-8129-7122-4 (USA edition) Publisher: Modern Library Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 2002 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-486-42207-0 / 978-0-486-42207-7 (USA edition) Publisher: Dover Publications Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
February 2001 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-7531-6286-5 / 978-0-7531-6286-6 (UK edition) Publisher: ISIS Publishing Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
June 1998 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-14-118065-X / 978-0-14-118065-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Penguin Books Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
November 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 1-86049-299-1 / 9781860492990 (UK edition) Publisher: Virago Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
August 1996 : Paperback
| Title: Return Of The Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-7867-0347-4 / 978-0-7867-0347-0 (USA edition) Publisher: CARROLL & GRAF PUBLISHERS Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
October 1990 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-385-27226-X / 978-0-385-27226-1 (USA edition) Publisher: Carroll & Graf Availability: Amazon Amazon CA More details... |
October 1990 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-88184-658-9 / 978-0-88184-658-4 (USA edition) Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
September 1982 : Paperback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-00-616670-9 / 978-0-00-616670-2 (UK edition) Publisher: Fontana Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
June 1980 : Paperback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West Publisher: VIRAGO (LITT) Availability: Amazon More details... |
June 1980 : Paperback
| Title: The Return of the Soldier (Virago Modern Classics) Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-86068-144-0 / 978-0-86068-144-1 (UK edition) Publisher: Virago Press Ltd Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1970 : Paperback
| Title: Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-450-00474-0 / 978-0-450-00474-2 (UK edition) Publisher: New Eng. Lib. Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
1918 : Paperback
| Title: The Return Of The Soldier Author(s): West Rebecca Publisher: New York Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
Audio Editions
January 1998 : Audio Cassette
| Title: The Return Of The Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 1-55685-516-8 / 9781556855160 (USA edition) Publisher: Audio Book Contractors Availability: Amazon Amazon CA More details... |
December 1997 : Audio Cassette
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): Rebecca West ISBN: 0-7861-1174-7 / 978-0-7861-1174-9 (USA edition) Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Availability: Amazon Amazon CA More details... |
Other Editions
July 2008 : Kindle edition
| Title: The Return of the Soldier Author(s): REBECCA WEST Publisher: Oak Grove Availability: Amazon More details... |
1918 : Unknown
| Title: THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER Author(s): REBECCA WEST Publisher: NISBET Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
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