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Start giftingThe Return of the Soldier
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Learn moreThe 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.
Rebecca West (1892–1983) was a British-born author, well known for her novels, journalism, literary criticism, and travel literature. She was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She is known for her studies of the Nazi war-crimes trials at Nuremburg, for which President Harry Truman called her “the world's best reporter.” In 1959, she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of an honorary knighthood.
Christine Rendel is a British-born audiobook narrator living in New York City. With an acting and musical background, as well as a long healthcare career, she has narrated nearly forty fiction and nonfiction books for major publishers as well as small independent houses. Her favorite genres include cozy mystery, romance, drama, fantasy, and biography. Christine maintains a professional home studio on the end of eastern Long Island, where she loves to narrate and produce audiobooks, surrounded by nature, her family, two dogs, and a lot of Koi fish. Christine is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, the Audio Publishers Association, and Actors' Equity Association.
Reviews
“In…this brief, perfect novel, a vanished (or repressed) past and its lost prospect of happiness comes to the fore.”
“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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