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2nd out of 93 books
—
158 voters
Regeneration (Regeneration #1)
by
Pat Barker
Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, focuses on treatment methods during the war and the story of a decorated English officer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight. Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear -- the descriptions of ele...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
by Penguin Books Ltd
(first published 1991)
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Apr 25, 2013
Steve aka Sckenda
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
The Wounded; Sufferers of PTSD; Those Interested in World War I and Pacifism
Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by:
Booker Prize for Third Novel in this Trilogy
Shelves:
war,
pacifism,
world-war-i,
british,
psychological,
medicine,
20th-century,
movie,
booker-author
When I’m asleep, dreaming and drowsed and warm,
They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.
While the dim and charging breakers of the storm
Rumble and drone and bellow overhead,
Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.
They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine.”
This poem was written by World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon, one of the real characters in Regeneration who is convalescing from “shell shock” at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh and who has the good fortune to be trea...more
They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.
While the dim and charging breakers of the storm
Rumble and drone and bellow overhead,
Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.
They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine.”
This poem was written by World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon, one of the real characters in Regeneration who is convalescing from “shell shock” at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh and who has the good fortune to be trea...more
Apr 12, 2012
Dawn (& Ron)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
WWI, miltary & historical fiction fans
Upon finishing the book, my mind was absolutely quiet, almost numb, as if there were too many thoughts to assimilate and I needed to let it all soak in. Like the patients with their experiences, this book can't be rushed, you can't quickly brush past one passage to go the next. Each person's thoughts and memories need to marinate, allowing their individual flavors to meld together, in order to enjoy its overall affect. It is profound and thought provoking, and deserves to be mentioned along side...more
This review was written in the late nineties (for my eyes only), and it was buried in amongst my things until recently when I uncovered the journal in which it was written. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets may indicate some additional information for the sake of readability or some sort of commentary from now). This is one of my lost reviews.
Rarely is a book's theme so fittingly captured in a title than it is with Pat Barker's Regeneration. As Dr....more
Rarely is a book's theme so fittingly captured in a title than it is with Pat Barker's Regeneration. As Dr....more
In Regeneration, Pat Barker fictionalises an encounter between H. R. Rivers and Siegfrid Sasson in a military psychological hospital. In Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, there are numerous war wounded, whose experiences in the Flanders trenches of the First World War have left them psychologically, as well as sometimes physically scarred. The symptoms are many and varied. In Sassoon´s case it is possible that the motivation might even be political, rather than psychological.
Rivers attempts to anal...more
Rivers attempts to anal...more
For me, this first book in Pat Barker’s trilogy presents a perfect storm of interests — World War I, English poets, and madness. Incorporating actual people and events into the narrative, the novel takes place at Craiglockhart, a hospital outside Edinburgh requisitioned in 1916 as a facility for officers suffering from shell-shock. Supervising the show is Dr. William Rivers, a real-life neurologist, anthropologist, and psychiatrist who pioneered early work in nerve regeneration.
One of the centr...more
One of the centr...more
Sep 21, 2009
Stephanie
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
No one.
Recommended to Stephanie by:
A professor I like too much to ever show this review to
Shelves:
modern-classic
I am not giving this book one star because I find the subject matter troubling or because I'm not used to required reading.
I am giving this book one star because it is overrated, self-serving junk. Pat Barker has plucked from history characters that were perfectly capable of speaking for themselves (we know this because most of them were writers) and forced into them her own flat, inexperienced voice. It seems as though, for many people, the book's politics make up for its nonexistent plot, endl...more
I am giving this book one star because it is overrated, self-serving junk. Pat Barker has plucked from history characters that were perfectly capable of speaking for themselves (we know this because most of them were writers) and forced into them her own flat, inexperienced voice. It seems as though, for many people, the book's politics make up for its nonexistent plot, endl...more
Regeneration teaches very well at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Undergrads sometimes find this book very upsetting, as many have family members currently in the military, but I find that it helps to simply ask them about the value of studying such a book in a time of war. With engaging characters, harrowing scenes of trauma and astute insights on gender, sexuality, silencing and the human costs of war, this well-researched historical novel engages students and makes a good lead-in...more
This book follows the the lives of a few patients dealing with mild to severe PTSD during WWI, at an English mental hospital for enlisted men. The effect of treating such patients begins to wear on Dr. Rivers, who is responsible for sending them back to France for active duty or extending their leave at the hospital. As the book progresses and Rivers develops friendships with them, the lines delineating mentally and physically fit or unfit begin to blur along the lines of Catch 22. One of many i...more
Jul 08, 2012
Chrissie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Chrissie by:
Laura
Thank you for this book, Dawn!!!!! Thank you, Jeanette, for bringing it to my door. Dawn, you should soon get The Housekeeper and the Professor from me. :0)
**************
I am "enjoying" this read, if one can speak of enjoying anything about the horrors of the trenches of WW1 warfare. Although none of the book takes place there in the trenches you certainly see the repercussions on the people who have been there. You do see their nightmares and the physical and psychological damage the war has wr...more
**************
I am "enjoying" this read, if one can speak of enjoying anything about the horrors of the trenches of WW1 warfare. Although none of the book takes place there in the trenches you certainly see the repercussions on the people who have been there. You do see their nightmares and the physical and psychological damage the war has wr...more
World War I novel focused on earlier Freudian work with British officers suffering from various forms of shell shock. The archaeologist and psychiatrist Rivers is a fascinating character.
World War I is a favorite time period of mine. That said, I tend to dislike serious attempts at literature about a time other than our own, that is, I don't mind Gore Vidal writing an entertaining book about Aaron Burr, but I'm a little more suspicious of a contemporary writing literature about, say, 17th century Britain. However, Barker really pulls it off in this book, mostly set in a mental ward during WWI, a mental ward that happened to house Wilfred Owen and Sigfriend Sassoon. This was the...more
Sep 06, 2011
Ant Harrison
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
in-the-past,
favourites
I loved this book, it's beautifully written in a tight, almost bald style. The central characters are well drawn and sympathetically portrayed, with an excellent feel for time and place. Barker explores WWI through real characters and draws on some known accounts of their experiences; Sassoon, the 'war poet' is a central character, but it is Billy Prior, shell-shocked and distressed beyond words who affects us the most.
Barker explores themes of loss, manhood, war, comradeship and early psychiat...more
Barker explores themes of loss, manhood, war, comradeship and early psychiat...more
I recently read Stephen King's, On Writing, and at the end he mentioned several books he had read that he liked while recuperating in bed. This was several years ago but I went through the list and picked a few out. I am always open to reading something highly recommended. Regeneration is one of those and is a novel based on realy history and some fiction surrounding the English participation in WWI. The main characters are Dr. Rivers, a psychologist and his patients dealing with all kinds of me...more
An excellent book, lives with you for a long time afterward. Written in a slow, lingering prose which suits the time period excellently. It’s a tale not of the war itself, but of the psychological traumas suffered by soldiers and their treatment at a mental institution under the care of kindly Dr Rivers. It incorporates real people – Dr Rivers was an actual psychiatrist – and the poet Seigfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and so on.
The moral dilemma Rivers faces is that the patients are being treated...more
The moral dilemma Rivers faces is that the patients are being treated...more
Many return from war needing regeneration, and this book explores the work of one man who worked with the soldiers of World War I. Based on real people, we learn of Rivers, a therapist who works in a hospital for men suffering from "shell shock." His job is to help them regenerate and return to the front lines. Through his thoughts, we hear of horror, and of the responses of these men to the brutality of battle. Some cannot talk. Many cannot sleep through the night because of recurrent nightmare...more
This book is compelling reading! Although a novel, it is based on fact. In 1917, Siegfried Sassoon, the poet, wrote a declaration that war (World War One) was being deliberately prolonged, at the expense of terrible suffering of the troops. He refused to fight further and was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital for psychiatric treatment. It was the job of his psychiatrist, a Dr. willliam Rivers, to 'fix' him so that Sassoon could be returned to the war front. The novel focuses on the relationship...more
I had to read Regeneration for a uni course and was not looking forward to it. This book is one of the most moving books I have ever read - a big call for someone like me to say being a fuss-pot and very choosy over what I read.
Pat Barker's book set in the First World War delves into the minds of the various characters, the soliders in the hospital suffering 'shell shock' and the main protagonist Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, a former anthropologist turned psychiatrist who encourages his patients to explor...more
Pat Barker's book set in the First World War delves into the minds of the various characters, the soliders in the hospital suffering 'shell shock' and the main protagonist Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, a former anthropologist turned psychiatrist who encourages his patients to explor...more
This book is about a cast of interesting characters in an interesting situation. Most of them are patients at a mental hospital for officers during world war one and they include the poets Sassoon and Owen.
It is the first part of a trilogy and the ending feels unsatisfying on its own, but I'm certainly going to read the other books. Although I was gripped throughout and cared about all of the characters, I'm not giving this full marks because of a formlessness and lack of focus in the plot and...more
It is the first part of a trilogy and the ending feels unsatisfying on its own, but I'm certainly going to read the other books. Although I was gripped throughout and cared about all of the characters, I'm not giving this full marks because of a formlessness and lack of focus in the plot and...more
A beautiful tale of the futility of war and its negative effects, based on true events and characters. I particularly liked how it highlighted the open defiance amongst soldiers and the resulting ramifications to them. The soldier's declaration by Sigfried Sassoon in July 1917 stood out for me, in a time when convention and conformance was so important:
"I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by tho...more
"I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by tho...more
Many of the other reviewers have discussed this book's plot and its themes, as well as its remarkably good writing and its painstaking historical research. There's something else about this book that is also extraordinary: its sheer intelligence. Pat Barker introduces the reader not just to the mind of a remarkable psychiatrist, but also to those of various soldiers suffering from various degrees of shell shock from World War I, as well as a woman who is dating one of these soldiers. In each cas...more
Jan 02, 2012
Kathleen Hagen
added it
Regeneration, by Pat Barker, Borrowed from National Library Service for the Blind and read on cassettes.
This is the first book of a trilogy in which Barker explores the effects of WW I on the British soldiers who fought it and who suffered what were then called shell shock injuries. This first book mainly involved a psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, who was treating some of these soldiers at a hospital for the criminally insane, called Craiglockhart Hospital. There was a lot of dialogue here, and the bo...more
This is the first book of a trilogy in which Barker explores the effects of WW I on the British soldiers who fought it and who suffered what were then called shell shock injuries. This first book mainly involved a psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, who was treating some of these soldiers at a hospital for the criminally insane, called Craiglockhart Hospital. There was a lot of dialogue here, and the bo...more
I tried reading "Regeneration" a few years back, but I couldn't get into it. I've recently read a history of World War I that gave particular focus on those in Britain who opposed the war ("To End All Wars"), and that was an enormous help in revisiting Pat Barker's novel. This is brillant writing with extraordinary understanding of the real-life characters. Here's an example of what I mean. In this passage a hospitalized soldier is starting a relationship with a woman he's met in town. Their rel...more
Shell-shocked Billy Prior describes to his psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, the WWI battlefield:
"'....Your watch is brought back by a runner, having been synchronized at headquarters.' A long pause. 'You wait, you try to calm down anybody who's obviously shitting himself or on the verge of throwing up. You hope you won't do either of those things yourself. Then you start the count down: ten, nine, eight ... so on. You blow the whistle. You climb the ladder. Then you double through a gap in the wire, li...more
"'....Your watch is brought back by a runner, having been synchronized at headquarters.' A long pause. 'You wait, you try to calm down anybody who's obviously shitting himself or on the verge of throwing up. You hope you won't do either of those things yourself. Then you start the count down: ten, nine, eight ... so on. You blow the whistle. You climb the ladder. Then you double through a gap in the wire, li...more
This book is hard to describe, because the knee-jerk reaction is to say it's about Siegfried Sasson receiving treatment at Craiglockhart Hospital during WW1, which is ostensibly true, but it gives the wrong impression about who the book is really about. More than Sasson or Robert Graves or Wildfred Owen, all of whom make appearances, this book is really about Rivers and the methods he uses to treat them.
It's hard even to describe it as a war novel, because unlike 'Birdsong', for example, none of...more
It's hard even to describe it as a war novel, because unlike 'Birdsong', for example, none of...more
I wasn't sure what I'd think of this - all I knew of it was that it was highly thought of and was about the First World War. I was kind of expecting trenches and bloodshed and horrifics and wasn't at all sure that was what I felt like reading. Actually it's set in a psychiatric hospital in 1917 so it's a more contemplative look at the war than I expected.
The character list featured numerous names I recognised: Sigfried Sasson, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves - so I wasn't quite sure how much of what...more
The character list featured numerous names I recognised: Sigfried Sasson, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves - so I wasn't quite sure how much of what...more
Get a feel for dealing with one's mental health...
This book was given to me as a gift. It's quite simply a book about the trials and tribulations of World War I soldiers who ended up in a British Mental Hospital for various reasons. It reminded me of the discrimination and improper treatments that took place....and most likely...still do...towards patients that find the misfortune to end up in a locked facility. This book will be rewarding to any one who has felt mentally depressed &/or has...more
This book was given to me as a gift. It's quite simply a book about the trials and tribulations of World War I soldiers who ended up in a British Mental Hospital for various reasons. It reminded me of the discrimination and improper treatments that took place....and most likely...still do...towards patients that find the misfortune to end up in a locked facility. This book will be rewarding to any one who has felt mentally depressed &/or has...more
Regeneration, Pat Barker's first novel in her Great War trilogy, is a work of historical fiction focusing on Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland in 1917.
Though Barker traces her interest in World War I back to her early childhood, she attributes the immediate inspiration for Regeneration to her husband, a neurologist, who was familiar with Dr. W.H.R. Rivers's experiments on nerve regeneration in the early twentieth century.
POETS AT WAR
At least three of the novel's characters are based on re...more
Though Barker traces her interest in World War I back to her early childhood, she attributes the immediate inspiration for Regeneration to her husband, a neurologist, who was familiar with Dr. W.H.R. Rivers's experiments on nerve regeneration in the early twentieth century.
POETS AT WAR
At least three of the novel's characters are based on re...more
Simply the best book I've read for a long time. I very much want to read the next two in the trilogy, although Regeneration stands perfectly well on it's own.
A fictional depiction of a real event, Barker visits the harrowing effect of the first world war trenches on inmates of a mental facility where eminent war poet Siegfried Sassoon spends time under the care of Dr. Rivers, an overworked psychiatrist with his own demons to battle. Sassoon had publicly decried the continuation of the war, plac...more
A fictional depiction of a real event, Barker visits the harrowing effect of the first world war trenches on inmates of a mental facility where eminent war poet Siegfried Sassoon spends time under the care of Dr. Rivers, an overworked psychiatrist with his own demons to battle. Sassoon had publicly decried the continuation of the war, plac...more
I confess I'd never heard of Pat Barker and didn't even know if she was male or female until I got this book on a Goodreads recommendation. The first book in a trilogy which I will certainly be finishing. As the blurb says, the prose is spare and compact, nuanced and detailed. I can't imagine that there is a position anywhere on the spectrum from "War is obscene" to "War is man's noblest calling" that doesn't get considered in this book. The main character is Dr. Rivers (a real person)--assigned...more
A realist novel, set in an officer's psych ward during WWI, revolving around a couple of real poets, a fictional obstinate young officer, and their interactions with a Freudian shrink. Barker makes some interesting observations about about the war, pacifism, heroism, responsibility, duty, etc. without terribly fleshing any particular idea out to my satisfaction. The writing is dry and the dialogue can be quite stilted. that might be a good thing as when Barker lets her writerly gifts take hold o...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novels about WWI | 13 | 37 | Oct 08, 2012 10:51am | |
| Goodreads Librari...: How do I delete an award? | 7 | 67 | Sep 06, 2012 01:49am |
Pat Barker was born in Thornaby-on-Tees in 1943. She was educated at the London School of Economics and has been a teacher of history and politics.
Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy Regeneration ; The Eye in the Door , winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize; and The Ghost Road , winner of the Booker Prize; as well as seven other novels. Pat Barker is married and lives in Du...more
More about Pat Barker...
Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy Regeneration ; The Eye in the Door , winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize; and The Ghost Road , winner of the Booker Prize; as well as seven other novels. Pat Barker is married and lives in Du...more
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“Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough's army, than to think they'd been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice, saying; 'Run along, little man, be glad you've survived”
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8 people liked it
“I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen”
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6 people liked it
More quotes…
Apr 26, 2013 12:32pm
Connie, thank you so much fo...more
Apr 26, 2013 06:58pm