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264th out of 3,145 books
—
13,791 voters
The Regeneration Trilogy (Regeneration #1-3)
by
Pat Barker
A trilogy of novels set during World War I which mingle real and fictional characters. "The Ghost Road" won the 1995 Booker Prize.
Hardcover, 592 pages
Published
October 3rd 1996
by Viking Books
(first published January 1st 1996)
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This trilogy is a fascinating approach to WW I, using a handful of historical figures and one or two fictional characters to get into the psychology of the young Englishman who fought in the trenches of France. Book 1, Regeneration, is the story of Siegfried Sassoon's time at Craiglockhart Castle, Scotland, where he was being treated for "shell shock" (in Sassoon's case it was speaking out publicly against the war that made him unfit for service) by preeminent psychologist Dr. Jonathan Rivers. H...more
Aug 08, 2011
Yumiko Hansen
added it
-- Just finished "The Re generation Trilogy" -- what a fascinating book it was!!!! Although I was rather disappointed after reading "Regeneration" which is the first book in a trilogy: It would have been more enjoyable if the book was more focused on the characters's 'background'.
I , however, started to enjoy Barker's writing style from the second part onward: very descriptive and powerful. The use of small, lovely details against the backdrop of the vulgarity that was WW1, serves to make the b...more
I , however, started to enjoy Barker's writing style from the second part onward: very descriptive and powerful. The use of small, lovely details against the backdrop of the vulgarity that was WW1, serves to make the b...more
Apr 08, 2011
Kirsty Stanley
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Kirsty by:
Open University AZX300
Shelves:
fictional-but-relevant-to-ot,
own-printed-copy
As part of my Twentieth Century Literature (AZX300) course with the Open Univeristy I read The Ghost Road by Pat Barker. This was actually the last in the series and after I read it I just had to buy and read the first two, Regeneration and The Eye in the Door (though it does stand up on its own).
The books mix fictional and real characters (notably Dr.William Rivers and the war poets Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen). Much of it is set at Craiglockhart psychiatric hospital in World World War w...more
The books mix fictional and real characters (notably Dr.William Rivers and the war poets Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen). Much of it is set at Craiglockhart psychiatric hospital in World World War w...more
A powerful reading experience, this is a book that one will be thinking about for a very long time. The writing is superb, the use of small, lovely details (sunlight reflecting on eyeglasses, rose petals, bubbles on the legs of a man resting in a fishpond, things seen only by starlight' etc., there are many more examples) against the backdrop of the vulgarity that was WWI, serve to make the book all the more moving. A sentence as simple as this is astounding within the context of the overall wor...more
A person might think that yet another book about World War One could hardly grab the reader's attention, but The Regeneration Trilogy manages to be compulsive reading. In the self-titled opener, we're introduced to the famous poets Wilfrid Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, as they both go for recuperative therapy, and not only do we get an engaging picture of flesh-and-blood characters, but the horrors of war are graphically portrayed more tellingly than any history book could attempt. The second book...more
I read this trilogy after finishing "To End All Wars" by Adam Hochschild, which looks at WWI history from the vantage point of England. Since I seem to be on a roll with WWI, I decided to listen to Pat Barker's books that deal with the same period. The novels take place mostly in England, and the two main characters are the psychiatrist Rivers (a real person) and one of his patients, Billy Pryor (fictitious). By weaving the action around this pair, Barker is able to explore the terrible waste of...more
If I could have put the rest of my life on hold, I would have read these historical novels about World War I straight through, nonstop. The trilogy includes Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, and The Ghost Road and the writing is clear and beautiful. The first book was made into a film (Behind the Lines) and the other two books won awards. The main characters (a few of whom are actual figures: war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, neurologist/psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers) are soldiers...more
Pat Barker's historical fiction, and her modern fiction that incorporates the receding history of World War I England, are stunningly well crafted. She weaves real and important figures from early 10th century England seamlessly with the ambivalent protagonists of her creation to take us to worlds ranging from a military hospital and the killing fields of the first World War in Europe to the islands of the south Pacific where there are no "noble savages." The reader shares the ambivalence of all...more
I really, really liked these books. The author is a British woman - the first book is about a mental health "institution" set up on an estate in England, to treat World War I soldiers (the War is still going on as the book progresses). The 2nd and 3rd books follow one of the psychiatrists and one of the soldiers a little more in depth. Wonderful writing. Heavy subject matter. Engrossing, though hard to read at times. I learned of this author and these books from a review in "The New Yorker". One...more
The best analysis of war I have ever read. It focuses on the psychological and sosiological damages of war and truly illustrates the pointlessness of it all.
“Regenaration” is a masterful beginning for a strong trilogy of books that study WWI from a psychososiological perspective, featuring both real historical characters and truly interesting fictional ones.
I’m not that hot on historical and especially war novels, but Barker has created a deeply meaningful, beautiful and extremely powerful maste...more
“Regenaration” is a masterful beginning for a strong trilogy of books that study WWI from a psychososiological perspective, featuring both real historical characters and truly interesting fictional ones.
I’m not that hot on historical and especially war novels, but Barker has created a deeply meaningful, beautiful and extremely powerful maste...more
I just finished the first book of the trilogy, entitled "Regeneration." I have mixed feelings about it. The story focuses on the treatment of World War I soldiers who have experienced psychiatric breakdowns and disorders as a result of the horrors of war. There is also an underlying discussion of the morality and ethics of war itself.
On the one hand, I enjoyed learning a little bit about the emerging views of post-combat psychiatric trauma, and I appreciated the fact that several of the charact...more
On the one hand, I enjoyed learning a little bit about the emerging views of post-combat psychiatric trauma, and I appreciated the fact that several of the charact...more
The Regeneration Triology is a mix of fact and fiction set in England during WWI. The first book, Regeneration (a Booker Prize nominee) is about the psychologist W.H.R. Rivers who treated the poet Siegfried Sassoon for shell shock. Sassoon's friend Robert Graves (I, Claudius)and the poet Wilfred Owen are in the story as well.
The second book, The Eye in the Door, is about the very active campaigns that were waged in England against conscientious objectors and homosexuals with the central, fictio...more
The second book, The Eye in the Door, is about the very active campaigns that were waged in England against conscientious objectors and homosexuals with the central, fictio...more
Aug 16, 2007
Falkor
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who like historical fiction, military/war related fiction, or who are interested in WWI
This haunting, elegiac trilogy of novels about World War I focuses not on adventure and heroism but on the deep scars that the trauma of war leaves on the psyches of soldiers.
The first book, Regeneration, is about the efforts of Dr. William H.R. Rivers, a real life pioneering psychiatrist, to help officers hospitalized for "shell shock." His patients include a man who has been unable to eat since a decaying corpse exploded in his face, getting into his mouth; a man who cannot speak and cannot r...more
The first book, Regeneration, is about the efforts of Dr. William H.R. Rivers, a real life pioneering psychiatrist, to help officers hospitalized for "shell shock." His patients include a man who has been unable to eat since a decaying corpse exploded in his face, getting into his mouth; a man who cannot speak and cannot r...more
This series created Pat Barker as a literary goddess for me. I have read numerous texts on WWI - fictional, historical, biographical and even technical - but I never really learned anything meaningful until I found these. I almost believe she travelled back in time and lived with these men. Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. William Rivers couldn't seem more tangible or passionate. Even after all the dry-toast biographies I'd devoured, I felt I had finally found them.
Made me miss my old history studying days. Maybe it'll even inspire me to read some non-fiction sometime.
I definitely thought Pat Barker was a man until a week after I finished the trilogy and Wikipedia informed me otherwise. My obnoxious grad student wannabe professor of yore would tell me that the gender of the author doesn't matter (and, tangentially, that I am intellectually inferior for wondering), but I still think it's interesting to know.
I definitely thought Pat Barker was a man until a week after I finished the trilogy and Wikipedia informed me otherwise. My obnoxious grad student wannabe professor of yore would tell me that the gender of the author doesn't matter (and, tangentially, that I am intellectually inferior for wondering), but I still think it's interesting to know.
you look back upon the history of protest and it seems to really come to the fore with Vietnam. I began to read the astounding poet Robinson Jeffers after hearing of him in Czeslaw Milosz's poetry. Jeffers wrote long, black protest poems about ww1, especially The Double Axe. They are incredible works of literature and incredible works of protest. I found a similar vein in Barker's trilogy, especially the first novel, where you are really made aware of the futility of war, that it is an engine co...more
This is a series of intelligently written novels, based on well researched real information. I love books which teach me about something whilst entertaining me at the same time.
The books are each quite different, but overlapping. Detailing the recovery of various shellshocked individuals in during and after WWI, including Seigfried Sassoon as well as some of those treating them.
The books are each quite different, but overlapping. Detailing the recovery of various shellshocked individuals in during and after WWI, including Seigfried Sassoon as well as some of those treating them.
These are some of my all-time favorite books. They have everything: compelling, fascinating characters; beautiful writing; a gripping & moving story. Also, it's an historical novel -- by which I mean that some of the characters are fictional, and some are not. I would recommend reading some of Wilfred Owen's poetry while reading this...Owen is one of the characters in the book.
Impressive is the word that best captures my feelings toward this trilogy. I've rarely read a series that has gotten me so emotionally invested in the story as Regeneration trilogy did. Another rare thing about this book is that I don't want to analyze it because it was such an experience for me to read, so I don't want to dissect it.
In two words: Loved it.
In two words: Loved it.
I found the first part of this the most engaging. I couldn't really give the series 5 stars because I felt it just spent too much time on...yep, sex. I became pretty weary of the bisexual meanderings of one of the main characters, Billy Prior, who becomes more a focal point of the trilogy as it progresses. Barker, like a lot of female authors, seems to be fascinated by or obsessed with male homosexuality. You don't have to be an intolerant bigot to become annoyed by a constant return to the them...more
England during WWI is one of my favourite settings and I love how the book uses historical figures and fictional ones to tell the story of how young Englishmen coped, or didn't cope, with life in the trenches. The Ghost Road won the Booker in 1995.
Very, very good. Probably the best novel by a living author that I've read in years (so far I've read only the first of the trilogy). Barring War and Peace, the mixture of historical characters with fictional ones is the best I've come across.
This historical fiction trilogy about WWI is rich and engrossing. Readers should be cautioned, it is upsetting, as war always is. It does not romanticise that which should never, ever be romanticised. The story is organized around several "shell shocked" British soldiers during WWI and the effect treating these individual has on their psychiatrists. Having read it as an undergraduate student at Wake Forest University in 1998, I had no idea how eerily accurate it would be for a now-military psych...more
Oh, I loved these books! England during WWI is one of my favourite settings and I love how the book uses historical figures and fictional ones to tell the story of how young Englishmen coped, or didn't cope, with life in the trenches.
An incredibly haunting look at the carnage and horrors of WWI, incorporating Siegfried Sassoon and his stay at a mental hospital before being sent back to the front to lead his men into death. Truly an amazing trilogy.
I cannot think of any literary work in English that comes close to what Pat Barker achieved in this work of transcendental beauty and insight on the subject of the Great War.
This is one of the best sets of books I've ever read. It got me started on my fascination with World War I in literature. I definite must read. Pat Barker is a great author.
A bit too much butt-sex for my liking but otherwise a fantastic read, I wish it were longer and found myself feeling sad as I approached the end.
Must read..
Must read..
An extraordinary insight into the experiences of shell-shock victims in the second world war, and the insensitivities, pressures and moral blackmail imposed on them.
Jul 26, 2011
Claire
added it
Just brilliant - Pat Barker skillfully and seamlessly weaves fact with fiction, and history with imagination in this stunning trilogy of novels set during WW1.
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![Trilogia regenerării [Regenerarea • Ochiul Din Uşă • Drumul Fantomă] (Paperback)](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354290778s/16181805.jpg)
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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Feb 22, 2009 09:17am