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The Return of the Soldier

Rebecca West

Start date: September 1, 2017

Finish date: September 30, 2017

Discussion: Short Story/Novella Collection

Why we're reading this: September 2018 Short Story Rread
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Short Story/Novella Collection

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What Members Thought

Oct 11, 2018 Candi rated it really liked it

Shelves: european-literature, historical-fiction, classics-shelf, ww-1

"I heard, amazed, his step ring strong upon the stone, for I had felt his absence as a kind of death from which he would emerge ghostlike, impalpable."

Two women await the return of a soldier, Chris, from World War I. His wife, Kitty, is an upper-class woman, still mourning the death of their child. Jenny, his cousin, serves as narrator for this beautifully written novella by Rebecca West. I felt this wasn’t so much a commentary about the war itself as it was a critique of the social classes and "I heard, amazed, his step ring strong upon the stone, for I had felt his absence as a kind of death from which he would emerge ghostlike, impalpable."

Two women await the return of a soldier, Chris, from World War I. His wife, Kitty, is an upper-class woman, still mourning the death of their child. Jenny, his cousin, serves as narrator for this beautifully written novella by Rebecca West. I felt this wasn’t so much a commentary about the war itself as it was a critique of the social classes and expectations of the day as well as an examination of truth and love. You see, Chris has suffered from shell-shock and has summarily wiped away all memory of the past fifteen years of his life. Kitty is a stranger to him, and Jenny remains as a young childhood companion. The one memory that rushes back and impresses most upon his mind is that of a first love, Margaret. Many prejudices of the upper class towards the lower class are revealed as we witness the reactions of both Kitty and Jenny towards Margaret. Jenny is so assured that she and Kitty have secured Chris’s happiness through their material wealth and beauty. "This house, this life with us, was the core of his heart." Jenny cannot imagine that the old flame could ever be rekindled with a woman as plain and simple, even offensive in her eyes, as Margaret. "She isn't beautiful any longer. She's drearily married. She's seamed and scored and ravaged by squalid circumstances. You can't love her when you see her."

I will refrain from saying too much more about the plot. It is fascinating to watch the interactions between the three women and Chris. Does truth lead to happiness? What duties do these women have towards Chris? What motivates them to act as they do? I observed Jenny’s bit of growth despite the short length of this story, and it left me hopeful. To me, Jenny was the true protagonist in this story, not simply narrating the happenings around her. This experience has changed her awareness of love and life ; what she will do with this growth… well, we can only speculate. "I felt, indeed, a cold intellectual pride in his refusal to remember his prosperous maturity and his determined dwelling in the time of his first love, for it showed him so much saner than the rest of us, who take life as it comes, loaded with the unessential and the irritating."

This was a wonderful introduction to West’s very lyrical writing. It’s a very quick read and one that certainly makes you think; the ending was very moving. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this one, and I look forward to reading more of Rebecca West. ...more

120 likes · Like · see review

Oct 14, 2018 Erin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, uk-and-ireland, 20th-century, catching-up-on-classics-group, language-english

There is beautiful writing and evocative description in this novella, but the story did not work for me, perhaps because the ending felt at once too simple and implausible.

(view spoiler) ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2018 Katy rated it it was amazing

Excellent short novella. What is happiness?

9 likes · Like · see review

Aug 28, 2018 Melanti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, classics, e-book, audiobook, short-story-novella, group-reads, 1001-books, mental-health

This wasn't at all what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be about wars and soldiers - maybe a bit about PTSD. And I suppose, technically, all of that is true.

But really it's more about class issues, medical ethics, a dash of Jungian psychology, and a rather hopeless love story. ...more

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Sep 27, 2014 Peggy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, war, international, history

In 1918, Chris Baldry is serving in France while his cousin Jenny and wife Kitty wait for his return. The women learn that Chris is sick from shell shock. When he returns home he doesn't remember his wife at all. Instead, he seeks out his lover from fifteen years earlier, Margaret, an ordinary woman from the mid or lower classes, who wears "cheap stays" and has the "wholesome endearing heaviness of the draught-ox or the big trusted dog."

Jenny narrates. She's a keen observer of her cousin, being In 1918, Chris Baldry is serving in France while his cousin Jenny and wife Kitty wait for his return. The women learn that Chris is sick from shell shock. When he returns home he doesn't remember his wife at all. Instead, he seeks out his lover from fifteen years earlier, Margaret, an ordinary woman from the mid or lower classes, who wears "cheap stays" and has the "wholesome endearing heaviness of the draught-ox or the big trusted dog."

Jenny narrates. She's a keen observer of her cousin, being devoted to him and loving him in an unrequited way. We don't know why Jenny lives with Chris and Kitty, besides that he is conscientious of his responsibilities to living relatives. After Chris returns home, Kitty almost disappears from the novel. She is class-conscious, devoted to her personal beauty and that of her home: shallow. She doesn't understand, but she withdraws rather than try to figure out Chris's interest in Margaret.

Though Jenny is jealous of Margaret, she observes the couple and discovers that Margaret gives Chris some measure of peace and protection, enough to heal him. Margaret's poverty and dinginess "was part of her generosity" because it left "not one intimation of the beauty of suave flesh to distract him from the message of her soul."

Kitty continues to seek the advice of doctors on how to cure Chris. It's not until the novel nears its end that Jenny realizes that when Chris loses his amnesia he will be sent right back to the trenches.

This novel is built around dichotomous 20th century views of women as either respectable, beautiful, and cold like Kitty or loving, generous, and noble of soul like Margaret. This makes Jenny the most interesting character: neither wife nor mistress, Jenny, the dependent spinster, has the most to lose and she knows it. There are women who do great things, "whose independent spirits can ride fearlessly and with interest outside the home park of their personal relationship," but she is not one of them. She would love to be like Margaret, able to gather "the soul of the man into her soul" and keep it "warm in love and peace." Margaret shows Jenny another value system and she is attracted to it.

When I think of what will become of the four characters, I think that Jenny will change the most. After the war, when British women finally win the right to vote and there begins a general emancipation of women's roles--Jenny may find a way to escape her stifling dependency and become something other than a hanger-on. The Return of the Soldier was Rebecca West's first novel. I'll have to read her later books to find out how her characters evolve. I hope--and expect--them to take risks and explore the places that formerly caged them in. ...more

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