Kathy Hamilton This June marks 100 years since The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West was published. And this debut work, a stunning paean to grief, war, love and the pressure to live a good life, is one that you need to read soon.
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West is steeped in nostalgia for a time and place that exists only in memories. It saturates your senses with longing for the kind of bucolic, peaceful countryside that seems to define an England worth fighting for. The book features some of the most enticing descriptions of the peaceful English countryside that I can remember reading and then places this in stark contrast to the stifled, repressive nature of its characters.
“The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home. But the soldier is shell-shocked and can only remember the Margaret he loved fifteen years before. When he was a young man and she an inn-keeper’s daughter. His cousin he remembers only as a childhood playmate; his wife he remembers not at all. The women have a choice – to leave him where he wishes to be, or to ‘cure’ him. It is Margaret who reveals a love so great that she can make the final sacrifice”
When I started this book I can admit that my first thought was “Not another WWI novel”. But there’s nothing that compares to reading a book actually written in the dying embers of war, to change your perspective. After all, they say a good author sticks to what they know, and Rebecca West definitely had the impact of war on her mind when she wrote this.
Perhaps this is because it takes the action away from the battlefield and places it firmly back in the domestic realm. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West is primarily focussed on exploring what happens after the fighting is over. Chris’ amnesia serves as a magnifying glass; shedding a harsh light on the stultifying life of his wife and cousin have been living. Begging the question, is it better to return to this kind of life or not?
“It was his hopeless hope that some time he would have an experience that would act on his life like alchemy, turning to gold all the dark metals of events, and from that revelation he would go on his way rich with an inextinguishable joy. There had been, of course, no chance of his ever getting it. Literally there wasn’t room to swing a revelation in his crowded life.”
The novel grapples with the soldier’s mental trauma and its effects on the family. But it’s hard not to start believing that society’s expectations on what qualifies as a “good life” are actually being examined. For me, this book was as much about growing up as it was about the after-effects of the war.
Chris is a man, it soon becomes clear, who did the honourable thing. He chose a career, and respectability, and a comfortable life. But always, at the cusp of this respectability lay a sense of unease. Outwardly he has everything, a big house, an adoring wife and a well-paying job. Yet his amnesia seems to expose this all for the shallow facade it is. He is not happy. Neither, we soon realise is anyone…really.
“I reflected, while Kitty wept, how entirely right Chris had been in his assertion that to lovers innumerable things do not matter.”
We often look at WWI as a watershed moment. The end of an established way of life and the beginning of something untested. I think that The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West captured this sentiment somewhat. Although it isn’t named. In this sense it becomes allegorical. Chris represents the establishment. His wife and cousin, tradition. And Margaret? Innocence lost.
As Jenny silently observes her cousin and Maraget together she comes recognises that Margeret represents something higher and purer than she can understand. And she realises that she cannot bear to wake Chris up from his dream. And bring him back into the decay of the present.
For me, the ending of The Return of the Soldier had a profound effect. Although meant to be seen positively, I found myself getting a little choked up by the magnitude of it. It’s not until the last line that you really understand that the title is about much more than Chris’ physical return from the war. I have a feeling it’s a book that I’ll remember for a long time.
Have you read The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West?
As part of their fortieth birthday celebrations, Virago Modern Classics have published a set of beautiful paperbacks. Designed by Hannah Wood and featuring artwork by Yehrin Tong, these books are so tempting! And The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West is one of the collection. I’m so glad because I’m not sure I would have read this book if the beautiful edition had been so tempting!
