The return of the soldier pdf. The Return of the Soldier. 2022-10-15
The return of the soldier pdf
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The Return of the Soldier is a novel written by Rebecca West and published in 1918. It tells the story of Chris Baldry, a British officer who has been fighting in World War I and suffers from shell shock, also known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Upon returning home, Chris is unable to remember the past decade of his life, including his marriage to Kitty, a wealthy socialite. Instead, he becomes fixated on a woman from his past, Margaret Allington, whom he remembers as being his true love.
The novel explores the theme of memory and how it shapes our identity. Chris's loss of memory causes him to question who he is and what his life has been up until that point. He becomes drawn to the past and the memories that he has of Margaret, which leads him to question his present reality and his feelings towards Kitty.
The novel also touches on the theme of class and how it affects relationships. Chris comes from a working-class background, while Kitty and Margaret are both from upper-class families. Chris's relationship with Margaret is frowned upon by Kitty and her social circle due to their class differences, which adds tension to the novel.
The Return of the Soldier is a poignant exploration of love, memory, and identity. It delves into the psychological effects of war on soldiers and the difficulties they face when trying to readjust to civilian life. It is a thought-provoking and emotional read that remains relevant today as we continue to deal with the psychological impacts of conflict on those who serve in the military.
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West Plot Summary
Then we had all been living wickedly, and he, too. Then he turned over again and said, "Now tell us all about this Kitty that I 've married. You did n't overtax his brain? Instead, I turned to Margaret an expression which conveyed that this was an act of hospitality the refusal of which we would find wounding, and to that she yielded, as I knew she would. Yet she cried: "But Chris is ill! I knew suddenly that all she said was true; for that was why her hands had clasped that purse. William Grey, Mariposa, Ladysmith Road, Wealdstone,' I don't know anybody in Wealdstone. You must n't blame them. .
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The Soldier S Return PDF Book
The sight of its green seams and unveracious tortoiseshell handle disgusted Kitty into speech. So usually one sat down there in the boat, talking with a sense of leisure, as though one had all the rest of one's life in which to carry on this conversation, and noting how the reflected ripple of the water made a bright, vibrant, mark upon her throat, and other effects of the scene upon her beauty, until the afternoon grew drowsy, and she said, "Father will be wanting his tea. . He says he wants to see everybody concerned. Some wounded soldiers who came out to sit in the sun were rather rude because I was not in khaki, even when I explained that I was a priest of God and that the feeling of the bishops was strongly against the enlistment of the clergy. It was the first lavish day of spring, and the sunlight was pouring through the tall, arched windows and the flowered curtains so brightly that in the old days a fat fist would certainly have been raised to point out the new, translucent glories of the rosebud. I did not know how I could pierce Margaret's simplicity with this last cruel subtlety, and turned to her, stammering.
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FREE The Return of the Soldier PDF Book by Rebecca West (1918) Read Online or Free Downlaod
There are lots of things up there. The book is a small classic, deeply touching and true. Oh, do just let him be! Kitty huddled carelessly by the fire, her hands over her face, unheeding by its red glow she looked not so virginal and bride-like; so I think she was too distracted even to plan. Batchard who keeps the inn at Surly Hall. She evidently desired sanction for a long-suppressed discontent. . And the sky also is different.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Return of The Soldier, by Rebecca West.
I could not see his face, but I knew that his skin was red and that his gray eyes were wet and bright. Forgive me, I don't know his rank. She stared over my shoulder at the open door, where Kitty stood. Baldry had liked to see the night gathering like a pool in the valley while the day lingered as a white streak above the farthest hills, and perceiving in pain that the heavy blue blinds that shroud the nine windows because a lost Zeppelin sometimes clanks like a skeleton across the sky above us would make his home seem even more like prison. Gathering with the others, the women hear Dr. We like them to take their time, the loves. How does it matter so much? She turned to me trustfully and stammered, "He is at that hospital I said," as if, since I had dealt her no direct blow, I might be able to salve the news she brought from the general wreck of manners.
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The Return of The Soldier by Rebecca West (PDF)
He was thinking of another woman, of another beauty. With the hardness of a woman who sees before her the curse of women's lives, a domestic row, Kitty said that she took no interest in servants' gossip. How long this went on he had forgotten; but it continued for some time before there came the end of his life, the last day he could remember. She had run her hands over the rug so that it lay quite smooth and comfortable under him I have often seen people grouped like that on the common outside our gates on Bank holidays. You may think we were attaching an altogether fictitious importance to what was merely the delusion of a madman.
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The return of the soldier : West, Rebecca, 1892
Won't you go up-stairs and take off your things? There was no doubt in my mind but that this queer, ugly episode in which this woman butted like a clumsy animal at a gate she was not intelligent enough to open would dissolve and be replaced by some more pleasing composition in which we would take our proper parts; in which, that is, she would turn from our rightness ashamed. Then they all had tea under the walnut-tree where the canary's cage was hanging, and the ducks' eggs would be brought out, and Mr. Grey come in from his gardening. It was an intrusion, but I wanted to be near her. Lifting her down from the niche, he told her so. . Invariably, as she passed the walnut-tree that overhung the path, she would pick a leaf, crush it, and sniff the sweet scent; and as she came near the steps she would shade her eyes and peer across the water.
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Download book The Return of the Soldier PDF
He 's our last hope. I suppose he 's had so much to do with pretty ones that a plain one 's a change. When we had played together as children in that wood he had always shown great faith in the imminence of the improbable He thought that the birch-tree would really stir and shrink and quicken into an enchanted princess, that he really was a red Indian, and that his disguise would suddenly fall from him at the right sundown, that at any moment a tiger might lift red fangs through the bracken, and he expected these things with a stronger motion of the imagination than the ordinary child's make-believe. We had known how we felt for just a week. Kitty was coming downstairs in a white serge dress against which her hands were rosy; a woman with such lovely little hands never needed to wear flowers.
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The Return of the Soldier.
The doctor ceased suddenly to balance on the balls of his feet. He was thinking of another woman, of another beauty. The book is perfect for those who wants to read fiction, historical books. He talked a lot about the wood and the upper pond and wanted to know if the daffies were out yet, and when he would be allowed to travel, because he felt that he would get well at once if only he could get home. Behind Chris's head, as he halted at the open window, a search-light turned all ways in the n. One cannot now protect one's environment as one once could.
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