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       Having read Harriet's review of Rebecca West's first novel The Return of the Soldier recently, I wanted to read the book itself. I've done so now and have not been disappointed with this sad tale of lost love, forgotten love and unrequited love.

      Shell-shocked Chris Baldry returns from the war with no memory of his relationship with his beautiful wife, Kitty. The woman he does seek - and finds - is Margaret Grey, dowdy, worn, of a lower social class, but the person with whom Chris knew deep love many years before. The story is told by Chris's cousin, Jenny, who has long held a hopeless passion for him but who, more fervently than the empty Kitty, longs to see him returned to his old and true self.

     Margaret appears in her yellowish raincoat, her straw hat with its funereal plumes, and "the smile of the inveterate romanticist" and is seen as "a spreading stain on the fabric of our life", but it is she who holds the key to Chris's recovery so she is tolerated but later accepted by Jenny at least. The contrast between the poor Margaret and the wealth and grandeur of Baldry Court and its family is well expressed, for example, "She was not so much a person as an implication of dreary poverty, like an open door in a mean house that lets out the smell of cooking cabbage and the screams of children."

     Some of the writing is very fine, some of it over-emotional with a youthful urgency - it is florid and over-written in places, but elsewhere it's restrained and assured. Much is made of the importance and effect of light in the book, presumably as a metaphor for Chris's amnesiac 'darkness', and themes of age and class-distinction recur frequently, but above all it's a love story, short, dramatic, and worth reading. 

                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thanks for all the excellent comments on yesterday's post and the wonderful suggestions of collections of letters. I think I shall have to set up a separate books section for "Cornflower readers recommend....." (or at least list as many as possible in a dedicated post).                                              

Comments

[Margaret Powling]

That sounds a great read. But I must curb my enthusiam and not go on line to Amazon Marketplace to order a copy for a while as I've just ordered William by E H Young (although not yet read Miss Mole) and also the first in Susan Hill's crime series. Have just read Katharine Whitehorn's autobiography. I won't comment about that now because it might be one you are intending reading and therefore you would post a review. Off now to start on Douglas Kennedy's A Special Relationship (well, it will join others on the bedside table, all currently being read.) On first glance at the book it would seem to be in first person from the femail viewpoint. I'm not keen on novels by men writing from the female viewpoint, so reading this will be something of a challenge.

[tara]

I've now enjoyed both your and Harriet's review and I'm looking forward to this one - I'm lucky to have it in my Virago collection.

[Harriet]

Delighted to hear you enjoyed it!

[rosie]

I love this book! It was originally serialised, I think. I supervised an undergraduate at Newnham who did an amazing job of tracing and analysing all the globe/world imagery in the novel, which made me go back and re-read it for about the 20th time. I find something new every time I come back to it!