Track | Chapter | Length |
01 | 01 - Chapter I | 27:57 |
02 | 02 - Chapter II | 29:50 |
03 | 03 - Chapter III | 14:58 |
04 | 04 - Chapter IV | 34:01 |
05 | 05 - Chapter V | 25:04 |
06 | 06 - Chapter VI | 35:51 |
Notes
Running time: 2 hours and 48 minutes
Read by: Elizabeth Klett
Book Coordinator: Elizabeth Klett
Meta Coordinator: Mary Anderson
Proof Listener: Ans Wink
Artwork
Cover: Recreation of first edition design with illustration from page
Inset: First edition of The Return of the Soldier
Inset: Portrait of Rebecca West by Madame Yévonde
Insert background image: Illustration of Margaret, Kitty, and Jenny from page 176
Recordings
These recordings were made using the author’s original published work, which is in the public domain. The readings were recorded by members and volunteers of Librivox.org, which has generously made the recordings available to the public domain. The audio files have been edited and engineered using professional audio tools for maximum sonic quality. While Librivox condones the sale and distribution of these recordings, it is not associated with the management or operations of MP3 Audiobook Classics.
The Return of the Soldier is the first novel written by British author Rebecca West. Published in 1918, it was also the first novel about the repercussions of the war for returning soldiers and the first and only novel written by a woman about the war during the war. The returning soldier is Chris Baldry, an upper class English gentleman who returns from the trenches suffering from shell shock and memory loss. He is stuck at age 20, has lost his memory of the ensuing fifteen years, which encompass his marriage and the loss of his son, and is fixated on a woman with whom he had once had a summer fling. The story is told from the somewhat limited and unreliable perspective of his cousin Jenny in a non-linear, modernist style. A sense of displacement and uncertainty is pervasive, as is the influence of memory and sexual desire. The reappearance of Margaret, the summer lover, along with the efforts of a psychoanalyst and key artifacts of the past lead to Baldry’s eventual recovery. The Return of the Soldier was neglected in Rebecca West’s extensive oeuvre but has become acknowledged as a masterpiece that treats a difficult and elusive subject realistically and without undue sentimentality. It was made into a film by the same name in 1982 starring Alan Bates as Chris Baldry and co-starring Julie Christie, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson and Ann-Margret.
Play sample:
Download a PDF datasheet
Item Info | |
EAN - DVD case | 0701236969450 |
EAN - CD jacket | 0686175923902 |
Media | MP3 CD |
Package | DVD Case |
Author | Rebecca West |
Year | 1918 |
Recording | |
Read by | Elizabeth Klett |
Length | 2 hours and 48 minutes |
Type of Reading | Solo |
The Return of the Soldier
- Author: Rebecca West
- Product Code: DB-1226
- Availability: In Stock
-
$9.99
Available Options
Related Products
Three Soldiers
Like many young men at the time of the outbreak of the First World War, John Dos Passos was driven b..
$11.99
Fighting France, From Dunkerque to Belfort
When the First World War broke out Edith Wharton, who had settled permanently in Paris after the bre..
$9.99
The Enormous Room
The Enormous Room, the title of poet E. E. Cummings’ 1922 autobiographical novel of World War I, is ..
$11.99
The Red Badge of Courage
Waiting beside a river for a battle to begin, Henry Fleming, an 18-year-old private in the Union A..
$9.99