What first interests me in [The Return of the Soldier] is its length, or rather its brevity: all is done within one hundred and eighty-five pages…. Miss West's "novella" is an episode, a situation involving but a few days—or would be, were it not for a chronological backthrow which provides perspective, complications, and the road to a highly effective climax.

We think, at the start, that we have to deal with Rebecca West as still the brisk and brusque young radical of "The Freewoman" and "The New Republic," walking through life in a trim tailor-made, with her feet setting themselves down firmly and her elbows in vigorous action. Well, she is all of that—in certain phases of her social criticism; but she is much more.

Later on we incline to image Miss West as a spirited young filly, speeding it over her race track. For two-thirds...