Cover image of "Regeneration," a novel with an anti-war message

The main event at the Scottish psychiatric hospital Craiglockhart is the arrival of Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) in the summer of 1917. The celebrated young poet had recently circulated an anti-war message attacking Britain’s political leaders. He charged that “the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.” He went on, “I believe this War, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.” Yet Sassoon was not seeking a way out of the fighting. He was a decorated hero who had earned the prestigious Military Cross for an episode of extraordinary courage. But this meant little to the generals. Opting not to court-martial him, which might have led to an airing of his charges in the press. his superiors had prescribed three months of psychiatric treatment in hopes he would relent.

A psychiatrist takes center stage

That dramatic event made the novel Regeneration by English Booker Prize-winner Pat Barker irresistible to me. I seek out fiction on such serious themes. However, Sassoon is only one of the men under the care of the psychiatrist assigned to his case, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers (1864-1922), a neurologist and social anthropologist. In fact, if anything, Rivers is the protagonist of Barker’s novel. And others among his patients play major roles in the story as well. Their collective experience conveys the anti-war message in stark, human terms. Regeneration illustrates the futility and senseless loss of life on the Western Front more effectively than any sober recitation of statistics in a history book.

Regeneration by Pat Barker (1991) 260 pages ★★★★★

Photo of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, whose anti-war message in 1917 became famous
Siegfried Sassoon in 1915. He’s the principal subject of this novel. Image: Britannica

The anti-war message comes through clearly on almost every page

Siegfried Sassoon was the best known of a small circle of poets who gravitated toward him. Robert Graves (1895-1985) was both his superior officer and friend. But it was he who had campaigned successfully to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart. And there Sassoon befriended Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). He took the insecure young man under his wing, mentoring him and even going so far as to edit some of his work. At the same time, Sassoon encountered not just one distinguished member of the staff (Rivers) but another neurologist and experimental psychologist, Henry Head (1861-1940), as well. In other words, there was an extraordinary confluence of talent at Craiglockhart. And Pat Barker does them justice. She endows every major character with fine intelligence and the sensitivity required in their work.

About the author

Photo of Pat Barker, author of this novel with an anti-war message
Pat Barker in 2015. Image: Justine Stoddard – British Council on Literature

Pat Barker was born Patricia Mary W. Drake in Yorkshire, England, in 1943. Educated at the London School of Economics in international history, she turned to writing fiction in her 20s. She has written 16 novels, many of which have earned her major literary awards, including the Booker Prize, The Regeneration trilogy is her best-known work, although recently she has also gained acclaim for three novels about the Trojan Wars. She is the mother of two children but is now widowed.

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