The Ghost RoadCentral to this novel are two men divided by class and experience, but sharing a mutual respect and empathy. One is Lieutenant Billy Prior, cured of shell shock by famed psychologist Dr. William Rivers at Craiglockhart War Hospital, and determined to return to the front in France even as the war enters its final ferocious phase in the late summer of 1918. The other is Dr. Rivers himself, consumed by the medical challenge and moral dilemma of restoring men to health so that they can be sent back to the battlefields and almost certain death. Billy Prior is a working-class man on the rise, a "temporary gentleman", who inhabits a sexual, social, and moral no-man's-land. His sexual encounters with both women and men are tinged with a cynical fatalism that the war has engendered. Still, he is eager to join a fellow Craiglockhart "graduate", the poet Wilfred Owen, in France in time to participate in the great English offensive, the "one last push" intended to redeem all the shining heroism and senseless slaughter that has gone before. |
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anyway arms asked began better bloody breath clear close course dark dead didn't don't door eyes face father feel feet felt fire followed ghosts girls going gone hair Hallet hands happen he'd head Hocart island it's keep kill knew later laughed least leave legs light living looked marching mean mind Moffet morning mother mouth moved never night Njiru once Owen perhaps Prior questions rain remember Rivers round running Sarah seemed shadows side silence sitting skin skull sleep smell smiled sound stand started stood stopped suppose sure talk tell tent there's thing thought told took tried trying turned voice waited walked wall Wansbeck wanted watched window woman women wonder wound young