Chapter synopses Flashcards
1
Q
Chapter 1
A
- Rivers reads Sassoon’s Declaration
- Sassoon journeys to Edinburgh and has a flashback on the train in which we learn of how he was persuaded by Graves to take the Medical Board that sent him to Craiglockhart
- Rivers sees Sassoon arrive
2
Q
Chapter 2
A
- Sassoon and Rivers have their first consultation in which Sassoon maintains his antiwar stance, claiming that his antipathy has shifted from the Germans to British non-combatants who support the war
- Rivers tells Sassoon it is his job to change his mind
- Rivers feels defeated by the case of Burns who suffers from a traumatically induced eating disorder
3
Q
Chapter 3
A
- Graves arrives at Craiglockhart and meets with Rivers
- Graves tells Rivers how he convinced the MB that Sassoon’s Declaration was a result of his illness rather than a rational desire for the war to end
- Rivers reads Sassoon’s poetry and decides it demonstrates the complexity of his case as Sassoon is dealing with his trauma in the opposite way to most patients
4
Q
Chapter 4
A
- Rivers has a consultation with Anderson; they discuss his strange dreams and his haemophobia
- Graves and Sassoon go for a swim; they mention a boy who was castrated by his injuries
- Rivers and Sassoon meet again
- Burns conducts a strange ritual in the woods; Rivers watches over him when he returns
5
Q
Chapter 5
A
- Rivers meets Billy Prior
- Graves leaves
- Rivers has a nightmare and analyses it
6
Q
Chapter 6
A
- Rivers and Prior have their first formal consultation
- Rivers’s work is interrupted by an unexpected visit from Prior’s father and then almost immediately afterward by his mother
- that evening, Rivers finds Prior alone in the common room fighting the onset of an asthma attack, and settles him as best he can for the night
7
Q
Chapter 7 - end of part 1
A
- Prior tells Rivers about his army experiences but Rivers refuses his request to use hypnosis to recover his memory
- Details of Sassoon’s case are published in The Times and Rivers writes his admission report
- Rivers explains to Brock, his colleague, how he plans to persuade Sassoon to return to the front
8
Q
Chapter 8
A
- Prior describes to Rivers the events leading up to his memory loss
- Owen and Sassoon meet for the first time
- Sassoon plays golf with Anderson
- Prior goes to Edinburgh for a night out, where he meets Sarah Lumb; he buys her a drink, they talk but she refuses to have sex with him
9
Q
Chapter 9
A
- with Prior, Rivers discusses the different shell-shock symptoms exhibited by private soldiers and officers
- Rivers hypnotises Prior, enabling him to remember the event that triggered his loss of speech
- Rivers contemplates the central paradox of WW1: the way in which it encouraged men to form caring relationships with men in the midst of conflict
10
Q
Chapter 10
A
- Sarah’s friend Lizzie says she doesn’t want to see her husband who is hoping to return home on leave
- Willard, who suffers from hysterical paralysis, awaits his wife’s visit
- Rivers and Sassoon have dinner at the Conservative Club
- Rivers meets Willard’s wife
11
Q
Chapter 11
A
- Sassoon gives a poem to Owen to publish in the Hydra
- Sassoon criticises Owen’s poetry and advises him on his writing methods
12
Q
Chapter 12
A
- Prior takes Sarah out for the day
- there is a storm; they have sex but quarrel later
13
Q
Chapter 13 - end of part 2
A
Rivers has an exhausting day and finally breaks down that evening; Bryce convinces him to take leave
- Prior recuperates from another asthma attack
- Sassoon and Owen work on a new poem
- Sassoon thinks he has a visit from a dead friend and regrets being unable to talk to Rivers about the experience
14
Q
Chapter 14
A
- Rivers goes to church and his stay with his brother evokes memories of his childhood
- Sassoon and Owen continue work on Owen’s poem, which Sassoon gives a title
- Prior and Sassoon unexpectedly meet at the local hospital
- Rivers stays with Henry Head and discusses Sassoon’s case with Ruth, Henry’s wife, during a walk on Hampstead Heath
- Rivers receives an unexpected job offer
15
Q
Chapter 15
A
- Rivers visits Burns at his home on the Suffolk coast
- Rivers wonders why he has always regarded Burns’s experience as uniquely horrific when all his patients have endured similarly appalling events
- Burns disappears from the house in the middle of the night and Rivers searches for him
- Burns talks about his experiences in France and Rivers wonders if this is a sign of recovery
16
Q
Chapter 16 - end of part 3
A
- Rivers returns to Craiglockhart
- Byrce advises him to accept Head’s job offer, as he does not expect to remain head of the hospital much longer
- Rivers tells Sassoon of a strange experience he had on the Solomon Islands; in return, Sassoon tells him about Orme
- Sassoon shows Rivers another poem and tells him he has decided to return to active service
17
Q
Chapter 17
A
- Sarah is visited by her mother, who criticises her relationship with Billy and her decision to be a munitions worker
- Graves tells Sassoon that he has been writing to a girl and denies that he ever had homosexual leanings
- Sarah and her munitionette friends discuss the sexual shortcomings of upper-class men and the case of a fellow worker who botched an abortion
- Rivers warns Sassoon that he is a vulnerable target to the growing intolerance towards homosexuals
18
Q
Chapter 18
A
- Prior goes before the MB and is disappointed to be passed fit only for home service
- Sassoon gets impatient and walks out before his turn in front of the Board
- Rivers is furious about Sassoon’s impatience but is relieved to hear that he has not changed his mind about going back to the army
19
Q
Chapter 19
A
- Prior sneaks into Sarah’s lodgings and tells her he loves her for the first time
- Owen and Sassoon have dinner for the last time before Owen leaves Craiglockhart
20
Q
Chapter 20
A
- Rivers leaves Craiglockhart and begins his new job in London
- He visits the hospital where Lewis Yealland works and accompanies him on a ward round
- Rivers is intrigued by the case of a dumb patient who has proved resistant to any attempts to restore his treatment and asks Yealland if he can watch him being treated
21
Q
Chapter 21
A
- Rivers watches Callan’s treatment in which Yealland locks Callan in the room and does not permit him to leave until he speaks
22
Q
Chapter 22
A
- Rivers is exhausted by his visit to Yealland and continues to feel ill
- He has a nightmare in which he is inserting a bit into a patient’s mouth
- Upon waking, he interprets the dream as indicating that he and Yealland are both in the business of silencing war protest
- Rivers comes to acknowledge that he is directly responsible for persuading Sassoon to give up his Declaration
23
Q
Chapter 23 - end of part 4
A
- Rivers tells Head about the nightmare and his conclusions regarding its meaning; Head reassures him that he is not as guilty as he thinks
- Rivers feels that, with the help of his patients, his own healing has begun
- Sassoon goes before the MB and is passed fit to return to duty
- Rivers writes the formal discharge note, despite his ongoing concern that Sassoon will die in battle
