Sherston's progress

The capstone of Siegfried Sassoon's masterful George Sherston trilogy, Sherston's Progress, opens with Sherston under the care of neurologist Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, who allows the shell-shocked soldier to sort through his "futile demons" regarding the war still raging around him. After six months convalescing, Sherston rejoins his regiment before being dispatched to Ireland - where he attempts to reclaim some of the bucolic sense of his youth - then on to Palestine. He survives a gunshot to the head when back on the Western Front in France and ends up again with Rivers, who attempts to help…