The Sentinel: An Incomplete Early Novel by Rebecca West Book

'And when the suffragette went out by the door the stones began to come through the window.' The descriptions of hunger striking and the force feeding of suffragettes in this, Rebecca West's first and hitherto unknown novel, are among the most gripping in suffragette literature. But The Sentinel (1909-11) is equally compelling for its engagement with some of the major political, cultural and literary debates of the early twentieth century. Offering a sweeping panorama of English society, West covers issues ranging from contemporary concerns within the feminist movement (feminism and socialism, female desire, sexuality and motherhood) to Russian revolutionaries, popular culture and aesthetics. In her edition, Laing demonstrates why this flawed work offers an important historical and biographical document and a privileged insight into the emergence of the young Rebecca West as fiction writer and astute critic on the literary and political scene. (Legenda 2003)