The Book Tower

In Life Class Pat Barker revisits the setting of the First World War, the ugly moment in history she so excellently helped to document in her Regeneration trilogy written ten or so years ago. This new novel begins just prior to the outbreak of war in 1914, following a group of students at the Slade School of Art in London. Paul and Neville are the boys, Elinor and Teresa the girls – both bringing torment to their male admirers in their own unique ways; Elinor indecisive over Paul’s affection, Teresa, an artist’s model, with her own estranged dangerous husband in the shadows.

So far so ordinary really. This group of students isn’t vastly different to a group from almost a century later, and it’s only occasional references to various antiquities such as a horse drawn cab that reminds of the historical setting, or the lack of any references to a burgeoning popular culture.

Life Class hits its stride with the outbreak of war. As Paul and Neville become volunteers in a makeshift military hospital in France (they are both rejected for military service on medical grounds), carefree student life full only of worries about artistic ability and female rejection are surpassed by the disturbing reality of wounded soldiers. Here Barker doesn’t hold back; her descriptions of the casualties are uncensored and grimly sobering.

Paul in particular matures as only a young man could in such circumstances. He meets another volunteer called Lewis who he slowly forms a close attachment to. Their relationship proves to be the best in the novel, subtle and understated. The pages are also interrupted but exchanges between Paul and Elinor, and they meet again when she visits him under the pretence of enlisting as a nurse. Love blossoms under extreme circumstances.

Fans of the Regeneration trilogy will love this. Barker manages to ask some interesting questions; is there any need for an artist in such awful moments of history – how can they contribute? Like her earlier novels set in this period, many real life characters are used in the fiction. Here, Henry Tonks is the critical tutor at Slade. The real life Tonks worked as a war artist in 1916, providing sketches to help the pioneers of modern plastic surgery, proving an artist’s worth in terrible times. A fascinating backdrop to a fascinating novel.