The Eye in the Door

296 Pages·2017·36.07 MB·English

by  The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker Pat Barker

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Pat
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author of
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$20.95
I Pat Barker's brilliant antiwar
I novel, Regeneration, was
I widely hailed as a master-
piece and was named by the
f
New York Times Book Review
^^^^" as one of the four best novels of
1992. Now Pat Barker returns to the World War I era with The
Eye in the Door, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize for 1 993
It is the spring of 1918. On the battlefields of France,
a mammoth German offensive threatens the English army with
defeat. In England itself, a beleaguered government and panic-
stricken, vengeful public seek scapegoats. Two groups are tar-
geted for persecution and prosecution: pacifists and
homosexuals. Many are jailed, others lead dangerous double
lives; and "the eye in the door" becomes a symbol of the para-
noia that threatens to destroy the very fabric of British society.
Central to this novel is Lieutenant Billy Prior,
recently released from treatment for shell shock by psychia-
trist Dr. William Rivers. Prior is in London, assigned to a
domestic Intelligence unit. His position demands that he inves-
tigate an imprisoned female pacifist accused of plotting a
political assassination-a woman who raised him as a child,
and who now accuses him of betraying that childhood. At the
same time, he has had a casual but intense sexual encounter
with a fellow patient of Dr. Rivers-Charles Manning, an upper-
(Continued on back flap)
THE EYE
IN
THE DOOR
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Union Street
Blow Your House Down
The Century's Daughter
The Man Who Wasn't There
Regeneration
PAT BARKER
THE EYE
IN
THE DOOR
A WILLIAM ABRAHAMS BOOK
A DUTTON BOOK
DUTTON
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Published by Dutton, an imprint of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
Originally published in Great Britain by Penguin Books Ltd.
First Dutton Printing, May, 1994
10 987654321
Copyright © Pat Barker, 1993
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
5
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Barker, Pat.
The eye in the door / Pat Barker.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-525-93808-7
1. World War, 1914-1918—Great Britain—Fiction. 2. Rivers, W H. R.
(William Halse Rivers), 1864-1922—Fiction. 3. Sassoon,
Siegfried, 1888-1967—Fiction. 4. Poets, English—20th century-
Fiction. 5. Psychiatrists—Great Britain—Fiction. 6. Gays—Great
Britain—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6052A6488E97 1994
823'.914—dc20 93-43833
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Bembo
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of
the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or
by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the
prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
For David
It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to
recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of
the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even
if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was
radically both . . .
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- R. L. Stevenson