20–7429
Shell shock and its terrible possibilities are the theme of this story. Before he went to war Arnold Cheyne had been deeply in love with Nadina, a beautiful dancing girl. When the latter, not yet ready to abandon her career, refused him, he entered into a loveless marriage with Sheila Maclaren. Under the influence of shell shock he no longer recognizes Sheila and thinks of Nadina as his wife. The doctor of the hospital, having been told Arnold’s history and his want of love for his real wife, advises Nadina to humor him in his hallucination. With a nervous patient’s cunning Arnold escapes from the hospital and flees with Nadina into Cornwall. There the end is a double murder, the first of the man who has followed the couple, intent on making trouble, and the second, under the influence of a dream taking him back into the horrors of trench warfare, of Nadina herself.
“The symptoms of the hero are well described; but Mr Jenkin lacks literary skill and seems to find it very difficult to cope with his plot.”
+ − Ath p1386 D 19 ’19 130w
“For a book with a live theme, the effect of shell shock and the social and legal problems arising from that effect. ‘The end of a dream’ is amazingly dull.” R. D. W.
− Boston Transcript p8 Je 19 ’20 400w
“In this vividly written story of the possible effects of shell shock the author has unfolded a dramatic story of intense interest and downright awful power.”
+ N Y Times 25:308 Je 13 ’20 700w
“The last scene is terrible in its realism. The book should certainly be kept out of the hands of sufferers from the milder forms of this affection.”