Regeneration Trilogy

The Regeneration Trilogy is a series of three novels by Pat Barker on the subject of the final part of the First World War, focusing primarily on 1917 and 1918. The novels blend fact and fiction, hanging on a framework of factual events, an interwoven set of fictional story-lines of real people with fictional characters. The first novel of the series Regeneration was published in 1991, followed by The Eye in the Door (1993) and The Ghost Road (1995).

The broad themes outlined across the three books are the modernisation of medicine in the treatment of trauma and mental illness with its differing application in relation to social class — the progressive and considerate cutting-edge Freudian treatment for officers versus the regressive, aggressive, and brutal aversion therapy for the lower ranks. Also, the theme of sexuality — hetero-, bi-, and homo-sexuality — is prevalent throughout and its interplay again across the social classes.

The main characters are:

• Dr William Rivers, the noted Freudian psychiatrist and neurologist in the British Army
• Siegfried Sassoon, the distinguished war hero and famous war poet and patient of Rivers
• Billy Prior, a fictional lieutenant from a working class background suffering from gross war trauma and patient of Rivers

In 2012, The Observer named the trilogy in its entirety as one of "The 10 best historical novels".