The Good Soldier edition by Ford Madox Ford Literature Fiction eBooks
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The Good Soldier is a 1915 novel by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers, and his own seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order, a literary technique that formed part of Ford's pioneering view of literary impressionism. Ford employs the device of the unreliable narrator to great effect as the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different from what the introduction leads the reader to believe. The novel was loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life. The novel's original title was The Saddest Story, but after the onset of World War I, the publishers asked Ford for a new title. Ford suggested (sarcastically) The Good Soldier, and the name stuck. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Good Soldier 30th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2015, the BBC ranked The Good Soldier 13th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. The Good Soldier is narrated by the character John Dowell, half of one of the couples whose dissolving relationships form the subject of the novel. Dowell tells the stories of those dissolutions as well as the deaths of three characters and the madness of a fourth, in a rambling, non-chronological fashion that leaves gaps for the reader to fill. The "plot" is not then the real story; the reader is asked to consider whether they believe Dowell and what part he truly played in how this "saddest story ever told" actually plays out.
The Good Soldier edition by Ford Madox Ford Literature Fiction eBooks
Ford - blasts the reader with words as a torrent from a fire hose. It is almost soap-opera-like in its ‘gossipy’ tone and conceited demeanor and you get put-off by it after 20-30 pages. But wait! (there’s more) he’s using a very clever approach to storytelling, the “unreliable narrator” (Huh- what? Yeah, me too, I had to go read the Wiki article on this book, don’t skip that unless you are already a ‘smarty pants’ Lit. major). Ford peels the onion layer by layer not just from the outside in - but the inside-out as well, and simultaneously.As the first words of Part IV, Chapter I, he says, “I HAVE, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it.”
The story seems to start in the middle and is told by jumping ahead and back so you will have to pay attention to “keep up”. He begins with some ‘raw’ observations about his friends, the Ashburnhams, Edward & Lenora as well as his own wife, Florence. But, you will see these observations focus, change, refine, and morph to something different throughout the telling of the tale (the unreliable narrator).
And for this reader at least, the telling is MORE the point than the tale itself. You’ll see what I mean if you stick with this novel. I watched (?) imagined (?) my own rating for this book go from a very solid ★★☆☆☆ to a full ★★★★★ during the course of the read.
The story is set in the early 1900’s: the narrator is an idle American - John Dowell - recently married to an upwardly mobile Connecticut girl (…”where as you know, they are more old-fashioned than even the inhabitants of Cranford, England…”) and moved to England where they meet the Ashburnhams. It is a tale of broken hearts - both figuratively and literally! In fact, Ford’s original title was “The saddest story I have ever heard” but, his publisher was not enamored and so it is kept in the opening sentence. Edward Ashburnham is a British soldier - and by all accounts a ‘good’ one and the central character in the story. Watch how your own opinions dramatically change about virtually all of the characters during the read as it is ‘unpeeled’. Read it - I'll bet you’ll like it.
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The Good Soldier edition by Ford Madox Ford Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
It's a simple story of marital infidelity told in the most roundabout and obtuse way possible. Two married couples, American and English, regularly socialize together at a German spa over the course of about a decade. One half of each couple is a heart patient. One half of each couple engage in an affair. Eventually the truth comes out and the American husband, Dowell, unaware of any infidelity, finds out that the quietly contented life he's been living for his entire marriage is a lie. But was he contented? Was anyone involved contented? Did he really not know? How could anyone be that oblivious and naive?
The central idea is that a man is telling you a story, over time, as it occurs to him. He's not ostensibly worried about crafting a coherent narrative. The same anecdotes are visited again and again. But each time, a little more is revealed. A new fact; a different interpretation; a contradictory detail. His focus is not on telling you the truth, but to tell you a variety of pleasant and plausible lies. What he thinks is most socially acceptable. What he thinks you the reader want to hear. What he thinks ought to be the truth. What he wishes were true. Flashes of honesty and rage escape his carefully constructed mediocrity and are quickly suppressed. At the end, the true story, as much as it can be, is revealed not so much in anything he's said, but between and in spite of everything he's said. But then, we only have his word for it. None of it may be true at all. It's a much weirder and funnier book than it sounds.
The only other book I can think of that rivals it in narrative ambiguity is The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe.
Spoiler
I am fascinated by a theory I read on Wikipedia (I know, I know) that Dowell in fact murdered Florence and Edward and the book is his way of exonerating himself. While I think that's quite a stretch, the story is, in fact, ambiguous enough to support it, if you think you'd enjoy it more as a secret thriller.
I see that this book has many mixed reviews. I can also see why; it's pretty unusual. Let me just say before I go on that I read this book because it was on the MLA's list of the 100 best books of the 20th century, and I'm glad I did.
I'm not going to summarize the book. If you're looking here, at this old obscure book, then you probably know about it somewhat already. What I am going to say is that I gave this book five stars because it was unlike anything I'd encountered before.
The writing is lively, quirky, and eccentric at times, yes. The writing also jumps around, from past to present to past again, almost randomly. And reading this book doesn't really leave one with a great sense of hope. These are all good reasons for someone to not like a novel. So why did I like it?
What this novel does have is a very remember-able narrator, someone who is both very pitiable and likeable. It also has great character development; rarely have I seen characters come alive in such complex and dynamic ways (in each part, each character evolved, or their character was revealed, so much that I constantly had to reassess everyone). It's also got an interesting, original, and somewhat dark structure-- at the each of each part, someone dies (or a part of them, metaphorically, dies). And lastly, it has a very interpretable story; I can see a thousand different college kids writing a thousand wildly different essays, all contradicting each other.
In the end, this book isn't very long, and it's unique, so if you're mildly interested, just give it a shot. If one is looking for a simple exciting read, then don't go for this one. But, if one is looking for something more eccentric, something a little more obscure and questionable-- all written in an easy and enjoyable style-- then this may be for you.
Ford - blasts the reader with words as a torrent from a fire hose. It is almost soap-opera-like in its ‘gossipy’ tone and conceited demeanor and you get put-off by it after 20-30 pages. But wait! (there’s more) he’s using a very clever approach to storytelling, the “unreliable narrator” (Huh- what? Yeah, me too, I had to go read the Wiki article on this book, don’t skip that unless you are already a ‘smarty pants’ Lit. major). Ford peels the onion layer by layer not just from the outside in - but the inside-out as well, and simultaneously.
As the first words of Part IV, Chapter I, he says, “I HAVE, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it.”
The story seems to start in the middle and is told by jumping ahead and back so you will have to pay attention to “keep up”. He begins with some ‘raw’ observations about his friends, the Ashburnhams, Edward & Lenora as well as his own wife, Florence. But, you will see these observations focus, change, refine, and morph to something different throughout the telling of the tale (the unreliable narrator).
And for this reader at least, the telling is MORE the point than the tale itself. You’ll see what I mean if you stick with this novel. I watched (?) imagined (?) my own rating for this book go from a very solid ★★☆☆☆ to a full ★★★★★ during the course of the read.
The story is set in the early 1900’s the narrator is an idle American - John Dowell - recently married to an upwardly mobile Connecticut girl (…”where as you know, they are more old-fashioned than even the inhabitants of Cranford, England…”) and moved to England where they meet the Ashburnhams. It is a tale of broken hearts - both figuratively and literally! In fact, Ford’s original title was “The saddest story I have ever heard” but, his publisher was not enamored and so it is kept in the opening sentence. Edward Ashburnham is a British soldier - and by all accounts a ‘good’ one and the central character in the story. Watch how your own opinions dramatically change about virtually all of the characters during the read as it is ‘unpeeled’. Read it - I'll bet you’ll like it.
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