Other editions of book The Good Soldier

"The Good Soldier" is the story of two couples. The first couple is English, Edward Ashburnham, the good soldier referenced in the title, and his wife Leonora. The second couple is American, John and Florence Dowell, who have been living abroad for quite some time. In a German spa prior to World War I the two couples meet and subsequently Edward and Florence become engaged in an affair. "The Good Soldier" is a tragic tale of passion. As John Dowell laments at the beginning of the book, it is "the saddest story I have ever heard."

When John Dowell and his wife befriend Edward and Leonora Ashburnham, they appear to be the perfect couple. He is a distinguished soldier and she is beautiful and intelligent. However, what lies beneath the surface of their marriage is far more sinister and their influence leads John into a tragic drama that threatens to destroy everything he cares about.Ford Madox Ford wrote The Good Soldier, the book on which his reputation most surely rests, in deliberate emulation of the nineteenth-century French novels he so admired. In this way he was able to explore the theme of sexual betrayal and its poisonous after-effects with a psychological intimacy as yet unknown in the English novel.(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

At the fashionable German spa town Bad Nauheim, two wealthy, fin de siecle couples -- one British, the other American -- meet for their yearly assignation. As their story moves back and forth in time between 1902 and 1914, the fragile surface propriety of the pre -- World War I society in which these four characters live is ruptured -- revealing deceit, hatred, infidelity, and betrayal. "The Good Soldier" is Edward Ashburnham, who, as an adherent to the moral code of the English upper class, is nonetheless consumed by a passion for women younger than his wife -- a stoic but fallible figure in what his American friend, John Dowell, calls "the saddest story I ever heard."

A chronicle of the tragedies in the lives of two seemingly ''perfect couples'' whose lives are far from perfect, this novel was loosely based on two real-life incidents of adultery and on Ford's own messy personal life. Using pre-First World War Europe as its stage, The Good Soldier is the unforgettable story of Edward Ashburnham, his wife Leonora, and their friends, John and Florence Dowell. The eponymous Good Soldier, Edward embodies upper-class English values but behind closed doors carries on a long-running affair with Florence. When Florence's husband, John, discovers the affair, he sets in motion a series of events both tragic and unavoidable.

First published in 1915, “The Good Soldier” is Ford Madox Ford’s tragic tale of the relationship between two couples. The first couple is English, Captain Edward Ashburnham, the good soldier referenced in the title, and his wife Leonora. The two at first have a seemingly perfect marriage but over the course of the novel is revealed that a constant series of infidelities by Edward has driven Leonora to attempt to exert increasing control over Edward’s affairs, placing great strain on their relationship. The second couple is American, John and Florence Dowell, who have been living abroad in Europe for quite some time. John, a wealthy American Quaker, is held romantically at a distance from his wife Florence, who feigns a heart condition so that she may carry on an affairs of her own. What ensues is a tragic series of events which is described by John as the “saddest story ever told”. Often cited as one of the greatest novels ever written, “The Good Soldier” presents the epitome of the unreliable narrator in John Dowell, leaving the reader wondering whether or not he is an innocent victim or a master of manipulation seeking to evoke the sympathy of his audience. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Set just before World War I, The Good Soldier chronicles the tragedies of the lives of two seemingly perfect couples. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks, it also makes use of the device of the unreliable narrator as the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different from what the introduction leads you to believe. The novel was loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life.

* Beautifully illustrated with atmospheric paintings by renowned artists, The Good Soldier is the fascinating tale of an apparently perfect marriage which is gradually revealed to be anything but that. Ford uses flashbacks to narrate the story and is credited with pioneering what became known as literary impressionism. * Just as accessible and enjoyable for today's readers as it would have been when first published over a century ago, the novel is one of the great works of English literature and continues to be widely read throughout the world.* This meticulous digital edition from Heritage Illustrated Publishing is a faithful reproduction of the original text and is enhanced with images of classic works of art carefully selected by our team of professional editors.

"The Good Soldier" is the story of two couples. The first couple is English, Edward Ashburnham, the good soldier referenced in the title, and his wife Leonora. The second couple is American, John and Florence Dowell, who have been living abroad for quite some time. In a German spa prior to World War I the two couples meet and subsequently Edward and Florence become engaged in an affair. "The Good Soldier" is a tragic tale of passion. As John Dowell laments at the beginning of the book, it is "the saddest story I have ever heard."

With an Introduction by Sara Haslam. The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction, an inspiration for many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Set before the First World War, it tells the tale of two wealthy and sophisticated couples, one English, one American, as they travel, socialise, and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe. They are playing the game in style. That game has begun to unravel, however, and with compelling attention to the comic, as well as the tragic, results the American narrator reveals his growing awareness of the sexual intrigues and emotional betrayals that lie behind its façade.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has the wrong thing.’Just before the First World War, two young couples meet in Germany. The seemingly perfect yet brittle relationship of the Ashburnhams soon gives way to unhappiness and betrayal, and respectability to adultery and deception. The Dowells are no less affected by infidelity, and everyone caught up in their four lives is tainted by emotional turmoil and moral ambiguity, and tragic consequences follow.Inspired by his own life, Ford Madox Ford’s novel, originally titled ‘The Saddest Story’, utilised the device of the unreliable narrator to tell his universal story of love and loss.

Events in The Good Soldier unfold just before World War I and chronicle 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 opens with the famous line, “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” The narrator explains that for nine years he, his wife Florence and their friends Ashburnham and his wife Leonora had an ostensibly normal friendship while Edward and Florence sought treatment for their heart ailments at a spa in Nauheim, Germany. As it turns out, nothing in the relationships or in the characters is as it first seems.In The Good Soldier, one of the biggest selling books in history, Ford Madox Ford paved the way for over a century of thriller writers and film-makers who would go on to use the idea of the unreliable narrator to create mystery and suspense. The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of early twentieth-century fiction.