Books by Ford Madox Ford

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.

Tracing the psychological damage inflicted by battle, the collapse of England's secure Edwardian values - embodied in Christopher's wife, the beautiful, cruel socialite Sylvia - and the beginning of a new age, epitomized by the suffragette Valentine Wannop, this title is an elegy for both the war dead and the passing of a way of life.

A fascinating new stage adaptation from an award winning writer.

Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) is a novelist, poet, literary critic, editor, a founding father of English Modernism, and one of the most significant novelists of the twentieth century. This collection contains essays and letters on the English novel, impressionism, vers libre, Joseph Conrad, H G Wells, Henry James, Herbert Read, and Ernest Hemingway.

Thoroughly edited and extensively annotated, this edition of The Good Soldier tells the stories of two outwardly happy couples who meet at a health spa in Germany just before the start of the First World War.

The Great War changes everything. In this epic tale, spanning over a decade, war turns the world of privileged, English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens upside down. It forces him to question everything he holds dear social order, morality, marriage and loyalty. And it rocks the very foundations of English society. This is a powerful story about love, betrayal and disillusionment in a time of horror and confusion by one of Britain s finest novelists. Ford Madox Ford's monumental novel came to our screens in August 2012 as a major BBC adaptation, with a screenplay by the legendary playwright Tom Stoppard and a stellar cast that included Benedict Cumberbatch. This edition of the novel includes all four parts, originally published separately between 1924 and 1928.

A brilliant and heart-rending evocation of destructive passion. When John Dowell and his wife befriend Edward and Leonora Ashburnham they appear to be the perfect couple.

With an Introduction and Notes by Sara Haslam, Department of English, The Open University.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 faade.

The Dowells, a wealthy American couple, have been close friends with the Ashburnhams for years. Edward Ashburnham, a first-rate soldier, seems to be the perfect English gentleman, and Leonora his perfect wife, but beneath the surface their marriage seethes with unhappiness and deception. Our only window on the strange tangle of events surrounding Edward is provided by John Dowell, the husband he deceives. Gradually Dowell unfolds a devastating story, in which everyone s honesty is in doubt. This extraordinary novel of passion and betrayal is a masterpiece of narrative skill and emotional depth.

Christopher Tietjens has long loved the beautiful young suffragette Valentine, but the pair are held apart by Christopher's loyalty to his wife Sylvia, and to a set of principles which belong to an old world, and which are about to be swallowed up in the mud and chaos of the Western Front.