Ford Madox Ford’s tetralogy set in England during World War I is widely considered one of the best novels of the twentieth century.
First published as four separate novels (Some Do Not…, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, and The Last Post) between 1924 and 1928, Parade’s End explores the world of the English ruling class as it descends into the chaos of war.
Christopher Tietjens is an officer from a wealthy family who finds himself torn between his unfaithful socialite wife, Sylvia, and his suffragette mistress, Valentine. A profound portrait of one man’s internal struggles during a time of brutal world conflict, Parade’s End bears out Graham Greene’s prediction that “there is no novelist of this century more likely to live than Ford Madox Ford.”

Ford Maddox Ford’s masterful trilogy of historical fiction centers on Katharine Howard, a young girl of a proud, noble, and impoverished family who catches the jaded eye of Henry VIII and becomes his controversial fifth queen.

In book one, The Fifth Queen, Katharine arrives at the king’s court to find its dimly lit corridors vibrating with corruption and fear as unscrupulous courtiers hungry for power maneuver for advantage. Clever, beautiful, and outspoken, Katharine soon becomes caught in a web of intrigue and romance as she fights for political and religious change.

In book two, Privy Seal, Katharine becomes locked in a vicious battle with Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal, and continues her battle for change.

Finally, in book three, The Fifth Queen Crowned, Katharine once again becomes caught in a web of court intrigues. She believes strongly in a restoration of the Catholic faith, but this conviction has made her vicious enemies, for a return to the Church of Rome would mean reinstating the lands and riches taken from the church under Henry’s reign. Here, Katharine’s fatal combat with Thomas Cromwell reaches its stunning conclusion.

Ford saw the past as an integral part of the present experience and understanding. His sharply etched vision of the court of Henry VIII echoes aspects of Edwardian England as it explores the pervading influence of power, lies, fear, and anxiety on people’s lives.

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 fascade.

The Good Soldier is a story about the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples—one English, one American—and the growing awareness of American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian façade. It is Dowell’s attitude—his puzzlement, uncertainty, and the seemingly haphazard manner of his narration—that makes the book so powerful and mysterious. In Ford’s brilliantly woven tale, nothing is quite what it seems.

Despite its catalog of death, insanity, and despair, this novel has many comic moments and has inspired the work of several distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Originally published in 1915, The Good Soldier is considered by many to be Ford Madox Ford’s masterpiece.

Set in the turbulent time right before World War I, this novel chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, his seemingly perfect marriage, and his two American friends. Told through disjointed flashbacks, lies, infidelity, and acts of betrayal are revealed that eviscerate the ties that pull the friends and couples together. As events unfold, each individual must face their misgivings and bend to their own judgement. Originally titled The Saddest Story, The Good Solider is considered one of the best English-language novels of the twentieth century and continues to vex audiences with its use of literary devices such as the unreliable narrator.

The Good Soldier was first published in 1915, The iconic novel might be characterized as a melodrama of English upper-class infidelities, cut into little pieces, then retold out of sequence by a narrator who occasionally appears to be half asleep. That is not wholly wrong, yet many have seen in this novel’s beguiling voice, innovative narrative technique, and acute depiction of erotic repression a literary masterpiece. In 2015, the BBC ranked The Good Soldier 13th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels.
©2022 Eden Garret Giuliano (P) 2021 Eden Garret Giuliano
Geoffrey Giuliano is the author of over thirty internationally bestselling biographies, including the London Sunday Times bestseller ‘Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney’ and ‘Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison’. He can be heard on the Westwood One Radio Network and has written and produced over seven hundred original spoken word albums and documentaries on various aspects of popular culture. In addition, Giuliano is an occasional lecturer at Northwestern University. He is also a well-known movie actor in such films as ‘Squid Game’, ‘Mechanic Resurrection’, ‘Hard Target 2’ and the ‘Scorpion King’ series, among many. Geoffrey is a near lifelong devotee of Sri Krsna and an ardent animal rights advocate. He makes his home in Bangkok, Vrndavana, and Jaipur India with his son Eden Garret Giuliano

Handsome, wealthy, and a veteran of service in India, Captain Edward Ashburnham appears to be the ideal “good soldier” and the embodiment of English upper-class virtues. But for his creator, Ford Madox Ford, he also represents the corruption at society’s core. Beneath Ashburnham’s charming, polished exterior lurks a soul well-versed in the arts of deception, hypocrisy, and betrayal. Throughout the nine years of his friendship with an equally privileged American, John Dowell, Ashburnham has been having an affair with Dowell’s wife, Florence. Unlike Dowell, Ashburnham’s own wife, Leonora, is well aware of it.
When The Good Soldier was first published in 1915, its pitiless portrait of an amoral society dedicated to its own pleasure and convinced of its own superiority outraged many readers. Stylistically daring, The Good Soldier is narrated, unreliably, by Dowell, through whom Ford provides a level of bitter irony. Dowell’s disjointed, stumbling storytelling not only subverts linear temporality to satisfying effect, it also reflects his struggle to accept a world without honor, order, or permanence. Called the best French novel in the English language, The Good Soldier is both tragic and darkly comic, and it established Ford as an important contributor to the development of literary modernism.