The good soldier

Description

This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy - or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove's with your hand. My wife and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about them.

Description

'A Tale of Passion', as its sub-title declares, The Good Soldier tells of the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples, one English, one American, and the growing awareness by the American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian facade. It is the attitude of Dowell, his puzzlement and uncertainty, and the seemingly haphazard manner of his narration that make the book so powerful and mysterious. Ford called it 'the only novel of mine that I considered...at all to count' and it has perplexed and delighted commentators since its publication in 1915. The novel has many comic moments, despite its catalogue of death, insanity, and despair, and has been read as both a comedy and a tragedy. It has inspired the works of many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene.

Subjects

Series Statement

• World's classics

Other Editions

• The good soldier: a tale of passionOxford University Press1990-01-01
• The Good soldierA.A. Knopf1951-01-01
• The Good SoldierPaperbackMayflower Books1965-01-01
• The good soldierFranklin Library1980-01-01
• The good soldierVintage Books1989-01-01
• The Good SoldierHardcoverEveryman's Library1991-09-26