The Good Soldier is considered one of the finest novels of the 20th century, and its trademark opening line -- "This is the saddest story I have ever heard" -- is all the more wonderful because our narrator is the best kind there is -- an unreliable one.
At first he rambles and contradicts himself and heads off on tangents that seem meaningless. He gives us pieces of a story that don't quite fit together. But when he finally settles into his narrative, secret after secret is revealed. Death, hypocrisy, adultery, blackmail, madness, more death, all expertly teased out by Ford Madox Ford through his pathetic narrator.
The story takes place in Europe before WW1. Edward Ashburnam and his wife Leonora are dear friends of John and Florence Dowell. The former are British, the latter American. Both couples are wealthy, and they meet often at Bad Nauheim in Germany, where Edward and Florence "take the waters" for their heart conditions.
There are many ironies here, none of which I'll reveal, except to say that in the introductory essay, Mark Van Doren called the book a comedy. If so, it is the kind that causes readers to shake their heads in disbelief rather than break out into laughter.
Ford Madox Ford was an influential editor, founding The Transatlantic Review and publishing many of the greatest writers of the day. He served in WW1, was part of the "Lost Generation" in Paris, and originated the Page 99 test.
From page 99:
I never quite knew, either, how she and Edward got rid of Jimmy. I fancy that fat and disreputable raven must have had his six golden front teeth knocked down his throat by Edward one morning whilst I had gone out to buy some flowers in the Rue de la Paix, leaving Florence and the flat in charge of those two. And serve him very right, is all that I can say. |
