The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion
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Community Reviews
This classic novel has been lavishly praised, including by Rebecca West, Ezra Pound, and Graham Greene, for Ford Madox Ford's subject matter and innovative style involving a very erratic and unreliable narrator, the character of John Dowell. His writing is also undeniably brilliant. When Dowell describes the character of Edward Ashburnham, immensely wealthy yet profligate and a serial philanderer, he points out Ashburnham's fussy material excesses and inner shallowness. His wardrobe "must have needed a whole herd of the Gadarene swine to make up his outfit," Dowell says. After more description focusing on his materialism, Dowell continues: "Good God, what did they all see in him? For I swear there was all there was of him inside and out; though they said he was a good soldier. Yet, Leonora adored him with a passion that was like an agony, and hated him with an agony that was as bitter as the sea. How could he arouse anything like a sentiment, in anybody?"
Despite consistently sharp writing, though, Ford's story is depressing. I felt reassured that I agreed with one of my favorite authors, Theodore Dresier, who found the interruptions in the narrative flow irritating and duplicative: "You are never really stirred. You are merely told and referred. It is all cold narrative, never truly poignant," Dresier wrote. Phew! At least one of the great writers agreed with me.
This novel is about the lives of the Dowells and the Ashburnhams, couples who meet every year at a German spa (supposedly for the benefit of Edward Ashburnham's and Florence Dowell's ailing hearts), and gallivant around together. They do this over the course of many years. Only Leonora knows that her husband Edward is sleeping with Florence, a ruthless woman who married John for his money. Her maliciousness is unredeemed by any act of kindness or self-reflection, and therefore, she is not a complex or interesting character. John is not only an unreliable narrator; he's a dunce. The affair goes on for nine years and John--whom Florence has never once favored with sexual intimacy--remains clueless.
His lack of insight is an ongoing theme: ". . . when I sat down to puzzle out what I know of this sad affair, I knew nothing, whatever." Leonora is a devoted Catholic and therefore suffers the indignities in silence, hoping she can earn back Edward's affection, but she is also focused on the practicalities of life, such as digging Edward out of the outrageous debts his affairs have cost them and their estate. Over time, though, she becomes emotionally cruel, punishing not only Edward but the last in the series of young women he seduces or wishes to.
I kept reading because of Ford's ability to write such outstanding passages, and because of the ageless theme of passions pursued and thwarted. But John's stupidity was just too much. He is led around like a mule, carrying the load as the "dutiful" husband to a worthless wife. He is unable to tap into any self-knowledge that would help a reader understand why he could not see the obvious, or if he did, what propelled him to tolerate the intolerable.
Edward and Leonora are more fully developed and therefore far more interesting characters. Leonora struggles within herself and with those who should be closest to her. Edward, the good soldier of the title, has demonstrated self-sacrifice and bravery on the field and generosity to the tenants on his estate. Ford could have revealed more about what drove him to the self-destructive affairs that caused so much pain, and even took the lives of several innocents.
One of the best passages in the book is when John, discussing the nature of true, heated, romantic passion, says, "If such a passion come to fruition, the man will get what he wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shakows pass across sundials It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book wil become familar; the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned too many times. Well, this is the saddest story."
John is a tragic character, never having enjoyed even the fleeting comfort of true passion.
Despite consistently sharp writing, though, Ford's story is depressing. I felt reassured that I agreed with one of my favorite authors, Theodore Dresier, who found the interruptions in the narrative flow irritating and duplicative: "You are never really stirred. You are merely told and referred. It is all cold narrative, never truly poignant," Dresier wrote. Phew! At least one of the great writers agreed with me.
This novel is about the lives of the Dowells and the Ashburnhams, couples who meet every year at a German spa (supposedly for the benefit of Edward Ashburnham's and Florence Dowell's ailing hearts), and gallivant around together. They do this over the course of many years. Only Leonora knows that her husband Edward is sleeping with Florence, a ruthless woman who married John for his money. Her maliciousness is unredeemed by any act of kindness or self-reflection, and therefore, she is not a complex or interesting character. John is not only an unreliable narrator; he's a dunce. The affair goes on for nine years and John--whom Florence has never once favored with sexual intimacy--remains clueless.
His lack of insight is an ongoing theme: ". . . when I sat down to puzzle out what I know of this sad affair, I knew nothing, whatever." Leonora is a devoted Catholic and therefore suffers the indignities in silence, hoping she can earn back Edward's affection, but she is also focused on the practicalities of life, such as digging Edward out of the outrageous debts his affairs have cost them and their estate. Over time, though, she becomes emotionally cruel, punishing not only Edward but the last in the series of young women he seduces or wishes to.
I kept reading because of Ford's ability to write such outstanding passages, and because of the ageless theme of passions pursued and thwarted. But John's stupidity was just too much. He is led around like a mule, carrying the load as the "dutiful" husband to a worthless wife. He is unable to tap into any self-knowledge that would help a reader understand why he could not see the obvious, or if he did, what propelled him to tolerate the intolerable.
Edward and Leonora are more fully developed and therefore far more interesting characters. Leonora struggles within herself and with those who should be closest to her. Edward, the good soldier of the title, has demonstrated self-sacrifice and bravery on the field and generosity to the tenants on his estate. Ford could have revealed more about what drove him to the self-destructive affairs that caused so much pain, and even took the lives of several innocents.
One of the best passages in the book is when John, discussing the nature of true, heated, romantic passion, says, "If such a passion come to fruition, the man will get what he wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shakows pass across sundials It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book wil become familar; the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned too many times. Well, this is the saddest story."
John is a tragic character, never having enjoyed even the fleeting comfort of true passion.
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