
Ford Madox Fords extraordinary novel of passion & betrayal The Good Soldier" is edited with an introduction by David Bradshaw in " Penguin Classics". 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 & Leonora his perfect wife but beneath the surface their marriage seethes with unhappiness & 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 everyones honesty is in doubt. " The Good Soldier" is a masterpiece of narrative skill & emotional depth. David Bradshaws introduction discusses John Dowell as the classic unreliable narrator & as English literatures most fascinating enigma & shows how Ford Madox Fords unconventional narrative structure makes " The Good Soldier" a modernist masterwork. Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) born in Surrey & educated in England Germany & France changed his original surname Hueffer in 1919 after having served with the British army in World War I. As well as founding both the " English Review" & the " Transatlantic Review" home to such writers as James Joyce Ezra Pound & Gertrude Stein Ford was the author of more than sixty works including novels poems criticism travel writing & reminiscences. " The Good Soldier" (1915) is considered his masterpiece. If you enjoyed " The Good Soldier" you might like Fords " Parades End" also available in " Penguin Classics" & now the subject of a major new BBC/HBO television miniseries. "A masterpiece". (Julian Barnes Booker Prize-winning author of " The Sense of an Ending"). "I dont know how many times in nearly forty years I have come back to this novel". (Graham Greene)."