The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

It had been a while since I read one of my Back to the Classics Challenge books, so I decided to tackle one of them next. I first picked up The Good Soldier years and years ago during my initial classics-buying phase when I was in high school. Aside from a vague recognition of the title and author name, I knew absolutely nothing about this novel before reading it. It turned out that this was the ideal way to go into this text, because it's a weird one and, as it turned out, a fun one to be surprised by.

The story is narrated by John Dowell, a wealthy American living in Europe in the early 1900s. He begins by explaining that the events he is about to relate are "the saddest story" he has ever heard. He then launches into a long-winded tale about the tragedy of his relationships with his wife Florence, and another couple, Edward and Leonora Ashburnham. He explains from the very start that he loved his wife and considered Edward and Leonora to be his very best friends. He also explains that his wife and Edward were sneaking around together behind his back for almost the entire length of their decade-long friendship, and Leonora knew about it. He was the only one in the group that had no idea what was going on.

From there, Dowell explains the long chain of events surrounding the affair in an extremely unreliable fashion. He skips around in time, goes on of short digressions, and switches the perspective from which he tells the story multiple times. Figuring out the exact order of events is a puzzle, no characters are exactly as they seem, and there are many dramatic reveals along the way that keep readers engaged. To say much more would be to spoil the story, so I'm purposefully leaving my summary vague. What I will say is that I thought The Good Soldier was unique, memorable, and definitely worth the time.

As I've mentioned here before, I tend to avoid classics that play with the traditional novel structure. I usually don't enjoy elements like time skips and deliberately confusing narration. In this story, however, I thought that what Ford was doing worked. It felt like someone was really sitting and telling me a painful and embarrassing personal story. At some points, Dowell even acknowledges that he isn't narrating perfectly, saying that, "I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze." He forgets to mention things, circles back, and gets distracted frequently. His messy narration is both realistic and a good mirror for the messy nature of the events he is describing. He is talking about people that he loves behaving very badly, and despite everything that happens, he still feels some affection for them. He has a lot of conflicting feelings, and his attempts to show everyone's side of the story works well with the chaotic structure Ford employs.

The so-called "good soldier" in the novel is Edward Ashburnham, who was a veteran of the service in India. The relationship between Ashburnham and Dowell is quite complex, and it helps to develop the ultimate theme of the novel. Ashburnham sleeps with Dowell's wife for years, and he hates him for that betrayal. At the same time, Dowell goes to great lengths to excuse a lot of his behavior and show the more noble sides of his personality. The opinion he ultimately arrives at about him is breathtakingly cynical and delusional. It definitely made me think.

So ultimately, The Good Soldier ended up being a nice surprise. It was quite different to other classics I have read and I really enjoyed Ford's unique writing style. While I can't say it reached the rank of a new favorite, it was a good reading experience and one of the better books from my Classics Club list.


Challenge Tally
Back to the Classics 2020 (20th Century Classic): 7/12
Classics Club (#96 on my list): 71/100 

Total Books Read in 2020: 33