The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion

2020 Reprint of the 1915 Edition. Fords 1915 novel is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham the soldier to whom the title refers and his seemingly perfect marriage plus that of his two American friends. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order a literary technique that formed part of Fords pioneering view of literary impressionism. Ford employs the device of the unreliable narrator to great effect as the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different from what the introduction leads the reader to believe. The novel was loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Fords messy personal life. Using pre-First World War Europe as its stage The Good Soldier is the story of Edward Ashburnham his wife Leonora and their friends John and Florence Dowell. The eponymous Good Soldier Edward embodies upper-class English values but behind closed doors carries on a long-running affair with Florence. When Florences husband John discovers the affair he sets in motion a series of events both tragic and unavoidable.