The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

<p><em>The Good Soldier</em> (1915) by Ford Madox Ford is a modernist novel that tells the story of two seemingly respectable couples-the English Ashburnhams and the American Dowells-whose lives are intertwined in deception infidelity and tragedy. Narrated by John Dowell an unreliable and often bewildered storyteller the novel gradually reveals the affair between Edward Ashburnham (the good soldier) and Florence Dowell as well as Edward's other entanglements. Beneath the façade of aristocratic manners and moral uprightness lies a world of betrayal hypocrisy and emotional collapse. Through its fragmented narrative and shifting perspectives the novel explores themes of truth illusion passion and the destructive consequences of repressed desires.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p>