The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford

Author: Ford Madox Ford. Review by Simon Webb.

The Good Soldier (1915) is routinely included in lists of the best novels written in English. John Dowell, its narrator, is a Quaker from an old Pennsylvania family. He is one of those unreliable narrators, far from disinterested. He is one of the four main characters in the novel – the quartet comprises two wealthy couples; two US citizens and two Brits – who drift around the world staying at exclusive spas, because two of them are supposed to have heart problems. Between them, the four have two dreadful marriages and a tortured adulterous relationship. A fifth character, the fragile Nancy, makes the picture even darker.

The plot involves death, deception and insanity. We are never sure to what extent Dowell himself is culpable, despite his assertion that he is ‘faint’ in comparison with the other characters. It is also hard to tell where the narrator’s Quakerism ends and where his personality begins. Surely his apparent lack of any real passion or self-esteem cannot have come from the teachings of Friends, any more than his pettiness or his violent temper?

Dowell has what the lonely hearts ads call a ‘GSOH’, which is to some extent a redeeming feature. He points out the absurdity of his own decision to elope with Florence, a Connecticut heiress who tells him up front that she wants a marriage with next to no sex. Dowell also invites us to laugh at the way Florence makes him wait for two hours at the bottom of a rope ladder, procured for the purposes of the elopement. The author also has a lot of fun telling us about Florence’s eccentric aunts, who cannot quite warn Dowell that he might be making a mistake in marrying their niece, and her wealthy uncle, who tours the world in a series of opulent ocean liners.

The good soldier of the title is the aristocratic retired army captain Edward Ashburnham, whose many perfectly-packed, highly-specialised items of luggage are also a source of humour. Near the end of the novel, Dowell tells us that he wishes he could live as Ashburnham has, though Edward is a sentimental philanderer with a destructive marriage, who develops a deadly obsession with his young ward. Ashburnham’s good looks, physical vigour and genuine charm are enviable gifts that turn to poison. Dowell gets stuck with the horrific consequences of one of Edward’s attachments. 

Dowell fails to fully understand the factors that lead to the downfalls of the book’s central characters, and hesitates to draw any meaning from them. Ford may have used a wealthy US Quaker as his narrator because such a man could find himself caught up in these events while still being able to observe them from the outside. He is continually astonished at how his unfortunate British friends, widely identified as ‘good people’, can be so tortured inwardly, yet remain outwardly calm and even pleasant. Perhaps this evasive coldness, which can conceal so much suffering and cruelty, is the bastion Ford wants to storm.

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