Ford Madox Ford
1) Parade's End
Ford masterfully combines his trademark subtlety and complexity in this masterful tetralogy that follows Christopher Tietjens, an officer and a gentleman, as he traverses the tumultuous path leading from Edwardian England to World War I. Against the chaotic backdrop of a world at war, the complicated sexual warfare between Tietjens and his sadistic wife, Sylvia, comes to a head while Tietjens is faced with a deteriorating sense of self and an increasingly
...2) War Prose
Ford Madox Ford's post-war masterpiece, Parade's End, is recognized as one of the great British novels about the First World War. This selection from his other extensive writings about the war, published and unpublished, sheds light on the tetralogy. It includes reminiscences, an unfinished novel, stories, and excerpts from letters. Ford was in his forties when he enlisted: this made him one of the few writers of his maturity to fight on
...Ford Maddox Ford's masterful trilogy of historical fiction centers on Katharine Howard, a young girl of a proud, noble, and impoverished family who catches the jaded eye of Henry VIII and becomes his controversial fifth queen.
In book one, The Fifth Queen, Katharine arrives at the king's court to find its dimly lit corridors vibrating with corruption and fear as unscrupulous courtiers hungry for power maneuver for advantage. Clever, beautiful,
...Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect, both falling apart.
Beneath the surface gentility of the American John Dowell with his wife Florence and the landed grace of Edward and Leonora lie fictions and deceit. There are secret desires, hidden power-games, suicides and madness. Everyone is hiding something; even the narrator can't be trusted.
Brilliantly inventive, tragic and ironic, The Good Soldier is one of the great novels
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