The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Oxford World's Classics)

For nine years, John Dowell and his wife have spent the summer season at a German spa town in the company of the respectable Ashburnhams. Behind the placid exterior of their lives lie the destructive passions of men and women. When Dowell’s world breaks apart, he tells his story as intimately as to a silent listener across the fireplace of a country cottage. ’Who in this world knows anything of any other heart -- or of his own?’. 'A Tale of Passion, ' as its subtitle declares, The Good Soldier tells of the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples, one English, one American, and the growing awareness of the American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian facade. It is the attitude of Dowell, his puzzlement and uncertainty, and the seemingly haphazard manner of his narration that make the book so powerful and mysterious. Ford called it 'the only novel of mine that I considered ... at all to count' and it has perplexed and delighted commentators since its publication in 1915. The novel has many comic moments, despite its catalogue of death, insanity, and despair, and has been read as both a comedy and a tragedy. It has inspired the works of many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy - or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove's with your hand. My wife and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about them. Tells of the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples, one English, one American, and the growing awareness of the awareness of the American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian facade Four wealthy and socially prominent individuals are forced to see each other realistically