"This is the saddest story I have ever heard."

So begins Ford Madox Ford’s novel The Good Soldier, which was first published in 1915 and has remained in print ever since. It is said to be based on Ford’s own messy personal life.

Set in the Edwardian era and spanning nine years (1902 to 1914), it explores the complex and intertwined relationships between two wealthy and seemingly perfect couples — John and Florence Dowell, from the USA, and Edward and Leonora Ashburnham, from England — who meet every year at a German spa resort.

The good soldier of the title is Edward Ashburnham, a refined English gentleman, who has a strong public record — “for his good soldiering, for his saving lives at sea, for the excellent landlord he was and the good sportsman” — but, as we come to discover, he isn’t exactly a good husband. He has what we would call a “roving eye”, particularly for much younger women, and over the course of the novel takes several mistresses. He is also involved in various sexual harassment incidents, which are made to go away via blackmail and bribe but threaten Ashburnham’s already dwindling finances.

His wife, well aware of her husband’s shenanigans, turns a blind eye. She’s Catholic, so divorce is impossible, and she loves Edward’s reputation as a fine, upstanding citizen. She takes the best option open to her: she looks after her husband’s welfare and his finances and manages his country home for him so that they can at least keep up appearances without falling into disrepute or impoverishment.

But it’s a thin facade and it soon begins to crack.

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This book is definitely not what I expected it to be. I can't even say I enjoyed reading it. There is not one likable character, but that's also the whole point.

I liked, disliked, felt put off by, and felt related to every character in this book. Of the big four, both men suffer from the same affliction I do: finding it irresistible when a woman really needs me. Leonora is less like me but she's someone I can feel for: appears cold, acts on her strong moral conscience, but internally passionate and tormented.
The least sympathetic is Florence, and even she is understandable when you consider her origins and her dreams.

The author deserves all the credit for making me feel this way, because his careful, gradual disclosure of information at first makes me feel I don't like any of them (they're all hypocrites and John Dowell is a spineless self-deceiver), and then he confuses my impressions and makes sure I don't do what John does--judge people on first impressions.

The one thing that really put me off about the book was the stereotypes that our Protestant Yankee narrator holds about Catholics. Does he really know any of them?

Very well done...smartly written about infidelity and honor. A true classic.

To be fair, I probably shouldn’t have read this entire book in one day, but that’s what I did so um take this review with a grain of salt. All of the characters are described as “good people,” but they all end up as horrible people. Like truly, truly awful people. The most honorable people in the beginning are the ones with the most infidelity or the worst treatment of others. Also, it was told in sort of a rambling, not-entirely-chronological fashion, which made it a little difficult to follow. I will say that the ending was both morbid and brilliant to me. Overall, a solid read, but I definitely should have broken it up over a few days at least to make it easier for my brain to process.

This book is incredibly interesting. To see the characters slowly unravel and develop throughout a confusing mix of timelines is both confusing and captivating. Would recommend, a good modernist twist to the story of an affair.

An interesting book that I would recommend for its excellent depiction of an unreliable narrator, and as an example of the literature of the time, and how it was changing. Ford Maddox Ford was very influential on the American literature of the ensuing years after the 1915 publication of this novel. This is not a page-turner, and like other books I've read from this time period, there isn't really a deep focus on character development. But its form and style make it a worthwhile read.

As an exercise in revealing an unreliable narrator, A+, though a short story might have sufficed to explore this. I kept reading because I am ever in love with Ford's striking prose. By the last page I was more than ready to be done with these poor repressed idiots! Let's see if I change my mind after watching the Granada adaptation starring Jeremy Brett ;)

This novel is shorter and more easily approachable than Parade's End, yet I feel like it must always suffer in comparison. Sure, there is similar social commentary on changing values in the Edwardian era. But Ford's modernist style is less developed and I missed the rich inner life of scholars Christopher and Valentine and the gritty world-building of wartime Europe.

I'm surprised I have never heard of this book before; I found it to be extraordinary. There's just a way the author has of gliding over the facts, then going back and reversing the impression you got the first time that really struck me. This is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, but at the same time he never actually lies, as far as I could tell. Even before you get to the subject matter, which I imagine has turned a lot of people off, this is a brilliant work.