Good Soldier, The: A Tale of Passion

Good Soldier, The: A Tale of Passion, a novel by F. M. Ford, published 1915; an earlier version of the first part of the novel appeared in Blast, 20 June 1914, as ‘The saddest story’.

The novel consists of the first-person narration of American John Dowell who relates the history of relationships that begin in 1904, when he and his wife Florence meet Edward and Leonora Ashburnham in a hotel in Nauheim. The two couples form a foursome, a ‘round table’, and meet regularly. In August 1913 the Ashburnhams take their young ward Nancy Rufford to Nauheim with them, and Florence commits suicide. Later that year the Ashburnhams send Nancy to India (where she goes mad) and Edward also commits suicide. Dowell becomes Nancy's ‘male sick nurse’; Leonora remarries. The substance of the novel lies in Dowell's growing understanding of the intrigues and passions that lay behind the orderly Edwardian façade both couples had presented to the world. The novel remains, through its ironies, ambiguities, and inconsistencies, an interpreter's delight.