The lede, from the wiki entry:
The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by the British writer Ford Madox Ford.
It is set just before World War I, and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his seemingly perfect marriage, along with that of his two American friends.
The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order, a literary technique that formed part of Ford's pioneering view of literary impressionism. Ford employs the device of the unreliable narrator to great effect, as the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different from what the introduction leads the reader to believe.
The novel was loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life, specifically “the agonies Ford went through with his wife and his mistress in the six preceding years."
Two couples.
Ex-patriot is the narrator. He and his wife live in Paris, in retirement. Very wealthy.
Winter: somewhere between Nice and Bordighera. The latter on the Mediterranean, twenty miles east of French / Italy border. Interestingly, Nice is twenty miles west of the French / Italy border, on the coast, just like Bordighera.
Summer: Nauheim, Germany, July to September. Metropolitan area of Frankfurt.
The story begins with the narrator visiting England for the first time ever.
"had a heart":
Narrator and Florence.
Captain Ashburnham and Lenora.
When they had first met, Capt A, 33, and Lenora, 31. At the time, narrator was 36, and Florence, 30.
On the day the story begins:
Narrator: 45
Florence: 40; narrator's wife
Capt A: 42
Lenora: 39
The way the narrator says this, it suggests both Capt A and Florence have died. Florence, the narrator's wife.
Narrator at the Ashburnham home in England.
The term "Kur orchestra" in Germany typically refers to orchestras associated with a spa town or resort area, often with a history of providing musical entertainment for visitors. That makes sense -- "Kur" -- the cure -- spa.
The affair:
nine years, six months less four days -- wow -- obsessed with exact number of days of that affair.
so he would have known the exact day the affair began
A "hunt ball": A hunt ball is an annual event hosted by a mounted fox hunting club, most of which are located in Britain and the United States. These balls are traditionally held around the holiday season, which is why many American Hunts mark the end of the hunting year.
No comments:
Post a Comment