Penguin Classics

Parade's End

Ford Madox Ford's great masterpiece exploring love and identity during the First World War, in a Penguin Classics edition with an introduction by Julian Barnes. 
 
A masterly novel of destruction and regeneration, Parade's End follows the story of aristocrat Christopher Tietjens as his world is shattered by the First World War. Tracing the psychological damage inflicted by battle, the collapse of England's secure Edwardian values - embodied in Christopher's wife, the beautiful, cruel socialite Sylvia - and the beginning of a new age, epitomized by the suffragette Valentine Wannop, Parade's End is an elegy for both the war dead and the passing of a way of life. 
 
'The finest English novel about the Great War' 
Malcolm Bradbury 
 
'The best novel by a British writer ... It is also the finest novel about the First World War. It is also the finest novel about the nature of British society' 
Anthony Burgess 
 
'There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them' 
W.H. Auden 
 
'The English prose masterpiece of the time' 
William Carlos Williams

A neglected masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction - the English War and Peace

Masterly...Ford knows more and sees deeper

There are not many English novels which deserve to be called great: Parade's End is one of them

[Ford] was the only Englishman who stood alongside the great 'moderns' - Joyce, Eliot and Pound

Consisting of four novels - Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up and The Last Post - Parade's End is the story of Christopher Tietjens and his progress from the secure world of Edwardian England into the First World War and beyond. Both a portrait of a love triangle - between Tietjens, his beautiful and reckless wife Sylvia, and the suffragette Valentine - and a depiction of life on the Western Front, Parade's End is one of the greatest fictional works of the twentieth century. Ranging from the drawing rooms of England to the trenches of France, and moving between past and present, it is a haunting exploration of identity, loss and memory.

The Good Soldier

A brilliant and heart-rending evocation of destructive passion.

The narrative casts a mesmeric spell... intelligent, beautifully written, heartfelt and true, and a great book

I would rather have written Ford Madox Ford's novel than all the books I have written. After reading it a dozen times, I still find a mystery at its heart... an exercise in elegance and a triumph of structure. I am always imitating it and always failing. The prose makes my heart ache with envy

Sometimes the best presents come in small packages...masterful

A central figure, artistically and influentially, in the modern movement...a masterpiece of Impressionism, as well as of intricate plotting, technical manipulation and powerful irony

A sense of ambiguity and fluidity, of there being no absolutes, only relativities, is dazzlingly displayed in The Good Soldier

My favourite novel... You expect a boring novel about Edwardian marriages. This could not be more misleading. It’s a gothic melodrama with a high body count

Ford Madox Ford was born on 17 December 1873 in Merton, Devon. He began writing in the 1890s and both his fiction and his criticism are celebrated. His most famous works are The Good Soldier (1915) and Parade's End (1924-8). His other major contribution to literature was the foundation of the English Review in 1908 and the Transatlantic Review in 1924. Ford changed his surname from Hueffer in 1919 after serving in the British army in France during the First World War. After 1927 Ford lived in the United States and France, and he died in Deauville on 26 June 1939.

A brilliant and heart-rending evocation of destructive passion. 
 
When John Dowell and his wife befriend Edward and Leonora Ashburnham they appear to be the perfect couple. He is a distinguished soldier and she is beautiful and intelligent. However, what lies beneath the surface of their marriage is far more sinister and their influence leads John into a tragic drama that threatens to destroy everything he cares about. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ZOE HELLER

A masterpiece of wartime writing by one of the most esteemed novelists of the twentieth century

The Parade's End series of novels is a tour de force of writing and intelligence

'A tour de force of writing and intelligence' A.S. Byatt 
 
Discover one of the greatest first world war novels. 
 
Christopher Tietjens has long loved the beautiful young suffragette Valentine, but the pair are held apart by Christopher's loyalty to his wife Sylvia, and to a set of principles which belong to an old world, and which are about to be swallowed up in the mud and chaos of the Western Front.

The official TV tie-in to the new BBC adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's epic novel

The finest English novel about the Great War.

Ford Madox Ford, born Ford Hermann Hueffer in 1873, in Surrey, published over 80 books during his writing career. His novels include The Inheritors, Romance, The Fifth Queen and The Good Soldier, and autobiographical works, Return to Yesterday, It was the Nightingale and The March of Literature. 
 
 In 1915, Ford Madox Ford enlisted in the army and served as an infantry soldier in the First World War. Parade’s End was based on his personal experiences of war. It was published in four parts between 1924 and 1928. 
 
 Ford Madox Ford died in Deauville, France, in 1939.

The Great War changes everything. In this epic tale, spanning over a decade, war turns the world of privileged, English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens upside down. It forces him to question everything he holds dear – social order, morality, marriage and loyalty. And it rocks the very foundations of English society. 
 
 This is a powerful story about love, betrayal and disillusionment in a time of horror and confusion by one of Britain’s finest novelists. 
 
 Ford Madox Ford's monumental novel came to our screens in August 2012 as a major BBC adaptation, with a screenplay by the legendary playwright Tom Stoppard and a stellar cast that included Benedict Cumberbatch. This edition of the novel includes all four parts, originally published separately between 1924 and 1928.

Ford Madox Ford's extraordinary novel of passion and betrayal, The Good Soldier, is edited with an introduction by David Bradshaw in Penguin Classics. 
 
The Dowells, a wealthy American couple, have been close friends with the Ashburnhams for years. Edward Ashburnham, a first-rate soldier, seems to be the perfect English gentleman, and Leonora his perfect wife, but beneath the surface their marriage seethes with unhappiness and deception. Our only window on the strange tangle of events surrounding Edward is provided by John Dowell, the husband he deceives. Gradually Dowell unfolds a devastating story, in which everyone's honesty is in doubt. The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of narrative skill and emotional depth. 
 
David Bradshaw's introduction discusses John Dowell as the classic unreliable narrator and as English literature's most fascinating enigma, and shows how Ford Madox Ford's unconventional narrative structure makes The Good Soldier a modernist masterwork. 
 
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939), born in Surrey and educated in England, Germany and France, changed his original surname, Hueffer, in 1919, after having served with the British army in World War I. As well as founding both the English Review and the Transatlantic Review, home to such writers as James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, Ford was the author of more than sixty works including novels, poems, criticism, travel writing and reminiscences. The Good Soldier (1915) is considered his masterpiece. 
 
If you enjoyed The Good Soldier, you might like Ford's Parade's End, also available in Penguin Classics, and now the subject of a major new BBC/HBO television miniseries. 
 
'A masterpiece' 
Julian Barnes, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending 
 
'I don't know how many times in nearly forty years I have come back to this novel' 
Graham Greene

Ford Madox Ford was born Ford Hermann Hueffer in Kent in 1873. In 1915 he published The Good Soldier, and in the same year he enlisted in the army, serving as an infantry officer. Parade's End, the culmination of his experiences during the First World War, was published in four parts between 1924 and 1928. He moved to Paris in 1922 and founded the Transatlantic Review, whose contributors included James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. He died in Deauville, France in 1939.

The Dowells, a wealthy American couple, have been close friends with the Ashburnhams for years. Edward Ashburnham, a first-rate soldier, seems to be the perfect English gentleman, and Leonora his perfect wife, but beneath the surface their marriage seethes with unhappiness and deception. Our only window on the strange tangle of events surrounding Edward is provided by John Dowell, the husband he deceives. Gradually Dowell unfolds a devastating story, in which everyone&rsquo;s honesty is in doubt. This extraordinary novel of passion and betrayal is a masterpiece of narrative skill and emotional depth.

A central figure, artistically and influentially, in the modern movement...a masterpiece of Impressionism, as well as of intricate plotting, technical manipulation and powerful irony.

A sense of ambiguity and fluidity, of there being no absolutes, only relativities, is dazzlingly displayed in The Good Soldier

Charlotte Brontë

Robert Louis Stevenson

Jane Austen

Thomas Hardy

Henry James

Jerome K. Jerome

James Joyce

Virginia Woolf

Ford Madox Ford

F.M. Mayor

Juliet Stevenson

Samuel West

Anne-Marie Duff

Alan Cumming

Amanda Hale

Hugh Laurie

Stephen Rea

Douglas Hodge

Toby Stephens

10 Unmissable Classics

A bumper collection of accessible classics from the perennially popular BBC Radio 4 series 
 
This diverse, wide-ranging anthology features readings of 10 of the greatest books in the English language, taken from the BBC's Book at Bedtime and performed by a stellar cast of narrators. Here are nearly 27 hours of sensational stories, from iconic romances and humorous travelogues to pioneering Modernist masterpieces and compelling explorations of the human heart. Comprising much-loved favourites as well as neglected classics, this genre-spanning selection has something for everyone. 
 
This collection includes abridged readings of: 
 
Persuasion by Jane Austen: Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth get a second chance at love following their broken engagement seven years earlier. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: An orphaned young woman discovers romance when she meets the charming Mr Rochester. Read by Anne-Marie Duff. 
 
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: Independent Bathsheba Everdene must contend with three very different suitors all vying for her affections. Read by Douglas Hodge. 
 
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson: Stephenson's travelogue from his 12-day hike, taken to distance himself from his love affair with a married woman. Read by Alan Cumming. 
 
The Aspern Papers by Henry James: A nameless narrator goes to Venice to persuade American poet Jeffrey Aspern's lover to let him read Aspern's letters. Read by Samuel West. 
 
Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome: The Three Men in a Boat return for a bicycle tour through the German Black Forest. Read by Hugh Laurie. 
 
Dubliners by James Joyce: Form-defining stories about life in Dublin at the start of the 20th century. Read by Stephen Rea. 
 
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford: Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect. But beneath the surface lies deception and betrayal. Read by Toby Stephens. 
 
The Rector's Daughter by F.M. Mayor: Mary has spent thirty-five years taking care of others, but with the arrival Robert Herbert her quiet, ordered existence is changed forever. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Orlando by Virginia Woolf: A playful mock biography of a chameleonic historical figure, immortal and ageless, who changes sex and identity on a whim. Read by Amanda Hale. 
 
First published 1817 (Persuasion), 1847 (Jane Eyre), 1874 (Far from the Madding Crowd), 1879 (Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes), 1888 (The Aspern Papers), 1900 (Three Men on the Bummel), 1914 (Dubliners), 1915 (The Good Soldier), 1924 (The Rector's Daughter), 1928 (Orlando) 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Book at Bedtime: A BBC Radio Collection

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