The Good Soldier

John Dowell begins by calling this the saddest story he has ever heard, then unfolds it in loops and hesitations that make the reader doubt every claim he offers. Over years of comfortable friendship, two couples, the English Ashburnhams and the American Dowells, hide affairs, cruelties, and quiet ruin behind a surface of perfect manners. As the narrator circles back over the same events, the polished world of spa resorts and country houses gives way to something far darker. Published in 1915, Ford’s masterpiece is a landmark of the unreliable narrator and modernist form. This free PDF and EPUB edition makes a short, devastating classic easy to read.