The Story Archive

The Good Soldier

Ford Madox Ford · 1915 CE · Novel · English · Modernist

John Dowell sets down nine years of friendship between two apparently ideal couples who met each season at a German spa. Piece by piece, badly out of order, he works out what was going on around him the whole time. 'The saddest story': told by the man who saw nothing.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalTragedy
Theme
Appearance vs RealityBetrayalForbidden LoveGuilt & Conscience
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanByronic HeroFallen Woman
Plot structure
Nonlinear / FracturedFrame NarrativeUnreliable Narrator
Emotional arc (story shape)
Fall (Tragedy)
Symbol / motif
The WoundThe Mask
Conflict
vs Selfvs Person
Mode / tone
IronicTragicModernist
Culture / tradition
English

Closest analogues