Carcanet Press - Review of Ford Madox Ford

The Tablet,
11th December 1999.
Writer at the front

War Prose
Ford Madox Ford
Ed. by Max Saunders.
Carcanet, �14.95

Return to Yesterday
Ford Madox Ford
Ed. Bill Hutchings
Carcanet, �14.95

Ford Madox Ford was born into a family of Pre-Raphaelites in 1873. He was half German by birth and wholly cosmopolitan in his attitudes to the world and his way of life; and, in the words of his admirer Graham Greene, "he was a Catholic in theory though not for long in practice". He was also one of the finest English novelists of the twentieth century, though the reading public has always been reluctant to acknowledge him.

Ford's greatest novels bracket the First World War. The Good Soldier was largely written before the outbreak of war and on the face of it has nothing to do with the impending conflict. But Ford's story of the conflicts and deceptions ensnaring two wealthy couples in a German watering-place presents, in miniature, a remarkable anticipation of the impending crack-up of European
civilisation.

During the war Ford served as an over-age junior officer, and in his brief time at the Front he was blown over by an exploding shell, concussed for several days, and had his lungs damaged by poison gas. He eventually distilled his wartime experience in Parade's End, published in several volumes in the 1920s, which is the greatest English novel to emerge from the First World War.

Max Saunders's valuable edition of Ford's War Prose brings together much uncollected material, some of it previously unpublished. The most substantial and interesting item is 'True Love and a
GCM', a fragment of a novel which Ford worked on in 1918-19 and then abandoned. He was too close at that time to his wartime experience to get it into fictional focus, as he eventually did in Parade's End, but this early attempt is a distinguished piece of writing which contains significant anticipations of the later novel as well as clues to his troubled state of mind at the end of the war.

Saunders has taken a comprehensive view of his editorial task, and provides a mixed kitbag of miscellaneous items by Ford, written during or after the war: stories, reminiscences, journalistic pieces, prefaces to his own and other people's books. Not all of them are of high literary interest; Ford, though a serious artist in his best writing, was quite capable of turning out potboiling pieces when the occasion demanded, and there are a number of them in this collection. Despite differences of level and genre, however, the pieces support and illuminate each other. Unlike younger writers who went through the war, notably the "trench poets", Ford had the experience and maturity not just to convey the immediacy of extreme personal experience but to show how it shattered the continuity of the civilisation he had grown up with. As well as Ford's admirers, War Prose should interest all those who pursue the grim but ever-interesting subject of the First World War.

Return to Yesterday, first published in 1931, is a welcome reissue. In this autobiographical volume Ford looked back to his life in the literary, artistic and political circles of late-Victorian and Edwardian England, in which he moved with some confidence. He recalled his friendship with Joseph Conrad, with whom he collaborated in writing fiction, and with Henry James, which was a more difficult relationship, since James did not reciprocate Ford's devotion. The book is fascinating but not always reliable, since Ford believed that 'truly recorded impressions communicate impressions truer than the truest record of facts'. The impressions are vivid and the anecdotes are wonderfully entertaining, even if some of the tales are too tall to be true.

Bernard Bergonzi

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Review of Ford Madox Ford The Tablet, 11th December 1999. Writer at the front War Prose Ford Madox Ford Ed. by Max Saunders. Carcanet, �14.95 Return to Yesterday Ford Madox Ford Ed. Bill Hutchings Carcanet, �14.95 Ford Madox Ford was born into a family of Pre-Raphaelites in 1873. He was half German by birth and wholly cosmopolitan in his attitudes to the world and his way of life; and, in the words of his admirer Graham Greene, "he was a Catholic in theory though not for long in practice". He was also one of the finest English novelists of the twentieth century, though the reading public has always been reluctant to acknowledge him. Ford's greatest novels bracket the First World War. The Good Soldier was largely written before the outbreak of war and on the face of it has nothing to do with the impending conflict. But Ford's story of the conflicts and deceptions ensnaring two wealthy couples in a German watering-place presents, in miniature, a remarkable anticipation of the impending crack-up of European civilisation. During the war Ford served as an over-age junior officer, and in his brief time at the Front he was blown over by an exploding shell, concussed for several days, and had his lungs damaged by poison gas. He eventually distilled his wartime experience in Parade's End, published in several volumes in the 1920s, which is the greatest English novel to emerge from the First World War. Max Saunders's valuable edition of Ford's War Prose brings together much uncollected material, some of it previously unpublished. The most substantial and interesting item is 'True Love and a GCM', a fragment of a novel which Ford worked on in 1918-19 and then abandoned. He was too close at that time to his wartime experience to get it into fictional focus, as he eventually did in Parade's End, but this early attempt is a distinguished piece of writing which contains significant anticipations of the later novel as well as clues to his troubled state of mind at the end of the war. Saunders has taken a comprehensive view of his editorial task, and provides a mixed kitbag of miscellaneous items by Ford, written during or after the war: stories, reminiscences, journalistic pieces, prefaces to his own and other people's books. Not all of them are of high literary interest; Ford, though a serious artist in his best writing, was quite capable of turning out potboiling pieces when the occasion demanded, and there are a number of them in this collection. Despite differences of level and genre, however, the pieces support and illuminate each other. Unlike younger writers who went through the war, notably the "trench poets", Ford had the experience and maturity not just to convey the immediacy of extreme personal experience but to show how it shattered the continuity of the civilisation he had grown up with. As well as Ford's admirers, War Prose should interest all those who pursue the grim but ever-interesting subject of the First World War. Return to Yesterday, first published in 1931, is a welcome reissue. In this autobiographical volume Ford looked back to his life in the literary, artistic and political circles of late-Victorian and Edwardian England, in which he moved with some confidence. He recalled his friendship with Joseph Conrad, with whom he collaborated in writing fiction, and with Henry James, which was a more difficult relationship, since James did not reciprocate Ford's devotion. The book is fascinating but not always reliable, since Ford believed that 'truly recorded impressions communicate impressions truer than the truest record of facts'. The impressions are vivid and the anecdotes are wonderfully entertaining, even if some of the tales are too tall to be true. Bernard Bergonzi Next review of Ford Madox Ford... To the Ford Madox Ford page...	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog Not a Moment Too Soon: Frank Kuppner read more Coco Island: Christine Roseeta Walker read more that which appears: Thomas A Clark read more Come Here to This Gate: Rory Waterman read more Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall read more The Silence: Gillian Clarke read more
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