Folio Archives 480: Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford 2014
Talk Folio Society Devotees
Join LibraryThing to post.
1wcarter
Parade’s End – Some Do Not…; No More Parades; A Man Could Stand Up…; Last Post by Ford Madox Ford 2014
Ford Madox Ford (neé Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer – 1873 to 1939) was an English poet, novelist, editor and literary critic whose works were important in the early 20th. century. Other than Parade’s End, his works included The Fifth Queen trilogy and The Good Soldier (published by the Folio Society in 2008).
Parade’s End is actually a collection of four stories - Some Do Not…; No More Parades; A Man Could Stand Up… and Last Post. Combined they make a huge book of 1128 pages which in this Folio Society edition are spread over two volumes with two stories in each. They were originally published as separate novels between 1924 and 1928.
The four books are about an upper-class English family falling apart in and around the First World War. In particular, it is the tale of the 'Last Tory', Christopher Tietjens, the two women in his life, wife Sylvia and true love Valentine, and his struggle to stay true to his stubborn traditions as the world changes around him. Racist and anti-semitic tropes are sprinkled through the text, as was not uncommon a century ago.
It is a difficult book to read with lots of jumping to and fro and varying streams of consciousness. The battlefield scenes were, to me, the best written parts, but the book is a challenging one to read and the final book is even harder to get into than the earlier ones. I spread my reading over a couple of months with other reads along the way.
There is a five page introduction by Philip Hensher in volume one and five colour illustrations for each story (twenty in total) by James Albon (who also did the cover pictures). Each volume is quarter-bound in blue cloth with mid-brown paper sides, printed in dark brown, black and white with a picture (different for each volume). It has brown endpapers and a brown slipcase (24.8x17.3x9.9cm.) with silver printed picture and black printed title on front.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
Ford Madox Ford (neé Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer – 1873 to 1939) was an English poet, novelist, editor and literary critic whose works were important in the early 20th. century. Other than Parade’s End, his works included The Fifth Queen trilogy and The Good Soldier (published by the Folio Society in 2008).
Parade’s End is actually a collection of four stories - Some Do Not…; No More Parades; A Man Could Stand Up… and Last Post. Combined they make a huge book of 1128 pages which in this Folio Society edition are spread over two volumes with two stories in each. They were originally published as separate novels between 1924 and 1928.
The four books are about an upper-class English family falling apart in and around the First World War. In particular, it is the tale of the 'Last Tory', Christopher Tietjens, the two women in his life, wife Sylvia and true love Valentine, and his struggle to stay true to his stubborn traditions as the world changes around him. Racist and anti-semitic tropes are sprinkled through the text, as was not uncommon a century ago.
It is a difficult book to read with lots of jumping to and fro and varying streams of consciousness. The battlefield scenes were, to me, the best written parts, but the book is a challenging one to read and the final book is even harder to get into than the earlier ones. I spread my reading over a couple of months with other reads along the way.
There is a five page introduction by Philip Hensher in volume one and five colour illustrations for each story (twenty in total) by James Albon (who also did the cover pictures). Each volume is quarter-bound in blue cloth with mid-brown paper sides, printed in dark brown, black and white with a picture (different for each volume). It has brown endpapers and a brown slipcase (24.8x17.3x9.9cm.) with silver printed picture and black printed title on front.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2RavenSeeker
Not an easy read I agree but an interesting insight into a world and social class long gone. The Good Soldier is a less challenging introduction to Ford and a great novel in my opinion
3Cardboard_killer
I just bought this a month or so ago, and have just finished re-reading it after my first go last year. I now actually have four copies: the FS; the Everyman's Library; the Project Gutenberg public domain ebooks; and the Carcanet annotated paperbacks. The most versions of one work I own.
