Ilana: Are you thinking of this paragraph in the Dedicatory Letter to his wife, Stella, dated 1927, and written just after he had translated the novel into French:-
'I had in those days an ambition: that was to do for the English novel what in Fort comme la Mort, Maupassant had done for the French. One day I had my reward, for I happened to be in a company where a fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, The Good Soldier is the finest novel in the English language!" whereupon my friend Mr John Rodker who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah yes. It is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"'
So far I find it has the feel of the kind of class ridden writing we find in Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' but is of, course, about pre WWI. Florence also sounds a little like Zelda. Both are very 'mannered' pieces of writing, full of restrained passion. Illicit ('free') love also seems to have been as much the vogue in the Edwardian period, as it was in Waugh's post WWI England, especially amongst the upper middle classes, so I expect there to be some shenagigins and some moralising
I'm not to keen on Waugh so hope I will like Ford better.
'I had in those days an ambition: that was to do for the English novel what in Fort comme la Mort, Maupassant had done for the French. One day I had my reward, for I happened to be in a company where a fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, The Good Soldier is the finest novel in the English language!" whereupon my friend Mr John Rodker who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah yes. It is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"'
So far I find it has the feel of the kind of class ridden writing we find in Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' but is of, course, about pre WWI. Florence also sounds a little like Zelda. Both are very 'mannered' pieces of writing, full of restrained passion. Illicit ('free') love also seems to have been as much the vogue in the Edwardian period, as it was in Waugh's post WWI England, especially amongst the upper middle classes, so I expect there to be some shenagigins and some moralising
I'm not to keen on Waugh so hope I will like Ford better.
IlanaSimons wrote:
Ford Madox Ford's friend wrote to him that his book was "the finest French novel in the English language"---jokingly. My interpretation is that the book is obsessed with passion, and language is foregrounded more than plot.
But (as you might be suggesting) I'm actually not fully on board with the quote.
I actually think that class is the biggest feature of the novel...so I'd want to call it the "most American novel...from a Brit."
Message Edited by Choisya on 02-04-200703:35 PM
hmmmm....great find, Choisya.
I don't know the full quote, but I'll take it.
What's your interpretation: Should we think of this thing as a "french novel in english" or is the quote just a qualifier about it's success as a book?
I really think the Waugh parallel makes sense.
As you write, this book is highly "mannered" in style, but it also seems to not _want_ to be. It's a mannered book aching to be a bloody passionate book.
I don't know the full quote, but I'll take it.
What's your interpretation: Should we think of this thing as a "french novel in english" or is the quote just a qualifier about it's success as a book?
I really think the Waugh parallel makes sense.
As you write, this book is highly "mannered" in style, but it also seems to not _want_ to be. It's a mannered book aching to be a bloody passionate book.
Choisya wrote:
Ilana: Are you thinking of this paragraph in the Dedicatory Letter to his wife, Stella, dated 1927, and written just after he had translated the novel into French:-
'I had in those days an ambition: that was to do for the English novel what in Fort comme la Mort, Maupassant had done for the French. One day I had my reward, for I happened to be in a company where a fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, The Good Soldier is the finest novel in the English language!" whereupon my friend Mr John Rodker who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah yes. It is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"'
So far I find it has the feel of the kind of class ridden writing we find in Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' but is of, course, about pre WWI. Florence also sounds a little like Zelda. Both are very 'mannered' pieces of writing, full of restrained passion. Illicit ('free') love also seems to have been as much the vogue in the Edwardian period, as it was in Waugh's post WWI England, especially amongst the upper middle classes, so I expect there to be some shenagigins and some moralising
IlanaSimons wrote:
Ford Madox Ford's friend wrote to him that his book was "the finest French novel in the English language"---jokingly. My interpretation is that the book is obsessed with passion, and language is foregrounded more than plot.
But (as you might be suggesting) I'm actually not fully on board with the quote.
I actually think that class is the biggest feature of the novel...so I'd want to call it the "most American novel...from a Brit."Message Edited by Choisya on 02-04-200703:35 PM
Ilana wrote:
'What's your interpretation: Should we think of this thing as a "french novel in english" or is the quote just a qualifier about it's success as a book?'
So far I don't get any feeling of, say, Zola or Stendhal here Ilana and I would welcome Danielle's comments on the book's 'Frenchness'. I certainly don't get a feeling of Maupassant, who Ford sought to emulate, except for the theme of the senselessnes of war. Maupassant was noted for his 'tight' writing style and he excelled at short stories with intricate plots. I have yet to observe whether Ford's plot could carry this latter description.
As for being a 'french novel in english', this may be a reference to the expression of sexual passion, either covert or overt (I haven't read enough yet to judge). It was unusual for an English novel to be unrestrained in this way at this time which is why, of course, that D H Lawrence's frank writing about love and sex caused such a sensation a few years later. English writing about love had a very 'stiff upper lip' quality about it during and immediately after the Victorian period. If the novel breaks away from those bounds and presages Lawrence, it may well have been thought of as 'French'. I am unsure of its success because it doesn't feature among the great classics on any reading list I know of over here, although its anti-war theme may have been popular immediately after the needless slaughter of WWI, alongside the war poets etc.
'What's your interpretation: Should we think of this thing as a "french novel in english" or is the quote just a qualifier about it's success as a book?'
So far I don't get any feeling of, say, Zola or Stendhal here Ilana and I would welcome Danielle's comments on the book's 'Frenchness'. I certainly don't get a feeling of Maupassant, who Ford sought to emulate, except for the theme of the senselessnes of war. Maupassant was noted for his 'tight' writing style and he excelled at short stories with intricate plots. I have yet to observe whether Ford's plot could carry this latter description.
As for being a 'french novel in english', this may be a reference to the expression of sexual passion, either covert or overt (I haven't read enough yet to judge). It was unusual for an English novel to be unrestrained in this way at this time which is why, of course, that D H Lawrence's frank writing about love and sex caused such a sensation a few years later. English writing about love had a very 'stiff upper lip' quality about it during and immediately after the Victorian period. If the novel breaks away from those bounds and presages Lawrence, it may well have been thought of as 'French'. I am unsure of its success because it doesn't feature among the great classics on any reading list I know of over here, although its anti-war theme may have been popular immediately after the needless slaughter of WWI, alongside the war poets etc.
IlanaSimons wrote:
hmmmm....great find, Choisya.
I don't know the full quote, but I'll take it.
What's your interpretation: Should we think of this thing as a "french novel in english" or is the quote just a qualifier about it's success as a book?
I really think the Waugh parallel makes sense.
As you write, this book is highly "mannered" in style, but it also seems to not _want_ to be. It's a mannered book aching to be a bloody passionate book.
Choisya wrote:
Ilana: Are you thinking of this paragraph in the Dedicatory Letter to his wife, Stella, dated 1927, and written just after he had translated the novel into French:-
'I had in those days an ambition: that was to do for the English novel what in Fort comme la Mort, Maupassant had done for the French. One day I had my reward, for I happened to be in a company where a fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, The Good Soldier is the finest novel in the English language!" whereupon my friend Mr John Rodker who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah yes. It is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"'
So far I find it has the feel of the kind of class ridden writing we find in Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' but is of, course, about pre WWI. Florence also sounds a little like Zelda. Both are very 'mannered' pieces of writing, full of restrained passion. Illicit ('free') love also seems to have been as much the vogue in the Edwardian period, as it was in Waugh's post WWI England, especially amongst the upper middle classes, so I expect there to be some shenagigins and some moralising
