Context As a pioneer of modernist innovation, Ford Madox Ford challenged traditional social structures, moral codes, and literary forms withThe Good Soldier,a novel he considered to be his "best book of a pre-war period." Broaching subjects such as adultery, betrayal, and moral confusion, Ford dealt directly with issues generally left unmentioned in polite society. Yet his innovative narrative style, which employed a narrator to deliver the story to the reader, shielded him from the necessity of condemning immoral acts, as was the tradition with former narratives of adultery.The Good Soldier,Ford's best known work, firmly established him in the literary world as an author on the cusp of modernity. Born in Merton, Surrey in 1873 under the name Ford Madox Hueffer, he was brought into the world with significant literary and artistic connections. Ford's mother was the daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown; his father was a German music critic, Francis Hueffer, who moved to England in 1869. As a young man, Ford traveled on the Continent to France and Germany often with his parents. When his father died, the family moved to London and Ford was sent to be educated at University College School. Ford showed interest and talent in writing early in life. His first book,The Brown Owl,was a fairy tale illustrated by his grandfather and published in 1891, when Ford was only 18. Professionally, Ford was assisted by his friendship with novelist Joseph Conrad. Ford and Conrad collaborated onThe Inheritors(1901) andRomance(1903). Ford proceeded to publish poems and essays and in 1908 foundedThe English Reviewwhich attracted contributors such as Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy, Henry James, and Anatole France. However, Ford lost control of the Review in 1910. In 1915, at the age of forty-two, Ford publishedThe Good Soldier,which is generally considered to be his best work. In the same year, he left to serve in World War I as an infantry officer. After being gassed in France, he returned home for a short time before moving to Paris, where he foundedThe Transatlantic Reviewand associated with such writers as Hemingway, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings and Jean Rhys. In 1919, he changed his name from Ford Madox Hueffer to Ford Madox Ford. Then, between the years 1924 and 1928, Ford published his most ambitious work, the four-volume novel Parade's End.He died in France in 1939. Ford's personal life was marked by turbulence and upheaval. These stressful incidents may have influenced the married life portrayed in his work. In 1894, Ford married Elsie Martindale, but the marriage did not succeed after he had an affair with his wife's sister. In 1904, he suffered a nervous breakdown from the anxiety and ostracism caused by his failed marriage. His romance with the writer Violet Hunt, in 1910, brought further scandal when his wife sued him for the restitution of conjugal rights. Ford was horrified that newspapers which printed "divorce court journalism" would bring his
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