Ford Madox Ford has 8 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 6 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Parade's End.
The Good Soldier
Summary
The tragic story of two couples, one American and one English, traveling together through Europe for an extended amount of time told by a seemingly unreliable narrator John Dowell.
Public Domain (P)2019 Deaver Brown
Parade's End
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. Consisting of four novels - Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up and The Last Post - Parade's End is the story of Christopher Tietjens and his progress from the secure world of Edwardian England into the First World War and beyond. Both a portrait of a love triangle - between Tietjens, his beautiful and reckless wife, Sylvia, and the suffragette Valentine - and a depiction of life on the Western Front, Parade's End is one of the greatest fictional works of the 20th century. Ranging from the drawing rooms of England to the trenches of France, and moving between past and present, it is a haunting exploration of identity, loss and memory.
Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Parade's End - Part 1: Some Do Not ...
Summary
The first volume of Parade's End introduces the central characters: Christopher Tietjens, a brilliant, unconventional mathematician; his dazzling but unfaithful wife Sylvia; and the young Suffragette Valentine Wannop. It starts with the cataclysmic meeting of Tietjens and Valentine: a weekend whose violence prefigures the coming war. It ends in 1917 as the two are on the verge of becoming lovers, before Tietjens prepares to return to the Front and probable death. Some Do Not ...is an unforgettable exploration of the tensions of a society facing catastrophe, as the energies of sexuality and power erupt in madness and violence.
©1924 First published by Duckworth (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd
Parade's End - Part 3: A Man Could Stand Up
Summary
A Man Could Stand Up, the third volume of Parade's End, brings Ford's characters to the 'crack across the table of History', across which lie their uncertain post-war futures. Divided into three parts, the novel is a kaleidoscopic vision of a society at climactic moment. The Armistice Day fireworks heard by Valentine Wannop in London with which the novel opens are echoed in the nightmare bombardment of the second part, as we are taken back to the war and Christopher Tietjens, staggering through the mud of 'No Man's Land with a wounded soldier in his arms. The final section returns to Armistice Day and joins the two characters in a frenetic dance, while Tietjens' wartime comrades smash glasses drunkenly around them.
©1926 First published by Duckworth (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd
Parade's End - Part 4: The Last Post
Summary
The Last Post, the fourth and final volume of Parade's End, is set on a single post-war summer's day. Valentine Wannop and Christopher Tietjens share a cottage in Sussex with Tietjens' brother and sister-in-law. Through their differing perspectives, Ford explores the tensions between his characters in a changing world, haunted by the experience of war, facing an insecure future for themselves and for England. The Tietjens' ancestral home has been let to an American, its great tree felled: those like Tietjens who have served in the war find there is no place for them in a demoralised civilian society. The celebrations of Armistice Day have been replaced by the uncertainties of peacetime. 'How are we to live?' asks Valentine, as a death and an imminent birth bring Ford's great sequence to a close.
©1928 First published by Duckworth (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd
The Good Soldier
Summary
Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect, both falling apart. Beneath the surface gentility of the American John Dowell with his wife Florence and the landed grace of Edward and Leonora lie fictions and deceit. There are secret desires, hidden power-games, suicides and madness. Everyone is hiding something; even the narrator can’t be trusted. Brilliantly inventive, tragic and ironic, The Good Soldier is one of the great novels of the 20th century.
Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks
Parade's End - Part 2: No More Parades
Summary
This is the second novel in the series of four, depicting the meeting, courtship and ultimate fulfilment of two modern heroes, Christopher Tietjens and Valentine Wannop, despite social condemnation, personal travails and World War I.
©1925 First published by Duckworth (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd
The Good Soldier
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Billy Howle, known for his roles in Dunkirk, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and On Chesil Beach. This definitive recording includes an introduction by David Bradshaw. The Dowells, a wealthy American couple, have been close friends with the Ashburnhams for years. Edward Ashburnham, a first-rate soldier, seems to be the perfect English gentleman and Leonora his perfect wife, but beneath the surface their marriage seethes with unhappiness and deception. Our only window on the strange tangle of events surrounding Edward is provided by John Dowell, the husband he deceives. Gradually Dowell unfolds a devastating story, in which everyone's honesty is in doubt. This extraordinary novel of passion and betrayal is a masterpiece of narrative skill and emotional depth.
Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio