This volume includes Ford Madox Ford's The Soul of London, The Heart of the Country, and The Spirit of the People. Published between 1905 and 1907, this trilogy investigates the changing culture of the English with originality and in ways that provide an excellent introduction to the work of this seminal modernist writer. Though a work of nonfiction, the trilogy eschews superficially factual history.

With an Introduction and Notes by Sara Haslam, Department of English, The Open University.The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction, an inspiration for many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Set before the First World War, it tells the tale of two wealthy and sophisticated couples, one English, one American, as they travel, socialise, and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe.They are 'playing the game...

The First World War gave new and vital impetus to the ancient idea that books could heal. This interdisciplinary collection provides a targeted survey of 100 years of historical and contemporary understandings and practices of ‘the book as cure’.The contributors explore the curative practices of wartime reading, how they were developed and institutionalized after the war, and the afterlives of these ideas and practices today. Divided into three sections, the first considers bibliot...

The third volume of Parade's End—one of the outstanding works about World War I and British society before, during, and after that cataclysm—this novel focuses on Valentine Wannop in London and Christopher Tietjens away at war, with the narrative concluding on Armistice Day. Making a dramatic comment on prewar life and morality, this is a perceptive exploration of time, history, and sexuality. This first-ever critical edition is fully annotated and includes a new introduction by a...

Life Writing offers the novice writer engaging and creative activities, making use of insightful, relevant readings from well-known authors to illustrate the techniques presented. This volume makes use of new versions of key chapters from the recent Routledge/Open University textbook, Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings for writers who are specializing in life writing. Using their experience and expertise as teachers as well as authors, Derek Neale and Sara Haslam ...

Taking account of Ford Madox Ford’s entire literary output, this companion brings together prominent Ford specialists to offer an overview of existing Ford scholarship and to suggest new directions in Ford studies. The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford is split into five parts, exploring the scholarly foundations of Ford Madox Ford studies, Ford's literary identity, Ford and place, specific case studies and themes and critical approaches. Within these five parts, the...

Fragmenting modernism' is about Ford Madox Ford, a hero of the modernist literary revolution. Ford is a fascinating and fundamental figure of the time; not only because as a friend and critic of Ezra Pound and Joseph Conrad, editor of the 'English Review', and author of 'The Good Soldier', he shaped the development of literary modernism. But as the grandson of Ford Madox Brown, and son of a German music critic, he also manifested formative links with mainland European culture and the visua...

AN NYRB CLASSICS ORIGINALVirginia Woolf called Max Beerbohm “the prince” of essayists, F. W. Dupee praised his “whim of iron” and “cleverness amounting to genius,” while Beerbohm himself noted that “only the insane take themselves quite seriously.” From his precocious debut as a dandy in 1890s Oxford until he put his pen aside in the aftermath of World War II, Beerbohm was recognized as an incomparable observer of modern life and an essayist whose voice was always and only his own....

In "Autobiography," G.K. Chesterton presents a captivating exploration of his life through a series of vividly drawn anecdotes and philosophical reflections. This work blends humor and keen observation, showcasing Chesterton's characteristic wit and his penchant for paradox. The narrative is not a linear account; rather, it mirrors the complexities of memory and identity, revealing the author's profound thoughts on faith, art, and societal values. Through a masterful command of language, h...

Ford masterfully combines his trademark subtlety and complexity in this masterful tetralogy that follows Christopher Tietjens, an officer and a gentleman, as he traverses the tumultuous path leading from Edwardian England to World War I. Against the chaotic backdrop of a world at war, the complicated sexual warfare between Tietjens and his sadistic wife, Sylvia, comes to a head while Tietjens is faced with a deteriorating sense of self and an increasingly ruinous life.

A British woman recalls coming of age during World War I in this unforgettable true story of young love, war and how to make sense of the darkest times'One of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time' Guardian'A haunting elegy for a lost generation' The Times'Should be compulsory reading' Daily MailIn 1914 when war was declared, Vera Brittain was t...

This fascinating collection of letters traces the exchanges between a young subaltern on the front, Gerard ‘Ged’ Garvin, and his mother and father at home. Correspondence was eagerly awaited by all. Ged savored letters home like ‘Jim Hawkins trickling the doubloons through his fingers’. Equally, his mother and father at home were always fearful that each letter they received would be the last. In a letter J. L. Garvin sent to his son 21 July 1916 he wrote: ‘Of course there’s no fresh lette...