Book description
'No more Hope, no more Glory, no more parades for you and me any
more. Nor for the country . . . Nor for the world, I dare say . . .',
says Christopher Tietjens to a war-damaged fellow officer, under fire
on the Western Front.
No More Parades continues
Parade's End from Tietjens' return to the Front in 1917.
Ford's searing account of the war is unforgettable: supplies are
inadequate, orders confused; men die among the 'endless muddles;
endless follies'. Death replaces love; Tietjens' betrayal by his wife
Sylvia mirrors the violence and dishonour of the war.
No More Parades includes: the first reliable text, based
on the hand-corrected typescript and first editions; a major critical
introduction by Joseph Wiesenfarth, Professor Emeritus of English at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Ford Madox Ford
and the Regiment of Women; an account of the novel's composition
and reception; annotations and a glossary explaining historical
references, military terms, literary and topical allusions; a full
textual apparatus including transcriptions of significant deletions
and revisions; a bibliography of further reading.
'...Parade's End... is panoramic and beautifully written. It is a
condemnation of the brutal senselessness and stupid waste of war.
Through its fascinating scenic technique it paints detailed, intimate
pictures of tents on the French battlefield, spa towns in Germany, the
Inns of Court in the City, and English country estates, and it peoples
these places with convincing characters who stay in the mind, especially
Sylvia and Christopher Tietjens.' Edmund White, New York Review of Books
Ford Madox Ford (the name he adopted in 1919: he was originally Ford
Hermann Hueffer) was born in Merton, Surrey, in 1873. His mother,
Catherine, was the daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox
Brown. His father, Francis Hueffer, was a German emigre, a musicologist
and music critic for The Times. Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
were his aunt and uncle by marriage. Ford collaborated with Joseph
Conrad from 1898 to 1908, and also befriended many of the best writers
of his time, including Henry James, H. G. Wells, Stephen Crane, John
Galsworthy and Thomas Hardy. He is best known for his novels, especially
The Fifth Queen (1906 - 8), The Good Soldier (1915) and Parade's End
(1924 - 8). Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment 1915 - 19.
After the war he moved to France. In Paris he founded the transatlantic
review, taking on Ernest Hemingway as a sub-editor, discovering Jean
Rhys and Basil Bunting, and publishing James Joyce and Gertrude Stein.
In the 1920s and 1930s he moved between Paris, New York, and Provence.
He died in Deauville in June 1939. The author of over eighty books, Ford
is a major presence in twentieth-century writing. Joseph Wiesenfarth is
Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
has written extensively on Ford Madox Ford and the English novel,
including books on Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Henry James. He has
lectured widely in the United States, Europe and Australia. His book
Gothic Mannners and the Classic English Novel (University of Wisconsin
Press, 1988) includes a chapter on Parade's End as the culmination of a
classic tradition in English fiction. He was a guest editor of Ford
Madox Ford and the Arts for Contemporary Literature 30:2 (Summer 1989)
and editor of History and Representation in Ford Madox Ford's Writings
(Rodopi 2004), volume 3 of International Ford Madox Ford Studies. His
most recent book is Ford Madox Ford and the Regiment of Women: Violet
Hunt, Jean Rhys, Stella Bowen, and Janice Biala (University of Wisconsin
Press 2005).
