The Good Soldier

A novel narrated by John Dowell, an American who tells the story of his friendship with another married couple, the English officer Edward Ashburnham and his wife Leonora. For years the two couples meet at a German spa town and seem to live perfectly proper lives. Dowell now looks back and tries to make sense of what he failed to see. He tells the tale out of order, circling back and correcting himself. The book explores desire, deceit, religion and social convention, and it is often counted among the finest English novels of the twentieth century.