Parade's End

De: Ford Madox Ford

Narrado por: Steven Crossley

Ford Madox Ford’s tetralogy, set in England during World War I, is widely considered one of the best novels of the 20th century.

First published as four separate novels (Some Do Not…, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, and The Last Post) between 1924 and 1928, Parade’s End explores the world of the English ruling class as it descends into the chaos of war.

Christopher Tietjens is an officer from a wealthy family who finds himself torn between his unfaithful socialite wife, Sylvia, and his suffragette mistress, Valentine. A profound portrait of one man’s internal struggles during a time of brutal world conflict, Parade’s End bears out Graham Greene’s prediction that "there is no novelist of this century more likely to live than Ford Madox Ford."

©1950 Alfred A. Knopf (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Parade's End - The Tetralogy

This tetralogy of odd people. Very amusing, in the dry, British humor style. It was interesting presentation method. You are given the end and then a series of flash backs through various characters to bring you forward. There is a lot motion, or rather thought, and very little action. The wife in the story is amazing ... in her attitudes and actions. However, the same can be said about the husband. Since it is four books, it is long but I still wanted to finish it.

Dan Schiff

I have read Parades End 4 times since I was 18 over 60 years ago. . Every reading strengthened my conviction that this was truly one of the greatest works of the 20th Century. The characters and their times come alive, and I am grateful to Ford Maddox Ford for presenting me with such friends.

A Superb Novel; An Excellent Reader

Where does Parade's End rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is one of those at the top of the list--combining a wonderful, but complex, story, with a reader whose understanding, style, and delivery make all of the complexities seem clear.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Two favorite characters obviously: Christopher Tietjens and Valentine Wannop. Why? Because they are the sympathetic heart of the story. and their growth apart and together is wonderful to see.

Have you listened to any of Steven Crossley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I do not know whether or not I have, but his performance in this work is outstanding.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Just great enjoyment.

Any additional comments?

I recommend this to anyone who loves literature and the spoken word.

Some Difficult Stumbles Down the Fox Hole

I remembered reading Parade's End many years ago and thought it would be a good listen for a long trip. But what I'd forgotten was how easy it was to simply flip forward a few pages when Ford would go on one of his belly-button lint examinations of people's motivations and the absurd social constraints of the time. The thing about waxing poetic is that it should be, well, poetic. FMF just rants incoherently until the characters start eating their own intellectual tail and he has nowhere left to go. I found myself in the mire so many times, I'm sure my impatience caused me to lop 6-7 hours off of the not-insubstantial 38-hr run time. And I didn't feel as if I'd missed anything crucial.

Mr. Crossley did a fine job, especially with Sylvia and her mother. Some of his characterizations of the second string personnel started to merge a bit, but he made up for it with some glorious walk-ons.

Overall, this thing makes a great case for abridged versions.

The passing of an empire told in four volumes

While the series was critically praised, the first book, "Some Do Not" is rather tedious focusing on Christopher Tietjens, a landed squire as he prepares to return back to war after suffering an injury. In his life, he balances a promiscuous wife and a burgeoning affair with a pacifist suffragette.

In "No More Parades", the second volume, Royal Army Officer Captain Christopher Tietjens, the landed heir to a noble family in a terrible marriage with the beautiful, bored, destructive and "excruciatingly unfaithful" wife, Sylvia, returns to the war to escape his terrible marriage and the chaos and pain Sylvia seems to intentionally inflict on her husband.


The third volume, "A Man Could Stand Up" begins and ends on Armistice Day with the war year of 1918 in the trenches of France as an interlude.The characters save but a few are generally unlikeable and the Victorian reticence annoying but, overall, a well written volume.

In "The Last Post" , the fourth book of the Parade's End Tetralogy, the last post focuses on the year after the end of the Great War. Though victorious over the Imperial designs of Germany, England was witnessing its own decline with the rising of the American hegemony.

Having returned to the Yorkshire countryside with his long suffering mistress as his long philandering wife takes up residence in his family estate with his former commanding general, Christopher Tietjens reconciles his relationship with his dying elder brother, the estate scion, who himself is in a long term illicit relationship with a women that decorum and tradition dictates her inaccessibility as a wife. As Marc lay dying, Christopher eeks out as an antique furniture selling ancient estate furniture from the homes of cash poor English nobility to wealthy Americans.

Because all of the characters and the self important sphere where they reside in is so unpalatable, their decline isn't heartbreaking, though I am sure that Ford felt a pang as the life from which he emerged was quickly declining, he was many from his.generation.that This is the nature of societal evolution.
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