Plot+Summary


 * //The Good Soldier// is not so much a story as it is a collection of thoughts by the narrator, John Dowell, about his friendship with another couple, Edward and Leonora Ashburnham. John follows no particular order when spilling his memories, and at times the narration becomes difficult to follow, but I will try to summarize the events of The Good Soldier in the most logical way I can.

John Dowell is an American Quaker with a respectable ancestry who meets a girl named Florence Hurlbird, and afterward makes a resolution that he must marry her. Florence has always wanted to live in England in a traditional mansion, so John takes her away on a boat set for Europe. On the journey across the ocean, Florence suddenly swoons and is diagnosed with a "heart disease" that doctors say is serious enough that she must never try to long-distance travel again. John, the faithful, good-natured, and somewhat naive husband, spends the rest of her life in Europe nursing and pampering Florence. John and Florence meet Edward and Leonora Ashburnham during a visit to a health retreat in Nauheim, Germany. John immediately perceives that the Ashburnhams are "good people" and the two couples strike up a friendship. The couples find similarities between them; both Florence and Edward are seeking treatment for ailments of the "heart" while John and Leonora are their faithful accompanists. John imagines that the Ashburnhams are the perfect couple - wealthy, polite, affectionate, and loyal. In reality, Edward and Leonora are miserable. Edward is an object of his passions. He gets swept away in romantic affairs with other women without considering how his actions affect his marriage. His infidelities crush Leonora's spirit, and she tries so desperately to win back his love, but Edward distances himself from Leonora because of her controlling nature. Although part of Leonora's natural character lends her to be manipulative, circumstances also require her to take charge of their marriage. One of Edward's affairs entangles him in a shameful blackmail scandal, and costs the Ashburnhams a large part of their wealth. Leonora, realizing her husband's sometimes reckless behavior, legally acquires all of his assets - land, money, investments, everything. She fastidiously recovers the lost money, and Edward's shame further pushes the two apart.

Florence and Edward have an affair which lasts nine years. John - ignorant, insensitive, and simple - has no knowledge of their affair until after Florence's death. She falls in love with Edward and kills herself when she discovers that Edward loves somebody else. This somebody else is Nancy Rufford, a young lady who escaped an alcoholic and abusive family to live with the Ashburnhams. She looks up to Edward and Leonora like they are her uncle and aunt; she adores them both and also innocently thinks their marriage is perfect. But of course it isn't. Leonora realizes that she will never win back the Edward's love and offers to divorce him so that he can marry Nancy, but Edward knows he could not do something so horrible and so against his morals. Instead, he wallows in misery.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT SCROLL DOWN TO READ WHAT ELSE HAPPENS...

 Julian Mitchell adapted the novel for television in 1981

When Nancy comes to understand the truth of her loving uncle's sentiments, she runs away, which causes Edward to commit suicide. In the end, John reflects on the lives of these miserable characters and wonders what moral implications such tragic events have on a person's mentality. Leonora has remarried and is trying to live a normal life. Nancy, who went mad after hearing word of Edward's death, returned to Europe and is in John's care.