'This is the saddest story I have ever heard.'

Wealthy American John Dowell describes in a disarmingly casual, compellingly intimate manner how he and his wife Florence meet an English couple in a German spa resort. They become friends over the years and gradually the history of their relationships and the passions that lie behind the orderly Edwardian façade are unveiled. Dowell is the archetypal 'unreliable narrator', and his casual revelations are both unexpected and explosive.

A masterpiece of early Modernism and a virtuoso performance of literary skill, Ford's 'Tale of Passion' reflects contemporary interests in psychology, sexuality, and the New Woman. Its portrayal of the destruction of a civilized elite anticipates the cataclysm of the First World War, which erupted while Ford was finishing the book. This new edition includes Ford's important essay 'On Impressionism', which sheds valuable light on his artistic technique.

Ford Madox Ford

Max Saunders is the author of the highly acclaimed Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life (2 vols, OUP 1996) and Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature (OUP, 2010). He has edited a range of Ford's poetry and prose for Carcanet and written widely on modern literature. He is the general editor of International Ford Madox Ford Studies.