Abstract
In 1915, Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) published one of his most popular novels, The Good Soldier. Its protagonist, the good soldier Edward Ashburnham, is consistently described as a sentimentalist, with his sentimentalism being portrayed as fatal. Through Edward’s sentimentalism, Ford makes a point of showing the perils of literature, particularly those associated with sentimentalism, thus contributing to the lively debate about art’s impact on one’s life. This is not the only work of this author to include a word on the impact of literature in one’s life. Literature and its influence also play a significant role in his sheer comedy, The Panel (1912), which features Henry James’s great admirer, Major Edward Foster, whose similarities to The Good Soldier’s protagonist cannot be ignored. This paper focuses on The Good Soldier and The Panel in order to analyse the impact of literature on the characters’ lives and behaviors, aiming to reach conclusions regarding the author’s stance on the debate about art’s impact on life and his aesthetic purpose. This will be done by concentrating specifically on the perils of sentimentalism as presented in both works. To achieve this, this paper will begin with a contextualization of The Good Soldier’s and The Panel’s main characters, particularly questioning their resemblances and reflecting on how they may be related to each other; this will be followed by a reflection on the importance of literature in both works, especially concerning the development of their characters and actions, with a special focus on the depiction of sentimentalism. Finally, it will be illustrated how literature—specifically sentimental literature—shaped the characters and, consequently, determined their actions. Thus, this study will conclude by questioning literature’s influence on one’s life and reflecting on the author’s position regarding art’s impact on real life and about its relevance in the scope of his own aesthetic purpose as a novelist, as demonstrated in The Good Soldier and The Panel.