Reason read: 1001 Q1 read 2023
This is a story of the breakdown of a culture and the emergence of a new world and new values. It is told through a love triangle; but there are no passion scenes. It is a war story without a battle and tragedy without denouement. The result of war on participants and society. It chronicles the life ofa member of English gentry before, during and after WWI. Characters are well developed and it is mostly a character study. A parade is a line of people/vehicle moving through a public place to celebrate a day or event.
Christopher Teetjens is the last Tory
Sylvia is a flippant, promiscuous, mean hearted woman
Valentine is a pacifist, suffraget ( )

Justo antes de que caiga la era eduardiana, en los albores de la I Guerra Mundial, toma lugar esta historia de traición, romance y el horror de las trincheras. En el centro de la narración está la escandalosa separación de Christopher Tietjens, un clásico caballero inglés, conservador y convencional, e impecable súbdito de la corona inglesa, y su esposa Sylvia, una mujer bella, arrogante, contestataria y símbolo de los nuevos tiempos. Christopher ve cómo su matrimonio se desborona mientras Europa es consumida por la tragedia.

I was looking forward to reading this book, but I never got into it properly: it felt like I was witnessing these people living completely useless lives and failing to make anything out of themselves. ( )

I found this book quite dense and hard work. I think it was probably worth it in the end. Tietjens and Sylvia are both quite maddening characters in their way, and it's hard to imagine what Valentine sees in Tietjens really. A lot of the nuance is probably lost to me as a modern reader lacking knowledge of the social mores of the time etc. But still, it's a wide ranging, emotional and intense book. The fourth part is very odd, I didn't know what to make of it at all - mainly from the point of view of Tietjens brother who seems to have stopped speaking and be living in a field? ( )

"Parade’s End" is a tetralogy focused around World War I. The first book in the collection of four, titled "Some Do Not" explores the cultural and social climate in England prior to the onset of war. The protagonist- wealthy gentleman Christopher Tietjens- finds himself in an awkward situation when a one-night encounter with a beautiful and promiscuous woman (Sylvia) leads to accusations that he is responsible for her pregnancy. Chris does the honorable thing and marries her, but Sylvia despises his stoic integrity and uncompromising principles. Mostly she despises the fact that he is only marrying her only to do the right thing, and has no physical or emotional feelings for her. Thus, she becomes an “evil bitch” determined to bring him down to her own level and she is obsessed throughout the series with ruining his life. For Chris, the inner conflict is that he isn’t even sure the child is his.

"Some Do Not" illustrates a vivid picture of social mores and customs in England in the early 1900s. For instance- educated well-connected gentlemen get cushy office jobs or deferments from serving on the war front. And respectable men often live off their inheritance and rarely perform real work. For those who are not wealthy landowners but seeking wealth through a career (like Chris’s best friend Scot)- no matter how much money they accumulate they will always be in a lower social-strata. But the general idea is to make good connections and avoid disasters and they are warned, “disasters come to men through drink, bankruptcy, and women.”

Regarding divorce - it’s ok if religion permits - but of course Catholics are not allowed to divorce. So, for many people marriage really is “till death do us part”.

The number one rule regarding social life is never ever create a scene in public.

Regarding the war - many people in England are German sympathizers. Others are merely pacifists and see no reason for England to fight. And the gentleman that does end up on the war front will inevitably be taking orders from someone from the lower classes which causes dissension and mistrust.

As "Some Do Not" ends, Chris is just beginning to fall in love with another woman- Valentine Wannop- and he is leaving England to serve his country in the war.

Books 2 and 3 - "No More Parades" and "A Man Could Stand Up" take place during the war, shifting back and forth from the war front to Sylvia’s ongoing narcissistic sociopathic destructive behavior. And when the war ends- Chris reconnects with both Sylvia and Valentine. Both books are narrated in a state of mental anguish describing the horrors and chaos of trench warfare, the guilt and pain of losing comrades, the fear of death, and the irrationality of life.

It becomes clear, even before the war ends, that life has been altered forever… for everyone. The age of innocence and “parades” of glorious pompous shows are over. Reality has set in. The word “Parade” is used many times with-in the first 3 books. Needless to say, there are no more references to the word in the final book.

Book 4 is titled "The Last Post". 'The Last Post' is the name of the military bugle song that is equivalent to America’s ‘Taps’. Everyone that survived in battle is returning home from war to resume a normal domestic life, only to find out normal life no longer exists. Everything has changed. Book 4 recaps some of the previous events, revealing missing details, and bringing the series to a satisfactory conclusion.

"Parade’s End" is No. 57 on the Modern Library list of best fictional books of all time. Granted, Ford Madox Ford was a good storyteller. He creates an aura of mystery to his characters and loads of suspense to the story line, but his vocabulary is outdated and the entire series is riddled with bloated highbrow side stories and descriptions that are irrelevant to the plot, thus creating a slow tedious reading experience. Perhaps back in 1920s when the series was written it received higher praise. ( )