Parade's End

Parade’s End is the name given to a tetralogy of novels written by the English author Ford Maddox Ford between 1924 and 1928. It takes place shortly before, during, and after the First World War. Ford intended the novels to be read together as one large work. The first publication of all four combined into one book occurred in 1950. Ford served in the British Army during World War I, and many of his experiences are paralleled in the novel. The novel is modernist in most respects. It uses modernist narration techniques, such as the interior monologue. Furthermore, it explores modernist themes such as humanity’s alienation from society in the 21st century and focused more on the characters’ psychology than on plot. Parade’s End is ranked 57th on The Modern Library’s list of 100 Greatest Novels. It was made into a BBC television miniseries in 2012. This study guide uses the 2012 Penguin Modern Classics edition with an introduction by English author Julian Barnes.

Plot Summary

The first novel, Some Do Not…, begins in 1912 and chronicles the events that will bring together the two main characters, Christopher Tietjens and Valentine Wannop. It also establishes the strained relationship between Christopher and his wife, Sylvia, who cheats on him, despises him, and seeks to torment him. Christopher is the youngest son of an English country gentleman from Yorkshire. Valentine is the daughter of a respected professor of education, and her mother is a renowned author. Christopher styles himself as the last Tory, meaning he adheres to British conservatism and traditionalism. He also has an encyclopedic memory. Valentine is an accomplished Latin scholar and intellectual, though her father focused more on her physical education.

The two meet when Valentine takes part in a suffragette protest at the Club where Christopher is golfing, and Christopher rescues her and her friend from arrest. Later, they also meet at a breakfast held by Mrs. Duchemin, a friend of Valentine’s. At the breakfast, they discover that Christopher’s father had been a patron of Mrs. Wannop’s after her husband passed away. He saved her from penury. Shortly thereafter, Christopher and Valentine spend a long ride together on a foggy night.

Years later after the start of the First World War, Christopher is back in London from the war after having been in a hospital. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and struggles with his memory. Sylvia seeks to undermine his reputation with false rumors about his moral depravity. Mark Tietjens, Christopher’s eldest brother, is introduced. He and Christopher are the only living heirs to the Tietjens estate. Mark wants nothing to do with Groby, their ancestral home, but neither does Christopher. Towards the end of the novel, Christopher learns he is being sent back to the Front. He asks Valentine to be his mistress. She agrees, but they do not have sex.

The second novel of the tetralogy, No More Parades, finds Christopher in France. He is in charge of processing soldiers to be transferred to the trenches. He is under the command of his godfather, General Campion, who doesn’t quite trust Christopher because he is so saintly and intelligent. However, he General thinks very highly of Sylvia. When Christopher left for France, he understood that Sylvia went into a convent, signaling an end to their relationship. However, he learns that she has come to France to see him. While attending the wedding-contract party of Colonel Levin, Sylvia does everything she can to win Christopher’s attentions. She is bored of other men. In her view, Christopher has ruined her. She attempts to make a deal with the ghost of her dead confessor, Father Consett, who predicted earlier in the first novel that, should Christopher ever find another woman, it would be hell on earth for Sylvia. She wants his help in finding a decent man in the group there in the hotel in France. She, of course, finds no one but Christopher. They dance at the end of the night, but it leads to a fiasco between Christopher and two other officers, one of whom was the man she ran off with earlier. The fiasco gets Christopher sent to the front lines.

In the third novel, A Man Could Stand Up—,Christopher is deep in the trenches in Flanders. He has recently taken over command of the unit because the commanding colonel is sick. They are awaiting a German \ attack. General Campion eventually shows up to take command over the British army. He is angry to see Christopher there and sends him away. The second part of the novel switches to Valentine’s perspective. It is Armistice Day. She has been working at a school for girls teaching physical education. She learns that Christopher is back. He is supposedly broke and experiencing symptoms of mental illness. She goes to see him, nevertheless. When she finds him in his home, he is very busy. He has sold all his furniture. He has her wait for him. While she waits, she takes a call from her mother, who tries to convince her not to take up with a married man. However, Valentine truly wants to be with Christopher. Soldiers, with whom Christopher served, show up to celebrate Armistice Day with him. The novel ends with Valentine and Christopher dancing while the others cheer around them.

The fourth and last novel, The Last Post, finds Mark bedridden and mute. He is living with his former mistress and now wife, Marie Léonie, and Christopher and Valentine. Christopher is in the business of selling antique furniture. Valentine is pregnant. Sylvia is nearby. She has been spying on Christopher and Valentine and preparing more mischief. She plots to manipulate an American tenant on the Tietjens estate into cutting down the Groby Great Tree, a symbol of the Tietjens family.

Sylvia also wants to see Valentine personally. However, when she learns that Valentine is pregnant, she has a change of heart and runs headlong to stop what she had begun. Before leaving, she lets Mark know that she will finally divorce Christopher and leave him and Valentine alone. Mark was sick prior to the Armistice, but the realization that Christopher would never forgive him for having believed the rumors that Sylvia spread about him, and that he would never accept Groby, weakens him greatly. That, coupled with the news that a truce was signed, and the Allies would not invade Germany, was the final straw, and he had a stroke. However, the inability to not speak is a ruse. He uses that because he is mad at Christopher for being so stubborn. He breaks his vow of silence to provide comfort to Valentine just before he dies.