A C T A U N I V E R S I T Ä T I S L O D Z I E N S I S
F O L IA L IT T E R A R IA A N G L IC A 3, 1999
D avid Gilligan
BEATI IM M A C U L A T l
THE HIDDEN GOD OF FORD MADOX FORD
F o rd M ad o x F o rd was a curious figure in term s o f b o th his life and
w ork. T h o u g h one o f the m o st influential figures in the m o d ern ist m ovem ent
h e was also a p en etratin g critic o f the social m ores o f th e new society
w hich em erged in the w ake o f the F irs t W orld W ar. H is literary re p u ta tio n
h as often been overshadow ed by the bizarre and sem i-fictional q u ality o f
his p riv ate life while his published views on cultural p h iloso ph y were
curiously a t od ds w ith his ow n p rivate behavio ur and the n a tu re o f his
w orks o f fiction.
T his du ality was conveyed in his fiction by the use o f im pressionistic
n a rra tiv e techniques and a tendency to create ch aracters w ho were in
conflict w ith them selves. T here was also a discernable difference in the
w orld view w hich emerges in F o r d ’s critical prose and th e m o re indulgent
a p p ro a c h to life in his novels. F o rd notoriously was less th a n scru pu lou s,
w hen it cam e to th e “ fa c ts” o f his ow n vividly im ag ined and freely
reconstructed au to biography because his notions o f tru th becam e increasingly
influenced by the relativistic n o tio n th a t the tru th w as an im aginative
literary co n stru c t and th a t alm ost everything was, consequentially, an act
o f tran slatio n . F o r F o rd the tru th becam e increasingly m etap h o rical.
F o rd w as a m an a t odds w ith “th e filthy m o d ern tid e,” b u t he also
learn ed to com e to a creative if bew ildered a c c o m m o d a tio n w ith th e
p o st-w a r Zeitgeist. L ike W . B. Y eats he w as an u n d o u b te d m a s te r o f
am biguity in his use o f w ords. O n m o re th an one occasion he h ad declared
him self to be “ a pap ist by trad itio n and sentim en t” b u t in fact he had
converted to C atholicism in late adolescence fo r pecuniary co n sid eratio n s
to please his G erm an relatives.
F o rd was also like Y eats in the sense th a t he was a great p o seu r and
liked to present him self as a T o ry squire and qu in tessential E nglishm an.
H is n o tio n o f the tru th w as as essentially poetic as Y e ats’s was in so far as
he sought the essence o r h ea rt o f any situatio n an d was at tim es oblivious
to finite details and surface textures. S ym pathetic critics o f F o rd such as
M ax Saunders have praised his w riting for its civilised vision, its “ h u m ane
percipience, u n o stcntatiousness, intern atio n alism an d resistance to p ro p a g a n
d a .” 1 In fact th ere were m any dim ensions to F o r d ’s th o u g h t and in b o th
fictional and non-fictional prose he had decried liberalism and m ulticulturalism .
A valuable insight into F o r d ’s th o u g h t is provided by an essay entitled
Pure L iterature w hich he w rote in 1922 bu t which was un published in his
ow n lifetime.
H ere in Saunders view was fou nd F o rd ’s “m o st searching ex p lo ra tio n s
o f a questio n th a t perpetually vexed him: th a t o f th e re latio n sh ip betw een
lite ratu re and m orality , and o f the purposes and effects o f im aginative
lite ra tu re ” (6). F o r d ’s reactio n against the V ictorian sta n d a rd s o f literatu re
is well kn ow n bu t in this essay he attem p ted to show “ how m o ral em o tio n
o r instru ctio n m ay inhere in a rt, w ithout being its p u rp o se ” (6). F o rd , like
m an y m odernists, adm ired the qualities o f aloofness and objectivity in
a u th o rs an d th e ir w orks and so developed a d istin ctiv e a n ti-ro m a n tic
sensibility.
In this essay F o rd suggests th a t while it is possible to o b ta in ethical
in stru ctio n fo r literatu re “ p u re lite ra tu re ” as such does n o t aim at m o ral
in stru ctio n . H e saw B u n y an ’s P ilgrim 's Progress as the suprem e exam ple
o f a bo ok, purely m o ral in p u rpo se, which had attain ed its p u rp o se and
statu s because o f the artistic genius o f its au th o r. W orks o f p u re lite ratu re
could have a m o ral basis and fo r this reaso n F o rd was an unap olo getic
adm irer o f eighteenth century A nglican devotional poetry and th e hym nology
o f Isaac W atts. In F o r d ’s view th e p o etry o f G eorge H e rb ert h ad displayed
a great “ one-ness” w ith the soul o f the English people and collectively the
w ritten a rt o f B unyan, H erb ert, H errick and th eir like conveyed a stro n g
feeling o f actual life in seventeenth century E n gland .
T h u s in F o r d ’s view, sincere expressions o f genuine spirituality w ere n o t
incom p atible w ith literary excellence. F o r d ’s dislike o f eig hteenth cen tu ry
lite ratu re was grounded in his view th a t the scepticism o f th a t era was
concealed by a hypocritical and deferential response to revealed religion.
T h u s F o rd was determ ined to present his ow n secular (and as he saw it
ignoble) century in its tru e colours.
F o rd , like m an y o f his fictional heroes, cam e to see h im self as so m ething
o f an an ach ro n ism , a m an b o rn in to the nineteenth cen tu ry b u t forced to
ac co m m o d ate him self to the shifting and dissolving values o f th e tw entieth
century. Because o f his experiences as a front-line officer in th e G re a t W ar
1 M ax Saunders, Agenda Special Issue on Ford M adox F ord (A genda Trust: London, 1989-1990), p. 5. A ll references in the text will be to this edition.
he began to accept life in its existential im m ediacy and diversity and cam e
to a relu ctan t acco m m o d atio n with his ow n secular age.
T his response to life is suggested by the m em o rial to a y ou ng d an cer
o f A ntib es in the novel The Rash A ct (1933). H ere is a sym bolic pag an
figure from the past w ho danced, gave pleasure and is d ead (S a lta v it,
Placuit, M ortuus Est). F o r critics such as C. H . Sisson this so rt o f leitm o tif
an d the general to n e o f F o r d ’s text suggest th a t F o rd had co m e to
a position w here his ap p ro v al was given to an existential paganism ra th e r
th a n the m etap h o rical evocation o f C hristian and classical values fou nd in
his earlier w ork such as Parades End.
The Rash A c t is a central novel a b o u t the p ost w ar lost generation. It
is a leave-taking, a shadow y tenebro us, and philosophically n erv ou s w ork,
w hich em ploys an un d er-cu rren t o f quasi-religious language to co n tem p late
the a tte m p te d and successful suicide o f its tw o m a in c h a ra c te rs. O ne
ch a rac te r survives to experience a form o f social resurrection . It is a re b irth
in which H enry M artin , a victim o f the D epression, assum es the identity
and life o f H u g h M o n c k to n a victim o f the G re a t W ar. Significantly the
real suicide takes place on the 15lh A ugust the F east o f th e A ssu m p tio n
o f the Blessed Virgin M ary. T h e ch a rac te r w ho survives an d assum es the
id en tity o f th e victim lives on m erely to p e rp e tu a te th e m a te ria listic
“ b ea n fea st” o f the m illionaire p ro tag o n ist w ho has tak en his ow n life. F o r
Sisson an d o th er critics it seems as th o u g h F o rd is suggesting th a t life and
fa te are in ap p e ara n ces and th a t these are th e ab so lu tes in th e new
w asteland he has portrayed.
B ut there is a subm erged sense o f transcendence in this w ork even if
the G o d w ho is glimpsed is the inexorable, inscru tab le god o f the storm
clouds, an u n predictable force o f n atu re and destiny w ho seems indifferent
to h u m an fate. F o rd m ay have h ad Ecclesiastes, one o f th e O ld T estam e n t
boo k s o f W isdom , in m ind while he w orked on this novel.
Ecclesiastes ap p ears to be the m ost pessim istic b o o k in the Bible, an
ex am in atio n o f the futility o f life and o f the q uest fo r w isdom . F o r d ’s
novel is set, “ un d er the su n ,” in Provence, w here F o rd had sp en t a good
p a rt o f his life. In the biblical H ebrew o f Ecclesiastes th e fo rm ulaic p h rase
“ u n d er the su n ” is em ployed to describe the futility o f a life divorced from
the purposes o f G o d . T h e d ra m a w hich is enacted u n d er th e sun of
P rovence seems to be p ag a n and fatalistic b u t H en ry M a rtin reflects u p o n
the fact th a t D estiny is “ p ro b ab ly v irtuous and reads th e gospels” alth ou gh
the “ left h an d o f g o d ” is equally active. A n inexorable sense o f destiny
h a u n ts this novel and suggests, w ith the a u th o r o f Ecclesiastes, th a t to
every tim e th ere is a season and a tim e to every p u rp o se “ un d er h ea v en ”
as well as “ u n d er the su n ” but th ere is a final am bivalence a b o u t the fate
o f these tw o interch angeable ch aracters w ho suffer such different fates.
T h ere are m om ents when F o r d ’s leading p ro tag o n ist, H enry M artin ,
struggles w ith his New E ngland, p u ritan conscience as he n eg otiates the
m o ral and social realities o f this strange new w orld. H e is ill at ease with
his unexpected good fo rtu n e and w ith the hedonistic, co sm o p o litan culture
o f so u th ern E u ro p e which b o th th reaten s an d prom ises to ab so rb him.
F o rd had collab o rated w ith Jo sep h C o n rad on several novels and in
H en ry M artin we see a ch aracter w ho “ goes n ativ e” in a ra th e r m ore
sophisticated way th a n K u rtz in H eart o f D arkness b u t here, possibly, is
a ch aracter w ho literally gains the world m aterially b u t m ay be losing his
soul. M artin , com es to realise th a t “ the tim es were o u t o f jo in t b u t the
cursed spite was th a t he was n o t the fellow th a t was called to set them
rig h t.” 2 T his, perh ap s, was a conclusion th a t F o rd him self cam e to.
T h e figure o f the dan cer at one w ith the dance was also very m uch
a Y eatsian one. O ther parallels can be foun d in the w ork o f th e tw o
m a tu rin g writers. T h e decline o f the great aristo cratic houses, the destructio n
o f the w oods o f A rcady and o f the an tiq u e glory o f G ro b y G re a t T ree
speak o f the d estru ctio n o f sym bolic trees w hose ro o ts had reached “ deep
in to ancestral consciences.” 3 B oth m en had struggled against the forces o f
m o d ern ity in th eir lives. T here is a sim ilar defiance o f n a tu re an d o f d eath
b u t one can sense th a t Y eats h ad m ore stom ach fo r the fight. In F o rd
one finds a m ore forgiving spirit which was no t unrelated to his latitud inarian
C atholicism . F o rd did n o t share Y e ats’s “ savage in d ig n atio n ” w ith his ow n
g eneratio n because he was to o well aw are o f his ow n person al lim itations.
A lth o u g h he w rote The Rash A c t to expose the lack o f physical and
m o ral courage in the post-w ar w orld the English w riter was never overtly
censo rious in his fiction. H is p o rtra y al o f social change in the early decades
o f the tw entieth century includes an insistent aw areness o f spiritual realities
and o f forces beyond hum anity. A lth o u g h F o rd was a catholic he was
a highly individual one. T h ere was little th a t was evangelistic in his w ork
and w here this was so-as w ith the early and conspicuous literary failure
M r Apollo (1908) - the m istake was n o t repeated.
O ne can perh ap s sense th a t w ithin F o r d ’s fiction th ere is th e sense o f
a loss o f vision o f an ideal com m unity an d a confused qu est fo r its
resto ratio n . All o f this is very ap p a re n t in F o r d ’s acknow ledged pre-w ar
m asterpiece The Good Soldier (1915), T h e ideal im ages o f a unified culture
in th a t novel - the A rth u ria n ro u n d table, the social an d cosm ic m in uet,
the Y eatsian sym bolism o f the eternal fo u n tain - are subtly underm ined
by the pseudo-religious language o f th e m orally confused n a rra to r w ho asks
2 Ford M ad ox Ford, The Rash A ct (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1983), p. 344. 3 K enneth Y ou ng, Ford M a d o x Ford (H arlow , Essex: Longm an, Green and C o. Ltd, 1970), p. 32.
despairing and elem ental questio ns (the sort o f essential qu estio ns th a t were
being ab an d o n ed by the C am bridg e p h ilo so p h er’s o f F o r d ’s ow n gen era
tion):
Isn’t there any heaven where old beautiful dances, old beautiful intim acies prolong themselves? . . . And yet I swear by the sacred nam e o f my creator that it w as true. It was true sunshine; the true music; the true splash o f the fountains from the m outh o f stone d olphins.4
T his is all p art o f a discourse w hich ensues betw een the C h ristia n and
pag an perceptions o f the ideal life w hich ru n th ro u g h this novel. “ W h a t
is one to th in k o f hum anity?” T h a t is the prim e q uestion o f this n a rra tiv e
because in the absence o f G od “ It is all a d ark n ess” and hu m an n atu re
is “ A queer shifty th in g ” as divine essence n o longer determ ines hu m an
existence. T h e separatio n o f faith and reason is m ad e explicit in the novel
by the fact th a t the credal statem ent “ C redo in unum D eum o m n ip o te n tu m ”
is u ttered repeatedly by an insane girl w ho has gone m ad , a p p ro p riately
enough, crossing the Red Sea. T w o o f the ch aracters w ho d o m in ate the
story, E dw ard A sh b u rn h a m and F lorence H u rlb ird , are essentially p ag an
b u t E d w a rd ’s o p tim istic h u m a n ist assu m p tio n s a re also sho w n to be
w ith o u t fo u n d a tio n .
H e w as cursed by his atrocious temper; he had been cursed by a h alf mad wife, w ho drank and w ent on the streets. His daughter w as totally mad and yet he believed in the goodn ess o f human nature. (213)
F o rd realised th a t the loss o f th e idea o f a divinely conferred identity
affected the consciousness o f m o d ern people and th a t this h ad a n effect
on p erso n al relationships. T h e quest for identity was relocated in to th e
sexual sp h ere o f life. O ld T e s ta m e n t w riters h ad a lso id en tified th is
tendency w hen they w rote ab o u t the “ circum cision o f the h e a rt.” In Biblical
H e b rew th e term “ h e a rt” did n o t h av e em o tio n al c o n n o ta tio n s as in
R om anticism b u t actually m ean t the centre o f the will, the centre o f o n e ’s
being. T h e Biblical a u th o r’s were im plying th a t ultim ate id entity is n o t to
be found in o n e’s sexuality bu t in a relationship w ith the divine source o f life.
In F o r d ’s novel the h e a rt is used as a m e ta p h o r o f the ills o f a society
obsessed by its ow n diseased eroticism . H is close identification w ith the
self-deceiving libertine C ap tain A sh b u rn h am am o u n ts to an alm o st wistful
an d ironic apology fo r his ow n life (a very different “ A p o lo g ia p ro v ita
su a ” to th e one presented by an o th e r fam o us convert, C ard in al N ew m an).
U nderlying this sad story (the original title o f the novel) is th e sense o f
the loss o f divine vision o r o f any transcenden tal dim ension to life. T his
4 Ford M ad ox Ford, The G ood Soldier (Harmondsworth: Penguin M o d em Classics, 1977), p. 14. A ll references in the text will be to this edition.
them e o f loss is suggested, p erh ap s ironically, by the L atin inscription
( Beata Im m aculata) w hich prefaces this his m ost fam ous novel.
F in ally F o rd cam e to see th a t “ one m ust live, on e m u st face, with
equan im ity , the circum stances o f o n e’s ow n age.” 5 Y et he also believed th a t
it was “ unb earab le to exist w ithout som e view o f life as a w hole” (12).
S om e poin ters were needed in the m id st o f m o ral dilem m as b u t as the
n a r ra to r D ow ling p u ts it in The Good Soldier “ there is n o th in g to guide
us . . . I t is all a d a rk n ess.”
In a sh o rt section from his a u to b io g ra p h y It W as The N ightingale
(1933) F o rd confessed to h aving given little th o u g h t to th e q u estio n
o f the su p ern atu ral b u t ra th e r o f having a great sense o f benediction
and o f a feeling fo r the n u m inous and the auspicious aspects o f life
in the form o f tw ists o f fortune, signs and om ens. A s a teenager he
h ad confessed to a P assionist P riest th a t he fo un d it difficult to believe
in the T rinity . T he old priest advised the young F o rd to calm him self,
believe as m uch as he could an d to leave such th o u g h ts to th e th e
olo g ian s. F o rd w ent o n to say th a t from th a t tim e o n w a rd s he had
never given a th o u g h t to w h a t he called th e “ S u p e rn a tu ra l M a jo r.”
It is certain th a t his novels are n o t “ theological” in any m a jo r sense
b u t a religious aw areness, albeit in a m in o r key, d oes p erm eate m uch
o f his su b seq u e n t fiction. C oincidences an d sig nificant tw ists o f fate
p ro liferate in his w ork.
H is final g ro u p o f m ajo r novels were w ritten d u rin g the econom ic
depression o f the nineteen thirties. The Rash A c t was the book m o st typical
o f this period. In his in tro d u ctio n to the novel C. H . Sisson n oted th a t
“ th e w orld has changed, and F o rd has n o ted the sy m p to m s” (12). E arlie r
novels such as The G ood Soldier h ad in troduced an u n ce rtain ty principle
into th e n arrativ e p ro cedure an d the equivocations o f th e n a r ra to r in tro d u ce
a stro n g sense o f relativism and am bivalence into th e ch oru s o f n arrativ e
com m ent. F o rd ’s fiction begins to consist o f one large and system atic
in terro g a tio n o f reality n o t unlike Y e ats’s in terro g a tio n o f N a tu re in The
Tower. H ow ever, F o r d ’s questions are directed m ain ly a t a society from
which F o rd feels culturally and m orally estranged b u t which he is increasingly
obliged to com e to term s with.
F o r d ’s ch aracters co ntinually ask questions o f life to w hich n o clear
answ er is given. H ugh M o n c k to n , one o f the suicidal ch a rac te rs w ho
in h a b it the pages o f The R ash A c t asks the sem inal qu estion,
W hat’s becom e o f religion? . . . 1 suppose that when one contem plated death in the old days, one wondered where one was going. N o w one doesn ’t . . . why? (213)
5 Ford M adox Ford, The English N ovel (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1983), p. 14. All references in the text will be to this edition.
T his novel o f the “ lost g en e ratio n ” is perm eated w ith a religious dictio n
w hich is subverted by the fact th a t in the consciousness o f the perishing
p ro ta g o n ist the “ problem o f life” becom es a m o rb id obsession an d his
d eath seems to be denuded o f any real spiritual significance. H u g h M o n ck to n
has been doom ed in his m o th e r’s w om b an d by the vagaries o f a free
m a rk e t econom ic system . Ironically the day o f his d ea th , th e F e a st o f the
A ssu m p tio n , becom es th e occasion o f a d ance o f d e a th . M a n y o th e r
sem inal q uestions are asked in F o r d ’s novels b u t they all spring in one
way o r a n o th e r from these prim al questions o f life and d ea th and the
co n fro n ta tio n w ith o n e ’s ow n m ortality . F o rd him self, faced w ith re cu rrin g
legal, financial and m arital problem s, had often felt him self o n th e edge
o f social extinction especially d u rin g the thirties.
A typically tragic leitm o tif th a t one can find in F o r d ’s fiction is th a t
o f the individual w ho carries w ithin him self o r herself the values and
p erceptions o f a fo rm er age. These living fossils, the beautiful, heroic and
idealistic as b o th F o rd and Y eats saw them , have little in co m m on w ith
the tw entieth century. T his disposition can be fou nd in th e suicidal H en ry
M a rtin o f The Rash A ct. H ere we have the ch aracteristic J a n u s m en tality
verbalised:
It was as if he were not all o f one piece. It was perhaps that. Born in the nineteenth and having lived the great part o f his life in the twentieth century. (130)
F o rd , like Y eats, tried to live vicariously th ro u g h a series o f P erso n a
w ho provided a link w ith the p a st and in the process m anifested som e
essential tru th s w hich were tied to race, ancestral m em ory an d the soil.
F o r d ’s p reo ccu p atio n with locating the essence o f th e E nglish soul can also
be found in various nineteenth century R ussian w riters such as D ostoyevsky
and T urgenev, C h risto p h er T ietjens an d D o stoyevsky ’s P rince M yshkin w ho
featu res in The Idiot are b o th the em b odim ent o f n atio n al v irtue an d in
a way are b o th C hrist-like figures o r “ fools for C h rist.” C h risto p h er
T ietjens, like P rince M yshkin, was an idealised ch aracter w ho acted as b o th
a critic an d a catalyst o f a co rru p t society in a sort o f inverted picaresque
pilgrim age th ro u g h the w asteland o f the F irst W orld W a r and its social
afte rm ath . E ach ch a rac te r was in structed in the am o ral realities o f th eir
ow n time. M yshkin is ta u g h t th a t it is n o t easy to achieve heaven o n earth
an d T ietjens, th ro u g h increasing engagem ent with the new social realities
o f post-w ar E n g land learns to tem per his ideals w ith p racticality and m o ral
em piricism . T h e w hole d rift o f F o r d ’s fiction is to w a rd s th is s o rt o f
acco m m o d atio n w ith a m o d e rn paganism th o u g h in the process th e “ h e a rt”
o f his ch aracters is strangely disturbed. T his is graphically sym bolised by
th e ru n n in g im agery o f The Good Soldier w here the “ failu re o f the h e a rt”
is a d o m in a n t m otif.
By the post-w ar era this process o f d o u b t and ch a rac te r d isin te g ratio n is
m u ch m o re m ark e d in F o rd ’s fiction. T h e search for an objective stan d ard
o f tru th in philosophy a rt and lite ratu re was being ab a n d o n ed by the tim e
F o rd cam e to w rite The R ash A ct. M an was increasingly ca u g h t in a closed
system in which the p artic u la r, the n a tu ra l, was d ev o u rin g grace o r any
sense o f the U niversal. T h e result o f this m o o d o f d esp air as C. H . Sissons
notes is an ap p a ren tly chilling endo rsem ent o f suicide in th a t novel.
F o rd once n oted th a t it w as ch aracteristic o f the m o d e rn age th a t
“ T r u th ” itself should have developed a bew ildering cham eleon-like ability
to ch ange and th a t it had becom e Janus-like and tw o-faced. T h is F o rd
personally attrib u ted to the “ d isap p earan ce o f p ro b ity , con tin ence and
belief in revealed religion.” 6 A s F ra n k M acS hane po in ts o u t, religion is an
im p o rta n t elem ent in Parades E nd where the “ need o f a responsible retu rn
to old and tried values” underlines p o rtio n s o f the text.
T h ere is also a sense in w hich an im possible idealism w hich is b o th
ad m irab le and in a p p ro p ria te to the m o d ern age is found in F o r d ’s w artim e
novels b u t here the concepts o f H e rb e rt’s A nglicanism an d th e R o m an
C atho licism o f G ro b y are prim arily m etap h o rical in nature. In a novel such
as The R ash A c t F o rd presents his readers w ith som ething m o re th a n an
historical and sociological vignette o f his times. T his is a sem i-allegorical
b o o k , one th a t involves a scrutiny o f the h u m an heart, o f th e w ell-springs
o f h u m an b eh av io u r an d conduct.
F o rd had alw ays m ade a d istinction betw een w hat he saw as the
genuine po etry o f life and “ro m a n c e ” , the latter being viewed as so m eth in g
o f an artificial con stru ct. He endorsed the p oetry o f the n o rm al:
T he poetry o f the innumerable little efforts o f m ankind, bound together in such a great tide that with their hopes, their fears, and their Teachings out to joy, they formed a som ething at once majestic and tenuous, at once very com m on and strangely path etic.1
T h is expression o f w hat G . K . C hesterton once called the “ divine
o rd in ary experience o f life’” grew o u t o f a m ystical experience o f the unity
o f life w hich F o rd had on a L o n d o n street in 1907. By th e thirties this
n o te o f the tra n sc e n d e n t h ad becom e no ticeab ly a tte n u a te d in F o r d ’s
fiction. Parallel w ith this the sense o f a vib ran t com m un ity h ad also sh ru nk .
T h o u g h this was never p ro m in en t in the w ork o f an y m o d ern ist w riter one
gets the sense th a t in F o rd as w ith Y eats, th ere was the qu est fo r an ideal
com m u nity, o r at least an audience or clerisy. N eith er was c o n te n t to spin
fiction or poetry ou t o f th eir intestines o r for th eir literary w ork to be the
6 Frank M acShane, F ord M adox Ford. H is Life A n d W ork (London: R outledge and K egan Paul, 1965), p. 179.
7 David H arvey, F ord M adox Ford, A Bibliography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 159. All references in the text will be to this edition.
p re sen tatio n o f a p oint o f view. F o rd m ay no t have had q u ite the sam e
H o m eric asp ira tio n s as Y eats bu t he w anted his fiction to have m o ral link
w ith society. By the thirties F o rd and his shrinking coterie o f ex -p atriate
ch a rac te rs occupy a shrinking m o d ern ist circle o f estranged m arginalised
and alienated individuals.
F o rd rejected ro m an ce as a literary genre because he saw it as “e th
ically wicked, a cause o f n atio n al d eterio ratio n o f ch a racter, o f selfishness
a n d o f co w ard ice” (184). T h is n o tio n is rein fo rced in o n e o f F o r d ’s
published attack s on liberalism . In one o u tb u rst in O utlook m agazin e in
1914 he bem oaned the flabby intellectual and sp iritu al m o rass o f his
times:
I think that what we want m ost o f all in the literature o f today is religion is intolerance, is persecution, and n o t the m awkish flap-doodle o f culture, F abianism , peace and goodw ill. (194)
H ow ever, F o rd unlike M ussolini did no t reach fo r his gu n (o r his
pen) w hen he heard the w ord “ cu ltu re” . R o lan d B arthes has said, ra th e r
m ischievously, th a t the a u th o r is killed by the text. T his strid en t version
o f F o rd becom es sublim ated an d diffused in the w orld o f his ow n texts.
If an y th in g it could be said th a t m o ral evasion an d “ flap -d o o d le” is
so m eth in g th a t is ra th e r conspicu ous in the b eh av io u r o f som e o f his
m o st p ro m in en t characters. T hey in h ab it an ethically grey w orld where
a sp irit o f d o u b t and com prom ise seems to eat up an y sense o f a higher
spiritu al p u rpose. T h e fact is F o rd was trying to p resent his ow n w orld,
a w orld o f reduced ho rizo n s and fading ideals, in as realistic a w ay as
p o ssible an d th is, p arad o x ically , called fo r an im p ressio n istic style o f
p resen tatio n . H is aversion to D o stoyevsky’s m elo d ra m a an d to ro m a n
ticism w as well k n o w n an d F o rd h ad w ritten th a t h e w as “ tired o f
v aria tio n s o f the C hrist legend” in fiction. His ow n p ro claim ed literary
ideal was a bo ok,
S o quiet in tone so clearly and unobtrusively worded, that it should give the effect o f a long m onologue spoken by a lover at a little distance from his mistresses ear - a book about the invisible relationships between man and man; about the values o f life; about the nature o f G o d .“
T hese hidden religious concerns are whispered and insinuated th ro u g h o u t
his w ork.
T h e convergence o f the life circum stances o f F o rd and th a t o f his
literary h ero C h risto p h er T ietjens has been n o ted by som e F o rd ia n critics.
B oth F o rd and his literary hero w ent into a hidden, sem i-pastoral, p o st-w a r
retirem ent:
A s a small producer, where a man could stand up for his ideals. In the face o f F ord ’s som etim es lurid public life, these ideals were frequently hidden.9
F o r d ’s religious vision and idealism is sim ilarly hidden w ithin the m atrix
of his fiction. O ne exam ple is this b rief b u t stirring en c o u n te r o f on e o f
his ch aracters with som ething num ino us in n atu re, a stirring vision o f the
living god th a t is glimpsed in the ap p ro ach o f the cyclonic storm which
p ursues H enry M artin , the survivor in F o r d ’s novel The R ash Act:
T hat thing o f G od appeared to go perfectly straight across the inlet. Like a great wall with a whitewashed foot. It towered com pletely up into invisibility. (198)
F o r d ’s gestures tow ards the m etaphysical tak e m an y form s in his fiction.
W h eth er he is dealing w ith the hidden god o f the storm -clou ds as in this
instance o r the later still small voice o f a New E n gland conscience w ithin
th e sam e H enry M a rtin or the vision o f a concealed heaven revealed only
to th e dying vision M ark T ietjens, last inh eritor o f the h o use o f G ro b y ,
such m o m ents are fleeting an d evanescent. T h e m u n d an e w orld co ntin u ally
reasserts itself.
H enry M a rtin is rebo rn u n d er the subsum ed identity o f H u g h M o n c k to n
th e dispairing English m illionaire w ho is yet a n o th e r casualty o f the F irst
W orld W ar, the D epression and one m ight say, the tw entieth century. T h e
F e a st o f the A ssum ption has been secularised in this novel because its
significance is th a t one character has assum ed the social iden tity o f a n o th e r
an d is b o rn into a new life in a social ra th e r th an a sp iritual sense. It is
a novel packed with synchronistic events and touches o f the n u m ino us th a t
trem ble on the edge o f transcen d en tal significance yet it ends, am biguously,
w ith the m ere c o n tin u a n c e o f on e m o re m ateria listic existence, albeit
a p leasa n t one, o n earth.
I t is an existence th a t seems to have becom e bereft o f any sense o f
transcendence o r higher purpose. W h a t is certain is th a t in F o r d ’s evolving
vision only the dying, like C h risto p h er T ietjens, could see the tru th because
n o -o n e cou ld cope p ra g m a tic ally w ith his ideals in an u n sy m p a th e tic
century. N o one could see F o r d ’s G o d and live.
Departm ent o f English Literature and Culture University o f Ł ódź
D avid Gilligan
BEAT1 IM M A C U L A T I. UKRYTY BÓ G FO R D A M A D O X A FO R D A
Ford M adox Ford był zagadkow ym człowiekiem i pisarzem. Podobnie jak o G rahamie G reene m ożna o nim pow iedzieć, że był dość ekscentryczny w sw oim katolicyzm ie. Ford był przede wszystkim pisarzem, a dopiero później katolikiem , który unikał w swojej twórczości propagandy i dydaktyzmu. W jego powieściach m ożna jednak odnaleźć głębokie zainteresowanie sprawami moralnymi i m etafizycznymi.
Przez wielu uznawany za pioniera modernizmu, Ford nie czuł się pewnie w X X w. i był jego ostrym krytykiem. M ożn a go nazwać Eurypidesem jego czasów: on również dostrzegał niebezpieczeństw o, jak ie niesie ze sob ą odejście od wiary i pow ierzch ow n ość św ieckiego podejścia d o życia.
W połow ie lat trzydziestych Ford osiągnął pew nego rodzaju kom prom is z now ym typem społeczeństw a, które narodziło się z początkiem 1 wojny światowej. W pow ieściach z okresu 1915-1933 obserwujemy rosnącą akceptację egzystencjalnego stosunku d o życia, ciągle jednak w yczuwalna jest św iadom ość istnienia boskości ukryta w tekście w ten sam sposób, w jaki Ford starał się stłumić idealizm w swoim własnym życiu. Twórczość Forda, poprzez minimalizację transcendentalnych aspektów życia i nacisk na kom prom is z otaczającym go św iatem , do którego m iał stosunek co najmniej ambiwalentny stanowi więc odzwierciedlenie ówczesnej teologii i filozofii.
