<p>"This is the saddest story I have ever heard" - so begins The Good Soldier, the novel that Ford Madox Ford regarded as his best ? and with good reason. It isn't perhaps as sad as the storyteller claims ? but it is a lesson narration, the use of flashback, and literary impressionism. It's also, crucially, a gripping story, brilliantly told; a shocking and constantly surprising tale of marital strife, sexual intrigue, deep deception, fathom...