How can this novel be one hundred years old?  In terms of style, I am not sure that there has been anything more modern ever written since.

Some Do Not… is the first part of Ford Madox Ford’s famous tetralogy of books which, together with No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up and Last Post, form Parade’s End.  Some Do Not… was first published by Duckworth in April 1924 and, for me, is simply one of my all-time favourite books.

Having said that, Some Do Not… is not such a good novel as the same author’s The Good Soldier.  But, I still prefer it as a book.  It is a similar situation as I have with Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native is my favourite of his books, but Far From the Madding Crowd is the better novel.

Where do I start with Some Do Not…?  Well, what about the title?  I love the title.  It is the kind of title that would never get accepted by a publisher’s marketing department today.  I can just imagine the conversations: “Don’t you think that ‘Some’ is a rather weak word?  I mean what is it?  A determiner?  A pronoun?  An adverb?  It can’t make up its mind.  And ‘Do Not’.  It is a very negative sentiment.  Do not.  It sounds like a reprimand.  And then ending with an ellipsis.  I ask you!  What is anyone to make of that?  No, what we need is something more definite.  Something more uplifting.  Something affirming.  What about ‘Everyone Does’?  Much more inspiring.  I can see it on the bookshelves now: Everyone Does by Ford Madox Ford.  It’ll be a bestseller.  And, while I think about it, what about the author’s name.  Do we really need two Fords?”

The phrase, or the essence of the phrase, ‘some do not’, appears five times within the novel, although it is not until towards the end of the book that it takes on personal meaning for the book’s central protagonist, Christopher Tietjens.  However, throughout the book, the inherent abstemiousness of the phrase is linked with matters of honour and principle, at variance with an Age when those qualities appear to being lost.  Tietjens is honour personified; his wife, Sylvia, in contrast, is a symbol of the changing times, an Edwardian Jezebel.  Ironically, Tietjens’ self-sacrifice and integrity make him almost unlovable; whilst Sylvia’s promiscuity and imperfections make her everyone’s best friend.

The events of the novel happen over two weekends: one just before the start of the First World War; and one towards the end of the conflict.  With a backdrop of such major historical events as the First World War and Women’s Suffrage, the everyday human concerns of the characters in Some Do Not…––Macmaster’s ambition; Edith Duchemin’s social climbing; Sylvia’s vanity––seem petty and insular, although these will be the exact same people who will thrive in the new world order.  In contrast, it is left to Tietjens and Valentine Wannop to actively engage with the events of the time––Tietjens as a soldier on the front; Wannop as a suffragette––whilst being personally thwarted by upholding the values of a fast-disappearing past.

Some Do Not… is an enigmatic book.  A novel about the First World War, which does not relate any conflict; a love story, which both its protagonists would deny; ultimately, ending with a lack of any sense of conclusion.  The ellipsis.  Much like Life.

Napoo finny.

© Fergus Longfellow

Fergus Longfellow cannot recommend Some Do Not… highly enough.