Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ten of the best spas in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best spas in literature.

One title on the list:
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

This Edwardian tragedy begins with the meeting of two apparently strait-laced couples, the Americans John and Florence Dowell, and English Edward and Leonora Ashburnham, in the German spa town of Nauheim. It is "a special heart cure place", where Dowell has travelled because of his wife's infirmity. But her relationship with Ashburnham will suggest that the waters have more than invigorated her.
Read about the other titles on the list.

The Good Soldier also appears on Mullan's lists of ten of the best failed couplings in literature and ten great novels with terrible original titles, and the Guardian's list of ten of the best unconsummated passions in fiction.

The Page 99 Test: The Good Soldier.

--Marshal Zeringue