Ladies Whose Bright Eyes: A Romance

by Ford Madox Ford

Mr. Sorrell, a publisher, finds himself transported back in time to medieval Europe, where he learns much of the wisdom of the past

Genres: British Literature, Fiction

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.

Ford is now remembered for his novels The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–1928) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908). The Good Soldier is frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, The Observer′s "100 Greatest Novels of All Time", and The Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read".

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free download available at Faded Page.

I made the proofing of this book (P2) for DP-Canada and it will be published by Faded Page.

3* The Good Soldier
4* No More Parades
4* Parade's End - Part One - Some Do Not
4* Parade's End - Part Three - A Man Could Stand Up
3* Parade's End - Part Four - Last Post
4* Parade's End
3* Ladies Whose Bright Eyes
TR The Young Lovell
TR The Fifth Queen
TR The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad
TR Portraits from life;: Memories and criticisms of Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Stephen Crane, D. H. Lawrence, John Galsworthy, ... Theodore Dreiser, Algernon Charles Swinburne

[Tina Rath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently re-read Ford Madox Ford's "Ladies Whose Bright Eyes" and discovered that it is as good as I remember it from many years ago - possibly better.
Why has it not been made into one of those long television series? it has everything - castles, pretty costumes, horses, romance, and has to be one of the best time-slip novels I have ever read. The hero, who expected the Middle Ages to be Bold and Free discovers people constantly fussing about good manners and sueing each other right left and definitely centre, the most litigious appearing to be the nuns...and the bright eyed ladies have it very much their own way, as their men are away, trying to fight the Scots, and intriguing with or against the Queen Mother - indeed one of the ladies hasn't actually met her husband, a gloomy man who is introduced to the reader sitting in a hot bath in the upper room of an inn, while his young, naked and indifferent mistress, whose ambition is to find another man with enough money to buy her all the sugar and clothes she wants, pours more hot water over him...as sad and funny a scene as you could wish.
It ends with a wonderful set piece tournament between two of the ladies, fighting over the hero each for her own reason and I fully recommend it. It should be better known.

[Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

That Ford's corpus remains largely unread, if understandable, is unfortunate. Though none of his other works reach the heights of Parade's End or The Good Soldier, there is much available here, especially for one who enjoys Ford's artistry in his two masterpieces. LWBE treats some of the same ideas, though on a much briefer scale - it feels like a novella, though it's too long for that categorization. It is a well done novel in several ways, though many of its strengths are perhaps so quiet that the reader not looking for them may well miss them. In particular, though called a "romance" and written-off by many critics for being such, Ford constantly prevents the work from slipping into easy romance: the middle ages are not what they are expected, for example, and it is too late to save the ancient lands once back in the present (at least in the 1930s reworking). An enjoyable novel that engages and tweaks the idea of tradition.

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well researched and humorous time travel novel that neither excessively glamourises or does down the past. One of my favourite novels, one I think that is significantly underrated in comparison to the rest of Ford's works. An excellent and magical portrayal of the middle ages. I found the ending slightly disappointing, but otherwise it was a wonderful book.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prereq: Twain's *Connecticut Yankee*. For the time travel medievalist geek, without the action-movie clench of Crichton's *Timeline* or the paperwork tangles of Connie Willis. For everyone else, skip ahead to 4/5 of the way through the book and read the Ladies' joust.

[Lise Arin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetic, philosophical, intricate, atmospheric medieval time travel story. Obscure, but marvelous.