Mark Schorer

"This is the saddest story," the narrator notes of his friend Edward Ashburham's life. A superb soldier and the perfect English gentleman, the Ashburham has one fatal flaw with regard to affairs of love. Ford weaves a brilliant tale-long recognized as one of the masterpieces of twentieth century fiction-in which nothing is quite what it seems, including the narrator's telling of the tale.

Selections from Prize stories.