The Brown Owl by Ford Madox Ford - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By Ford Madox Ford

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Brown Owl by Ford Madox Ford - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Ford Madox Ford’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Ford includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Brown Owl by Ford Madox Ford - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Ford’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788777520

Ford Madox Ford

Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) was an English author, editor, and poet best known for his novel The Good Soldier, which is considered to be one of the best works of literature of the twentieth century.

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The Complete Works of

FORD MADOX FORD

VOLUME 1 OF 46

The Brown Owl

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 2

COPYRIGHT

‘The Brown Owl’

Ford Madox Ford: Parts Edition (in 46 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 752 0

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Ford Madox Ford: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 1 of the Delphi Classics edition of Ford Madox Ford in 46 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Brown Owl from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Ford Madox Ford, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Ford Madox Ford or the Complete Works of Ford Madox Ford in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

FORD MADOX FORD

IN 46 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

www.delphiclassics.com

  The Children’s Fiction

1, The Brown Owl

2, The Feather

3, The Queen Who Flew

The Novels

4, The Shifting of the Fire

5, The Inheritors

6, Romance

7, The Benefactor

8, The Fifth Queen

9, The Privy Seal

10, An English Girl

11, The Fifth Queen Crowned

12, Mr. Apollo

13, The ‘Half Moon’

14, A Call

15, The Portrait

16, The Simple Life Limited

17, Ladies Whose Bright Eyes

18, The Panel

19, The New Humpty-Dumpty

20, Mr. Fleight

21, The Young Lovell

22, The Good Soldier

23, The Marsden Case

24, Some Do Not…

25, The Nature of a Crime

26, No More Parades

27, A Man Could Stand Up

28, Last Post

29, A Little Less Than Gods

30, No Enemy

31, When the Wicked Man

32, The Rash Act

33, Henry for Hugh

34, Vive Le Roy

The Poetry

35, The Collected Poems

Non-Fiction

36, The Soul of London

37, The Heart of the Country

38, Rossetti: A Critical Essay on His Art

39, The Spirit of the People

40, Henry James: A Critical Study

41, Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

The Memoirs

42, Ancient Lights and Certain New Reflections

43, Return to Yesterday

44, It Was the Nightingale

45, Provence

46, Great Trade Route

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The Brown Owl

Ford Madox Ford was born on 17 December, 1873, at 5 Fair Lawn Villas, Merton, Surrey. He was the first of three children and his father, Francis Hueffer, was a German émigré, musicologist and author, whilst his mother Catherine was a painter and daughter of the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist Ford Madox Brown. Christened as Ford Hermann Hueffer, he would not change his name to Ford Madox Ford until much later when he was forty-six years old.

Due to his father’s influence, Ford had considered becoming a composer in his youth and song manuscripts still survive in his hand.  Nevertheless, Ford was destined to embark on a literary career from a young age.  In 1891, aged only seventeen, he published the delightful 180-page fairy tale The Brown Owl, which was illustrated by his grandfather. Although it enjoyed moderate success, it was the first of what would be many books throughout a long literary life.

Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist, was the grandfather of the author Ford Madox Ford. The artist often liked to paint his grandchildren, who served as fitting models in his work.

Ford at a young age, depicted by his grandfather as William Tell’s son, c.1880.

The first edition of Ford’s first book

The original frontispiece image accompanying the children’s story

THE BROWN OWL

ONCE upon a time, a long while ago — in fact long before Egypt had risen to power and before Rome or Greece had ever been heard of — and that was some time before you were born, you know — there was a king who reigned over a very large and powerful kingdom.

Now this king was rather old, he had founded his kingdom himself, and he had reigned over it nine hundred and ninety-nine and a half years already. As I have said before, it was a very large kingdom, for it contained, among other things, the whole of the western half of the world. The rest of the world was divided into smaller kingdoms, and each kingdom was ruled over by separate princes, who, however, were none of them so old as Intafernes, as he was called.

Now King Intafernes was an exceedingly powerful magician — that was why he had remained so long on the throne; for you must know that in this country the people were divided into two classes — those who were magicians, and those who weren’t. The magicians called themselves Aristocrats, and the others called themselves what they liked; also in this country, as in all other countries, the rich magicians had the upper hand over the rest, but still the others did not grumble, for they were not badly treated on the whole. Now of all the magicians in the country the King was the greatest, and no one approached him in magic power but the Chancellor, who was called Merrymineral, and he even was no match for the King.

Among other things King Intafernes had a daughter, who was exceedingly beautiful — as indeed all princesses are or ought to be. She had a very fair face, and a wealth of golden hair that fell over her shoulders, like a shining waterfall falling in ripples to her waist.

Now in the thousandth year of her father’s reign the Princess was eighteen, and in that country she was already of age. Three days before her nineteenth birthday, however, her father fell sick and gradually weakened, until at last he had only strength left to lie in his royal bed. Still, however, he retained his faculties, and on the Princess’s birthday he made all the magicians file before his bed and swear to be faithful for ever to the Princess. Last of all came the Chancellor, the pious Merrymineral, and as he took the oath the King looked at him with a loving glance and said:

‘Ah! my dear Merrymineral, in truth there was no need for thee to have taken the oath, for it is thy nature to be faithful; and it being thy nature, thou couldst not but be faithful.’

To which the pious Merrymineral answered:

‘To such a master and to such a mistress how could I but be faithful?’ and to this noble sentiment the three hundred and forty-seven magicians could not help according unanimous applause.

When they were quiet again the King said:

‘So be it, good Merrymineral, do thou always act up to thy words. But now leave, good men all, for I am near my end, and would fain spend my last moments with my daughter here.’

Sorrowfully, one by one, the courtiers left, wishing him their last adieux. He had been a good king to all, all through his long reign, and they