Some Do Not …
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| Author | Ford Madox Ford |
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| Series | Parade's End |
| Publisher | T. Seltzer |
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Publication date
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1924 |
| OCLC | 1962841 |
| Followed by | No More Parades |
Some Do Not …, the first volume of Ford Madox Ford's highly regarded tetralogy Parade's End, was originally published in April 1924 by Duckworth and Co. The following is a summary of the plot chapter by chapter.
Some Do Not … begins with the two young friends, Christopher Tietjens and Vincent Macmaster, on the train to Rye for a golfing weekend in the country. The year, probably 1912, is only indicated later. Tietjens has a brilliant mind, and speaks it scathingly and heedlessly. Both men work in London as government statisticians; though Macmaster aspires to be a critic, and has just written a short book on Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He plans to call on a parson who knew Rossetti, and who lives near Rye. The first of the novel's two parts covers the ensuing weekend, which changes both their lives. Tietjens is preoccupied with his disastrous marriage.
The second chapter switches to his elegant socialite wife, Sylvia, who is staying with her mother at Lobscheid, a quiet German resort, with their priest, Father Consett. Sylvia had left Tietjens for a lover, Major Perowne, but became bored with him. She's bored in Lobscheid too, but needs the alibi of being there to look after her mother, to account for her absence when she returns to London. Consett probes the state of her marriage, and senses that her anger towards Tietjens is far from indifference.
The narrative returns to England. Macmaster startles Tietjens who's playing patience in his hotel room, after what has evidently been a fraught day. The action is then pieced together in retrospect. Tietjens shows Macmaster Sylvia's letter saying she intends to return to him. Macmaster has called on the Rev. Mr Duchemin, but was received by his wife, and is instantly infatuated by her Pre-Raphaelite ambience and elegance. He rejoins Tietjens for a round of golf with General Campion and his brother in law. At the clubhouse they meet a Liberal Cabinet minister. Their group is outraged by the louche conversation of a pair of lower-middle-class men.
While they are playing, the game is interrupted by two Suffragettes haranguing the minister. Some of the men start chasing them, and the chase threatens to become violent, but Tietjens manages to trip up a policeman as if by accident, and the women escape. General Campion grills Tietjens, believing he is having an affair with one of the women, Valentine Wannop. Tietjens dines with the Cabinet Minister, but becomes anxious when he gets back to his room, which is when Macmaster comes in at the start of I.iii.
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