route when she learns of Edward's death. La Dolciquita: A Spanish dancer (The Grand Duke's mistress) who is Edward's first sexual affair. Although he believes himself to be romantically attached to her, he quickly becomes disillusioned by her thirst for his money. Maisie Maidan: A young, pretty, married woman with whom Edward fell in love. Leonora pays for her treatment for a weak heart at Nauheim, knowing that Edward would follow her there. Maisie's heart gives way after she hears Florence and Edward talking about her disparagingly and she dies. Character analysis How well can we judge the characterisations in the novel when Dowell is such an unreliable narrator? A question to consider is whether he presented himself in a true light or manipulated his description of events to prevent the reader from discovering his true character. However"by the end of the novel Dowell has tested the limits of rational explanation. He has interpreted character by religion, nationality, gender and the calendar. Dowell's disillusionment follows the arc of modernism; he begins with presuppositions typical of much Victorian characterization: the individual conditioned by circumstance, composed of intelligible motives, susceptible to moral analysis-the justified self. Then, confronted with the singularity of desire, his 'generalizations' totter and fall."Dowell admits that his assumptions and characterisations of the people in his life may be flawed. Adaptations The novel was adapted into the television film of the same title by Granada Television in 1981. It starred Jeremy Brett, Vickery Turner, Robin Ellis and Susan Fleetwood. It was directed by Kevin Billington and written by Julian Mitchell. In the US it aired as part of the Masterpiece Theatre series. The novel was adapted as a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime by Lu Kemp in 2008, read by Toby Stephens and produced by Kirsty Williams. In 2020 the novel was adapted by Sebastian Baczkiewicz as a one hour radio play as part of the BBC Radio 4 Electric Decade season of classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s. See also Burt, Daniel S. The Novel 100. Checkmark Books, 2003. References External links 1915 British novels Modernist novels Novels by Ford Madox Ford Fiction with unreliable narrators Adultery in novels The Bodley Head books Fiction about suicide British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into television shows Nonlinear narrative novels