The Ghostly Surfaces of the Past: A Comparison between Ford's Works and A.S. Byatt's 'The Virgin in the Garden'

In her introduction to 'The Fifth Queen', Byatt praises Ford's commitment to the representation of the past as well as his evocation of visual surfaces. Her interest in these qualities of Ford's writing can lead to the reassessment of some seamingly outdated aspects of his fiction. This essay analyses surprising links between his practice and her postmodern aesthetics through the comparison between 'Some Do Not...' and 'The Virgin in hte Garden'. Extending the discussion also to other works of Ford, the essay analyses two forms of their interest in cultural and individual history: the portrait and the inventory. These epitomise the conception of visual surfaces as 'ghostly markings', flimsy traces of the plenitude of the past whose retrieval is always uncertain and whose evocation is poised between melancholy and parody. Finally the theme of (cultural) memory is explored in association with the issues of creation and trauma.