"A Tale of Passion," as its subtitle declares, The Good Soldier relates the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples, ... read full description
reviews
Mar 24, 2011
K.D.
rated it: 
He is found lying in the pool of his own blood at the entrance of his bakery. He has slit his throat with a sharp knife. Have you seen how a chicken is killed in the kitchen? The butcher or the cook does not fully decapitate the chicken right away. He first slits the chicken’s neck and collects the blood in a saucer with raw rice. This blood in rice can be added to the viand later together with the rest of the chicken meat.
The man, likened to the chicken, was the husband of my pater More...
The man, likened to the chicken, was the husband of my pater More...
4 comments
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Jul 14, 2008
Chris
rated it: 
Today’s special from the bill of fare: Crow. Market Price. Served with a complimentary slice of stale pumpernickel and a glass of river water.
I really did not think I was going to enjoy this book one bit; I also erroneously believed it was included in the collection of crap known as Time’s ‘100 Best 20th Century Novels’, and the fact it isn’t is probably why it was actually enjoyable. This is, however, included on several other ‘hits lists’, such as the ridiculous 1001 Books to Re More...
I really did not think I was going to enjoy this book one bit; I also erroneously believed it was included in the collection of crap known as Time’s ‘100 Best 20th Century Novels’, and the fact it isn’t is probably why it was actually enjoyable. This is, however, included on several other ‘hits lists’, such as the ridiculous 1001 Books to Re More...
2 comments
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(14 people liked it)
Oct 19, 2007
Jesse
rated it:
Lots of books (novels and otherwise) attempt to mix the chilling and the blasé for that extra-cold "banality of evil" effect. Among novels, American Psycho comes to mind as a possible least-favorite and The Good Soldier as a certain favorite. It would be too much to call any of these characters "evil" but as you ponder who among the morally vacuous cast is the "worst", you'll discover that your gaze turns inward, which is Ford's real achievement here.
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(9 people liked it)
Jun 03, 2010
Gary
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A contemporary and sometime collaborator with Joseph Conrad, Ford Maddox Ford was not a novelist studied in the English Literature classes while I was a college student. Intrigued by the endorsement of a dozen or so well known authors and poets on the cover of a paperback version of The Good Soldier, I decided to give it a go and see for myself if this novelist was as good as advertised. I am an unabashed fan of Joseph Conrad and thought perhaps I’d stumbled upon a lesser known genius-friend of
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(4 people liked it)
Feb 02, 2008
Kelly
rated it: 
Wow, was this well done. I almost wrote 'fantastic', but that didn't seem appropriate to the mood of the piece. It is also throughly soul-crushing, of course, but that shouldn't affect your reading plans in favor of it. It really is a must-read, I think.
The book is a thorough condemnation of the principles of Edwardian society and the Victorian society that came before it, made all the more effective by the fact that it comes from the most unlikely source, a timid, quiet American ma More...
The book is a thorough condemnation of the principles of Edwardian society and the Victorian society that came before it, made all the more effective by the fact that it comes from the most unlikely source, a timid, quiet American ma More...
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(14 people liked it)
Sep 26, 2008
Lostinanovel
rated it: 
Embarrassed to say that I somehow missed this one. I know it is highly acclaimed and my fellow readers here seem to love it, but i must be missing something. The narrator is frustratingly stupid and naive and the good soldier is simply a bastard. Social constructs doomed the characters but their adherence to society's rules borders on foolishness, particularly when they clearly dont really care for these rules.
The point of view aspect is intersting and I wonder if I didnt miss s More...
The point of view aspect is intersting and I wonder if I didnt miss s More...
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 10, 2011
Diletta
rated it:
Ma ci sarà allora un qualche paradiso terrestre in cui, fra il bisbiglio delle foglie degli ulivi, la gente possa stare con chi vuole e avere quello che vuole e stare in pace all'ombra, nella frescura? Oppure la vita di tutti gli uomini è come la vita di noi gente per bene – come la vita degli Ashburnham, dei Dowell, dei Rufford – vite spezzate, tumultuose, tormentare, vite prosaiche, periodi punteggiati da urla, da stupidità, da morti, da tormenti? Chi diavolo lo sa.”
Scrivere le im More...
Scrivere le im More...
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 14, 2011
Victoria
rated it:
The Good Soldier is an amazing feat of plot construction. This is the best example of how an unreliable narrator (John Dowell) and fragmentary plot can be used to reveal intricacies of character that could never be as effectively expressed through simple description. Not only is this brilliantly done, but I was amazed to realise how early a piece of modernist work The Good Soldier is- published in 1915. It must have created quite a stir when it was published as its main interest is the destructi
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 03, 2010
Beth
rated it:
If you want a good case of cultural whiplash, read The Good Soldier and then the reviews of Michel Houellenbecq's Plateforme (thanks, Hazel). From 20-year-old virgins who don't know where babies come from to sex tourism in less than a hundred years.
Ford's book has been called a perfect novel by some. There are endless (and interesting) debates about the reliability of the narrator. The novel has been described as impressionist literature, and the story is told in kaliadoscopic fla More...
Ford's book has been called a perfect novel by some. There are endless (and interesting) debates about the reliability of the narrator. The novel has been described as impressionist literature, and the story is told in kaliadoscopic fla More...
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(3 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Mina
rated it:
Ridiculously melodramatic. Melodramatic isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just a warning for anyone who is expecting a spare narrative in the Hemingway vein. I am too impatient to write a detailed summary. This novel is not about war, as its title might suggest. That is, it's not about War, although I guess one can argue that the characters are at war with each other. It's about some very fucked up people who do very fucked up things to each other, it's about these said fucked up people wh
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 23, 2008
Anjali
rated it:
I must have not seen the subtitle before reading this book, because I thought it was going to be about war or something. Actually, it's about love affairs, and honestly one of the most interestingly written books about love affairs I have ever read. It's a lot like someone you know was telling you about the love lives of your friends--taking great care to introduce characters they think are important, but sort of absent-mindedly referring to other people they haven't introduced or mentioned in
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 13, 2011
Brian
rated it:
The Good Soldier written by Ford Madox Ford is a fairly descent book. Even though it can be hard to follow from time to time because, it doesn't go in order but it is still interesting. In this book the narrator is John Dowell. Dowell talks about his wife Florence and another couple Edward and Loenara. Other than Dowell the three has one similarity, that they have heart problem and try to protest to get others to help them after they were invalids. Soon Leonara had a feeling th
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Oct 10, 2011
Tony
rated it:
THE GOOD SOLDIER. (1915). Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939). *****.
This is the first novel I’ve read by Ford, but was so impressed with his narrative skill that I’m sure that I’ll read more by him. Just as a side note, several of his works are available on “Google Books.” This is the story of two couples who were friends for a period of about nine years. It is narrated by the husband of one of the couples, Mr. Dowell – we never learn his first name, and his last name comes to us only towa More...
This is the first novel I’ve read by Ford, but was so impressed with his narrative skill that I’m sure that I’ll read more by him. Just as a side note, several of his works are available on “Google Books.” This is the story of two couples who were friends for a period of about nine years. It is narrated by the husband of one of the couples, Mr. Dowell – we never learn his first name, and his last name comes to us only towa More...
Sep 09, 2011
Hope
rated it:
I picked up this book from my local library, I’ve always wanted to read this book but just never got around to it. Also this time around I needed something different, a classic to read. I needed to step away from all the YA books that I’ve been reading. I am afraid I was becoming bit bored with them, they are all becoming the same and very much cliché.
This book was originally titled “The Saddest Story” but the publisher changed it to “The Good Soldier” because they were afraid that More...
This book was originally titled “The Saddest Story” but the publisher changed it to “The Good Soldier” because they were afraid that More...
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
August
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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May 16, 2011
Lindsey
rated it:
The post-mortem of a good-on-paper marriage that much later turned out to be even less than the little the narrator thought of it. The crux of his questioning of the marriage really is, "If for nine years I have possessed a goodly apple that is rotten at the core and discover its rottenness only in nine years and six months less four days, isn't it true to say that for nine years I possessed a goodly apple?" Is it possible for something to be bad if you don't know it? Where does the
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Jan 28, 2011
Janet
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At the conclusion of reading this novel, I’m reminded of an old television commercial. In the ad, a balding middle-aged man is sitting on the edge of his bed, mumbling repeatedly in monotone, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing… I can’t believe I ate the whole thing… I can’t believe I ate the whole thing…” My reaction to this book is: I can’t believe I read the whole thing… I can’t believe I read the whole thing… I can’t believe I read the whole thing.
Reading this book was a lot More...
Reading this book was a lot More...
Jan 01, 2011
Susan
rated it:
This isn't really a book you can just read. I tried that a few months ago when I took out the Penguin copy, but I got bogged down by Ford's style and couldn't get past the half point. Then I tried again, this time with a Norton critical edition, and found myself liking the book a lot more after I read an essay on literary impressionism. One of the essays in the book presented the idea that The Good Soldier is a novelist's novel, but I think that today it's more for critics than aspiring novel
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Jun 09, 2010
Rowland
rated it:
As a pioneer of modernist innovation, Ford Madox Ford challenged traditional social structures, moral codes, and literary forms with The Good Soldier, a novel he considered to be his "best book of a pre-war period." Broaching subjects such as adultery, betrayal, and moral confusion, Ford dealt directly with issues generally left unmentioned in polite society. Yet his innovative narrative style, which employed a narrator to deliver the story to the reader, shielded him from the necessit
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 03, 2009
Jacquelyn
rated it:
Stylistically, this book is a challenge. It reminds me of a conversation with a friend who tends to ramble, but you can't actually say "Wait, hold on, what girl?", or "When did this happen? I thought we were in France....". Ford uses his narrator to apologize for this style, which he calls 'patchwork'. As the story develops, it becomes clear that patience is required, and all of the loose ends will eventually be tied together. The merits of the story are hard to assess, bec
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Sep 16, 2009
Brian
rated it:
Until recently, I had never heard of this book. And when I read the first couple pages, I was quite intrigued, as I do tend to enjoy reading about Americans in Europe.
But in general, I was disappointed. I liked the issues that Ford explores, moral ambiguity, relationships, fact v. interpretation, interior worlds v. exterior worlds, etc, but I could never fully relax into the story. The narrator's style is enjoyable, at least it was in the beginning. He goes about telling the stor More...
But in general, I was disappointed. I liked the issues that Ford explores, moral ambiguity, relationships, fact v. interpretation, interior worlds v. exterior worlds, etc, but I could never fully relax into the story. The narrator's style is enjoyable, at least it was in the beginning. He goes about telling the stor More...
Jul 17, 2009
Robert
rated it:
If you think dysfunctional relationships were invented in the last generation or two, read this book. If you think human perceptions and attitudes haven’t changed in the last hundred years, read this book. If you think the world went steadily downhill during the twentieth century, read this book. The Good Soldier was written in 1913. It has nothing whatever to do with World War I (I’d always assumed that was its subject)—in fact the real title of the book was to be The Saddest Story, but WW
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Feb 18, 2011
Zack
rated it:
I got maybe 3/4ths of the way through it before it hit me why this book was driving me nuts: it's because it's sort of like an inverse Wuthering Heights. I mean, not precisely; I'm not saying the one is based on or even influenced by the other in any tangible way. Nevertheless, Wuthering Heights drove me crazy because there was this little group of people all trying to be happy in life at the expense of being horrible to others, and generally causing misery and being mean and nasty, and in the e
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Nov 08, 2011
Drew
rated it:
I sort of think I'm short-changing this, because I do appreciate its merits. And it was very impressive. The whole unreliable-narrator thing is pretty advanced and extremely well-executed, and the reasons it's used just make sense. Getting the story piecemeal, in an order that makes sense thematically but not chronologically, is actually really cool. And some of the characters are interesting, especially Leonora, whom the narrator posits is the only 'normal' person of the bunch.
But More...
But More...
Aug 06, 2011
Pete
rated it:
I rather enjoyed this book. It was written right before World War I. "The Good Soldier" is the narrator, Dowell, writing down the events of the past nine years. He tells the tale of his wife Florence's infedelity with Edward Ashburnam, a soldier, and how his wife Lenora knew about it the whole time while he was clueless. He recounts all the details he should have seen back in the day, like how she had a heart condition right after they were married and they slept in different rooms. Do
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Jan 02, 2012
Jesse
rated it:
This was an excellent book.
Ford has a very unique style, at first I found it a bit confusing, but after a time I found myself more immerssed in this story than I have been by any other book from this time period. His nonliner stoytelling gives the reader so much detail and builds not only his characters, but the narator as well, into amazingly three demsional characters.
I find it ironic that the title includes "A Tale of Passion". And while anyone would agree More...
Ford has a very unique style, at first I found it a bit confusing, but after a time I found myself more immerssed in this story than I have been by any other book from this time period. His nonliner stoytelling gives the reader so much detail and builds not only his characters, but the narator as well, into amazingly three demsional characters.
I find it ironic that the title includes "A Tale of Passion". And while anyone would agree More...
Feb 06, 2011
Mrsgaskell
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 23, 2011
Brian
rated it:
I read Henry James' "The Golden Bowl" a couple months ago and "The Good Soldier" is a tremendous companion piece to James' more nuanced treatment of very similar material. To say that Ford Maddox Ford is less subtle than James is not to say that he is less impressive. He handles the story of two upper class couples living a life of compromised affairs and ever shifting moral ambiguities (yes, even the ambiguities are shifting!) with a sense of humor and helplessness and pathe
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Jan 17, 2011
Veronica
rated it:
Ford is quite the storyteller and does so with great humor and wit with The Good Soldier, a sad tale, or rather, if I may, a tragic love quadrangle.
The novel recounts the friendship of two couples, the Ashburnhams of England and the American Dowells, over a period of nine years. The four meet at a health spa where Edward Ashburnham and Florence Dowell are being treated for their respective, and somewhat questionable, heart conditions. John Dowell, the naive and self deprecating nar More...
The novel recounts the friendship of two couples, the Ashburnhams of England and the American Dowells, over a period of nine years. The four meet at a health spa where Edward Ashburnham and Florence Dowell are being treated for their respective, and somewhat questionable, heart conditions. John Dowell, the naive and self deprecating nar More...
Apr 30, 2009
Tyler
rated it:
I shouldn't have liked this book: Two wealthy, idle, hypochondriac couples while away the summers in jaded ennui at a German spa. But I did like it. How does the author pull that off?
The answer comes down to the writing, though creative technique also deserves mention. Ford Maddox Ford uses a single member of this foursome to tell the entire tale from an embedded point of view, leaving readers to work through the inevitable gaps. To good effect, Ford also fractures the story accor More...
The answer comes down to the writing, though creative technique also deserves mention. Ford Maddox Ford uses a single member of this foursome to tell the entire tale from an embedded point of view, leaving readers to work through the inevitable gaps. To good effect, Ford also fractures the story accor More...
