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The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Penguin Modern Classics)
 
 

The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Ford Madox Ford (Author), David Bradshaw (Introduction) "This is the saddest story I have ever heard ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (4 April 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141181192
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141181196
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 433,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #16 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > F > Ford, Ford Madox

Product Description

Sara Haslam, Open University
"It is excellent to see a Broadview edition of this seminal modernist work." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
The meeting of John and Florence Dowell and Edward and Leonora Ashbumham in a German health spa is the centre of a train of lies, deceptions, adulterous love triangles and deaths. John Dowell, a memorably "unreliable" narrator, calls it "the saddest story I have ever heard". His narrative distance stems partly from the distance in time of the events, partly from his absence from some of them, but mostly from his ignorance or denial of realities as intimate as his wife's serial deception.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
This is the saddest story I have ever heard. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sad Story, Amusingly Told, 30 April 1999
By A Customer
Terrific book, extremely advanced for its time, though it does show Jamesian influences. It starts out: "This is the saddest story I've ever heard." Quite loosely written, with an ingenuously lazy wit, and it's a very complex story about two couples, ironically narrated by an American man, who is a splendid combination of naive and penetrating psychological insights, who is trying to document and piece together the steps leading to the suicide of Edward, his English friend, who in spite of the fact that he was an excellent fellow he was unable to keep his hands off whatever women came his way, and fall madly in love with the least appropriate damsels. I suspect the English fellow is a self-portrait, for the narrator is very gauche, and innocent, and not at all like Ford.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple greatness, 8 Nov 2002
By Lovborg (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This deceptively simple, heart-breaking story will change the way you think about novels, writing and the canon of English literature. It is a masterpiece of the first order: simply told by a narrator who frequently doubts his ability to tell his own story it is a study of sadness and loss that is as near to "The Great Gatsby" as anything written in this country. It should not be missed under any circumstances: the reward of reading it is enormous.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I love you with my ford, 19 Feb 2000
By A Customer
An astonishing study of repressed passions and for me the birthplace of that 20th Century favourite the unreliable narrator. I really wanted to add that, important as Henry James may be, it was Ford's collaboration with Conrad that is at the root of the truly innovative narrative structure of this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and dull
I know this is supposed to be a classic, but I didn't think much of it, I must admit. It's really one of the dullest and most muddled books I've ever read, though it did have two... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ms. A. Brooke

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Hugely enjoyable, sophisticated and nuanced tale of marital betrayal and treachery in the English upper classes, told by an unreliable narrator.
Published 9 months ago by Flibertigibbit

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply utterly engaging.
I am generally a fan of highly readable books that provide enjoyment (e.g., grisham, banks) rather than 'high' literature. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2005 by blue_skies_2000

3.0 out of 5 stars The First Modern Narrator?
Ford Madox Ford, although a literary figure often undervalued, must stand alongside the lofty literary statures of giants such as James Joyce and Henry James. Read more
Published on 29 Oct 1999

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