The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

3.48 AVERAGE

stellafen's profile picture

stellafen's review against another edition

3.0
Just so boring and repetitive. A suck up to Conrad, but not a very good one.
ejrathke's profile picture

ejrathke's review against another edition

5.0
Originally titled The Saddest Story until Ford's editor apparently informed him that would make the book unsellable. Of course, this novel's not exactly new or anything like that--published in 1915--but it's very new to me, having only even heard of him for the first time when I saw the book in Dublin a little over a week before I began reading it. I went home, internetted him, then returned the next day to buy it, and read most of it on the plane home.

The original title's quite fitting. It's truly one of the saddest stories I've ever read, but not in a tragic sense because there are no upswings of fortune, just the dissolution of a marriage that takes their whole life and happens mostly in secret to our narrator, who relates the tale nonlinearly, in the manner of recollection: impressionistic. It's one of the greatest books I've read in recent weeks and it only took me almost a century to find it, but maybe the rest of my life to ingest it.
kiabert's profile picture

kiabert's review against another edition

3.75
mysterious sad slow-paced

ooo's review against another edition

3.25
challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

andy_naylor's review against another edition

5.0
challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
It is a book you can read over and over again and get more from it on each reading
bibliotequeish's profile picture

bibliotequeish's review against another edition

3.0
I was pretty torn with this book.

Its the story of two flawed (FLAWED) couples. John and Florence Dowell, and Edward and Lenora Ashburnham.

It is a story about ... betrayal... I would say love and betrayal, but the "love" in this book is so toxic, I don't even want to bring any attention to it.

The narrator John Dowell, is quite possibly a Sociopath, he doesn't care about his wife, her infidelities or her lies. He shows very little emotion at all. There are slight flashes of desire, that quickly and quietly goes away never to be spoken of again.
The flip side is Lonora Ashburnham, who cares so much about everything all the time.

This book was good, but I probably would not recommend it to anyone and I definitely wouldn't read it again.
jem_carstairs's profile picture

jem_carstairs's review against another edition

3.75
emotional reflective sad
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

trindade_claudia's review against another edition

5.0
Ford told a great story. The narrator expressed everything so effortlessly and naturally, that in the end, his story made sense. The craziness of the narrator going back and forth in time wasn't a hindrance - it was actually quite refreshing to 'listen to a conversation' instead of reading a novel. In the end, 'The Good Soldier' really was 'The Saddest Story'.

verity_r's review against another edition

3.75
challenging reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rose421's review against another edition

5.0
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes