Parade's End

[french frank]

I know frenchie has bought a copy, I wonder how she's getting on with it?

Much put out. I really wanted to read The Good Soldier but, well ordered though my bookshelves are, I couldn't find it. So being in the vicinity of Wassersteins a couple of days ago I bought Parade's End instead. In spite of the fact that I really don't like long books. And to make matters worse, I was browsing my shelves earlier today - and there was The Good Soldier, exactly where it ought to be: between F Scott Fitzgerald and EM Forster . I might read that first.

[Barbirollians]

I have enjoyed it a great deal - proper grown up TV for people with an attention span longer than that of a gnat for once !

Which is no doubt why it is on BBC2 on a Friday rather than BBC1 on a Sunday . The effluent against which it comes up against on BBC1 beggars belief . Mrs Brown's Boys ought to bring shame to anyone with an Irish passport .

[amateur51]

Much put out. I really wanted to read The Good Soldier but, well ordered though my bookshelves are, I couldn't find it. So being in the vicinity of Wassersteins a couple of days ago I bought Parade's End instead. In spite of the fact that I really don't like long books. And to make matters worse, I was browsing my shelves earlier today - and there was The Good Soldier, exactly where it ought to be: between F Scott Fitzgerald and EM Forster . I might read that first.

Having watched the Alan Yentob/Culture Show special about Ford, I'm greatly looking forward to reading The Good Soldier - not least because it's relatively short (under 200 pages) and it sounds wonderful

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._Show_Special/

[gurnemanz]

There's a free download on Amazon Kindle.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Good-Sol...6662602&sr=1-1

[Caliban]

Having watched the Alan Yentob/Culture Show special about Ford, I'm greatly looking forward to reading The Good Soldier - not least because it's relatively short (under 200 pages) and it sounds wonderful

I really enjoyed that programme. For one thing, it explained why - if you'd asked me a few weeks ago - I'd have said FMF was an American author, had you asked me the question. I thought the same about 'The Good Soldier'

[amateur51]

I really enjoyed that programme and thought the same about 'The Good Soldier'

In fact, reading more & more about Ford, I realise that there is huge catalogue of interesting-sounding writing in his oeuvre (hope that doesn't have ff and vints spitting tacks ). He's obviously someone of great interest as a person and as a writer & I feel complete putz for having got to sixty without investigating his life and works.

Still, the journey of a thousand miles etc ...

[jean]

I learned most of what I know about Ford Madox Ford from the recent exhibition of the work of his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown:

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/w....php?itemID=78

[amateur51]

I learned most of what I know about Ford Madox Ford from the recent exhibition of the work of his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown:

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/w....php?itemID=78

I see that this exhibition has long since past ... and I know very little about FMBrown too - such ignorance!

[french frank]

Still, the journey of a thousand miles etc ...

In the case of Parade's End, yes: for The Good Soldier, more like a hundred ...

Ford said in the preface that he thought it was the his best novel - but that was before the Tietjens tetralogy. Retrospectively, Walter Allen in The English Novel wrote: "Judged as a technical feat alone The Good Soldier is dazzling, as near perfection as a novel can be. It is amazingly subtle, this account, by one of them, of the lives of four people who appear to have lived in harmony and friendship for more than ten years .."

Ford reported that one of his friends had commented to him: "It is the finest French novel in the English language!" It has his preferred title as sub-title: The Saddest Story Ever Told, but TGS was substituted because in the middle of a war the original title would 'render the book unsaleable', according to his publisher. Which might have been one of the few good outcomes of WWI.

[french frank]

his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown

When searching for TGS, I actually resorted to looking under the Bs in case I'd had a moment of mental aberration. Not that I know anything of FMB except "The Last of England".