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The Good Soldier
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
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The Good Soldier
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Summary
Handsome, wealthy, and a veteran of service in India, Captain Edward Ashburnham appears to be the ideal "good soldier" and the embodiment of English upper-class virtues. But for his creator, Ford Madox Ford, he also represents the corruption at society's core. Beneath Ashburnham's charming, polished exterior lurks a soul well-versed in the arts of deception, hypocrisy, and betrayal. Throughout the nine years of his friendship with an equally privileged American, John Dowell, Ashburnham has been having an affair with Dowell's wife, Florence. Unlike Dowell, Ashburnham's own wife, Leonora, is well aware of it.
When The Good Soldier was first published in 1915, its pitiless portrait of an amoral society dedicated to its own pleasure and convinced of its own superiority outraged many readers. Stylistically daring, The Good Soldier is narrated, unreliably, by Dowell, through whom Ford provides a level of bitter irony. Dowell's disjointed, stumbling storytelling not only subverts linear temporality to satisfying effect, it also reflects his struggle to accept a world without honor, order, or permanence. Called the best French novel in the English language, The Good Soldier is both tragic and darkly comic, and it established Ford as an important contributor to the development of literary modernism.
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What listeners say about The Good Soldier
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Melissa
- 26-01-20
confusing but you have to relate to context
Narrator was fitting. I imagined he was in that period of time when modernity prevailed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sally Wills-Heath
- 09-01-24
Brilliant narration
Gildart Jackson really brought this book (which I had read in paperback a few months ago) to life. It is critical with a piece of classic literature like this that it is read correctly and Gildart Jackson did an excellent job. It helped make sense of a very complex and unusual story.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- john
- 15-07-15
A very good reader (Gildart Jackson)
Would you listen to The Good Soldier again? Why?
Satisfyingly narrated with smooth fluency, doing full justice to the rich writing.
If you’ve listened to books by Ford Madox Ford before, how does this one compare?
Ford didn't write enough for me
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
all the world's great story tellers bring joy and sorrow with their tales
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- deleted
- 03-08-22
Utter tedium
Written in such a stylistic & pretentious way. Nothing happens & it’s had to grasp any of the characters. Sad as it’s an interesting time in our history. This is just a personal view as it’s such a celebrated book. A warning to be prepared for disappointment.
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