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gracefallsthroughtherabbithole's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
lgiegerich's review against another edition
4.0
Finally finished! Difficult read, as most modernist novels are. Greatest descriptions of the trenches/WWI i've read in fiction. On the whole, so so british in its repression and honor and duty, especially on the part of Tietjens. Valentine is sort of blah, not my favorite. But Sylvia ia pretty fantastic to hate. All in all, glad i read the whole tetralogy.
chapman's review against another edition
3.0
After watching and enjoying the TV adaptation of this book I wanted to read the original. Madox Ford was not an author I had heard of before. I enjoyed the book and as always, there is more insight into the characters perspectives and it's an interesting comparison to see things from the book not included on screen and how that makes little changes to things.
The insights into the incompetence and ignorance of so many people in authority, their unwillingness to listen to anything that might contradict their preconceived ideas with facts and reality. The tragedy that results from it, on both a large and small scale.
The fight for women's suffrage playing along in parallel and the constant demands and expectations of women in their rigidly defined roles and the struggle to break free. I have to say I did not enjoy the significant age difference between the two main characters being love interests and I liked the TV version, which reduces this a great deal. I find it a little hard sometimes to find the attraction credible aside from him being sympathetic to the suffrage cause, unlike most of the men portrayed, but the dramas of social scandals happening between the conflict is quite fun.
An enjoyable read over all.
The insights into the incompetence and ignorance of so many people in authority, their unwillingness to listen to anything that might contradict their preconceived ideas with facts and reality. The tragedy that results from it, on both a large and small scale.
The fight for women's suffrage playing along in parallel and the constant demands and expectations of women in their rigidly defined roles and the struggle to break free. I have to say I did not enjoy the significant age difference between the two main characters being love interests and I liked the TV version, which reduces this a great deal. I find it a little hard sometimes to find the attraction credible aside from him being sympathetic to the suffrage cause, unlike most of the men portrayed, but the dramas of social scandals happening between the conflict is quite fun.
An enjoyable read over all.
raejs's review against another edition
2.0
I got thru the first two books before I gave up. Maybe I'll finish listening to it, but I'm marking it complete for now. I found that I enjoyed the characters and the story, but it was difficult for me to get into the story due to the writing style. I don't have large blocks of time to read, perhaps if I did I would have found it more enjoyable, but since I've only got shorter blocks of time it was really difficult to keep the story straight. At times the dialog gets confusing because the reader is given the internal thoughts of a character at the same time as a conversation. In the end, I didn't find it enjoyable enough to go on.
lamusadelils's review against another edition
4.0
Delicia de libro.
Es ñoño, tiene bastantes referencias rebuscadas de tiempos que probablemente no nos son familiares a la gran mayoría en estos días y está lleno de palabrejas complejas.
Aún así es increíblemente satisfactorio. Describe de manera exquisita la interacción entre todos los personajes, que son auténticos y cambiantes conforme la historia los lleva de un punto a otro, aunque a veces incomprensibles en sus actos y motivaciones.
Entrelazando de manera muy exitosa los elementos contextuales de una sociedad que se desarrolla en un punto temporal muy particular, no se siente como un libro rancio u obsoleto sino como una exploración de lo bueno y malo de las personas, de las expectativas sociales, de las convenciones y la subversión, de los principios e ideologías con que regimos nuestra conducta y de lo que nos une o nos separa de otros.
Si han visto la miniserie -que es excelente- quizá tengan otra idea de los personajes. Aunque Christopher es un hombre muy moral, en el libro se explora más a profundidad como a veces eso lo vuelve bastante cruel, poco empático y parece impedirle ser realmente libre. Valentine es descrita como una igual para Christopher, inocente pero muy inteligente y más que nada una mujer que enfrenta la diferencia entre los ideales de algo -la libertad, el feminismo, el amor- y la realidad. Y Sylvia, hermosa Sylvia, es mucho más compleja que una mujer meramente cruel, infiel o celosa. Es un pesonaje que parece estar atrapado en su propia piel, viviendo en una época y en una circunstancia donde no puede ser feliz haga lo que haga; está constantemente dividida entre su pasado, su vida espiritual y sus deseos.
Lo que creo es que el último libro sale sobrando. Tiene partes muy agradables -de hecho algunas de las líneas mas cómicas- pero la trama parece cerrar perfectamente en el tercero. Al final, aunque realista, la situación de ese último libro parece quitarle el brillo a lo que los protagonistas consiguieron y constantemente se siente el deseo de que ya termine.
Si les interesa lo pueden leer en partes y/o descargar aquí:
Some Do Not
No More Parades
A Man Could Stand Up
Last Post
Es ñoño, tiene bastantes referencias rebuscadas de tiempos que probablemente no nos son familiares a la gran mayoría en estos días y está lleno de palabrejas complejas.
Aún así es increíblemente satisfactorio. Describe de manera exquisita la interacción entre todos los personajes, que son auténticos y cambiantes conforme la historia los lleva de un punto a otro, aunque a veces incomprensibles en sus actos y motivaciones.
Entrelazando de manera muy exitosa los elementos contextuales de una sociedad que se desarrolla en un punto temporal muy particular, no se siente como un libro rancio u obsoleto sino como una exploración de lo bueno y malo de las personas, de las expectativas sociales, de las convenciones y la subversión, de los principios e ideologías con que regimos nuestra conducta y de lo que nos une o nos separa de otros.
Si han visto la miniserie -que es excelente- quizá tengan otra idea de los personajes. Aunque Christopher es un hombre muy moral, en el libro se explora más a profundidad como a veces eso lo vuelve bastante cruel, poco empático y parece impedirle ser realmente libre. Valentine es descrita como una igual para Christopher, inocente pero muy inteligente y más que nada una mujer que enfrenta la diferencia entre los ideales de algo -la libertad, el feminismo, el amor- y la realidad. Y Sylvia, hermosa Sylvia, es mucho más compleja que una mujer meramente cruel, infiel o celosa. Es un pesonaje que parece estar atrapado en su propia piel, viviendo en una época y en una circunstancia donde no puede ser feliz haga lo que haga; está constantemente dividida entre su pasado, su vida espiritual y sus deseos.
Lo que creo es que el último libro sale sobrando. Tiene partes muy agradables -de hecho algunas de las líneas mas cómicas- pero la trama parece cerrar perfectamente en el tercero. Al final, aunque realista, la situación de ese último libro parece quitarle el brillo a lo que los protagonistas consiguieron y constantemente se siente el deseo de que ya termine.
Si les interesa lo pueden leer en partes y/o descargar aquí:
Some Do Not
No More Parades
A Man Could Stand Up
Last Post
forever_amber's review against another edition
3.0
I loved F M Ford in "The good soldier" for his modernist and unconventional views and ways, and I am pretty sure we have a literary masterpiece in "Parade's End" as well, however I could barely stand this novel until the end, and I admit I skipped enormous amount of pages. Please note that all written below does not mean I stop being a great fan of F M Ford! He is amazing at entering into the depths of man's/woman's psyche!
I am pretty sure this book is made for people who are studying literature in university, or are any other professionals in this area.
The story was good, it had a big potential, yet there were so many things left unsaid, despite of the huge amount of words which inhabited these 700 pages. What was the logic in the main characters' actions? Even modernism and post-modernism have some explicable foundation; in real life it is the same. I really loved Christopher Tietjens and his features, but this is not enough for a work of such a scope. I am not concerned with its form (whether it is a novel, a diary, a chronicle, etc.), it is the vast geography (timespan, interpersonal/class relationships, etc.) it tries to cover. I didn't like Valentine at all, I could not understand Sylvia's motives. The only solid character was Cristopher (even though even he bored me in the end).
As to the strict Englishness of the novel, I admit it also posed a problem for me finding any harmony with this novel/diary/chronicle, whatsoever, since I am not a native. And I got bored by the wartime episodes described inside, I found them too formal and again, too many words that practically said nothing.
I think that for many people the better strategy would be to watch the movie/TV adaptations, because the story itself is nice and innovative, even though I think it is totally incomplete, chaotic and deprived of solid foundations.
I am pretty sure this book is made for people who are studying literature in university, or are any other professionals in this area.
The story was good, it had a big potential, yet there were so many things left unsaid, despite of the huge amount of words which inhabited these 700 pages. What was the logic in the main characters' actions? Even modernism and post-modernism have some explicable foundation; in real life it is the same. I really loved Christopher Tietjens and his features, but this is not enough for a work of such a scope. I am not concerned with its form (whether it is a novel, a diary, a chronicle, etc.), it is the vast geography (timespan, interpersonal/class relationships, etc.) it tries to cover. I didn't like Valentine at all, I could not understand Sylvia's motives. The only solid character was Cristopher (even though even he bored me in the end).
As to the strict Englishness of the novel, I admit it also posed a problem for me finding any harmony with this novel/diary/chronicle, whatsoever, since I am not a native. And I got bored by the wartime episodes described inside, I found them too formal and again, too many words that practically said nothing.
I think that for many people the better strategy would be to watch the movie/TV adaptations, because the story itself is nice and innovative, even though I think it is totally incomplete, chaotic and deprived of solid foundations.
rebecita's review against another edition
5.0
It took me 18 mos to get to the last word, only because I was savoring it, flipping back and forth from print to audio editions, rewatching both BBC adaptations (1964, 2012), and reading Ford's non-fiction at the same time. (I mean, also it is a 744 page tetralogy.) Hello, new favorite author and obsession...
jensteerswell's review against another edition
4.0
Do you like modernism? You know, those books where you switch perspectives from one paragraph and sometimes one sentence to the next? And where rather than describe events, the story comes to you from a stream of consciousness perspective? Sometimes from several perspectives? If you do, feel free to read all 800 pages. If you don't, think about finding another book.
jeo224's review against another edition
4.0
First of all, this was a very long undertaking, even for a book on CD. I also had several library books to get through. Otherwise, it would only have taken a month at most ...
For the audio version, Steven Crossley, the reader, is amazing. It is worth listening to anything he does ...
The writing was also good. This is a very "modern" novel. I picked it up because the price was right :) but I was also interested as I have read Virginia Woolf and several of the folks writing at the same time as she was. I felt this would be a slightly "older" generation than her writing, but it wasn't. It also had some comedic moments that I liked and did not expect. Not to put in spoilers, but I was impressed, as someone who works with Veterans, at the understanding of PTSD and trauma. Even the understanding of the brain seemed more advanced than I expected.
Worth reading, particularly if you are interested in this time period or writers from this time period.
For the audio version, Steven Crossley, the reader, is amazing. It is worth listening to anything he does ...
The writing was also good. This is a very "modern" novel. I picked it up because the price was right :) but I was also interested as I have read Virginia Woolf and several of the folks writing at the same time as she was. I felt this would be a slightly "older" generation than her writing, but it wasn't. It also had some comedic moments that I liked and did not expect. Not to put in spoilers, but I was impressed, as someone who works with Veterans, at the understanding of PTSD and trauma. Even the understanding of the brain seemed more advanced than I expected.
Worth reading, particularly if you are interested in this time period or writers from this time period.
ak17's review
5.0
The story is so damn complicated that I will just say: watch the TV series. When you are done with that read the book and revel in how bloody good it is. Basically it is a weird love triangle that spans for about a decade and involves Sylvia and Christopher Tietjens and a girl called Valentine Wannop. The best part is that he met her, did the nice thing and helped her and the next thing you know it’s 2 hours later and people are saying she is his mistress and keep asking them if they have a child together. Um no. They keep on meeting and a desperately in love but their love is the platonic kind. They don’t even say it until one day when he asks her to be his for the night. And then nothing happens. They get together at the end and are very happy but that is like 10 years later. Not even a kiss. And still everyone is like, she had his bastard. Sigh. There is a war going on also. That part is good and everything but I am here for the love story. No shame.
Admittedly this is my third try – the first time I read book one and just started book 2. But it was at such an awkward time that being in the middle of ww1 wasn’t a good idea (ok it was just before I got food at a restaurant). Second time I was so confused about what was going on that I just gave up (also I had a new school bag and the book didn’t fit into it). The third time round I started from the beginning and worked my way to the end. It was in London at almost midnight in a hostel that I realised just how much I was enjoying this book.
I was enjoying it so much that I even felt the need to HIGHLIGHT some quotes. Not the ones anyone else would use. Oh no. One of my particular favourites is “his beautifully pointed moustache”. I am such an artist. But in all seriousness, this book is a gem.
Just enjoy this:
“Tietjens, with a carefully measured fury, first cross-examined and the damned the police witness to hell.”
All you need to know about his behaviour is practically in this sentence. He is rude, he walks up to people one would crawl before and tell them what he thinks of them. If you would introduce him to the king he would tell him how to rule. Because morally he is right and because he has a British knowledge that he is Tietjens of Groby. He is a rich guy that is poor but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t behave as if he has an inherent right over everyone at some point. At the same time he sticks up for some people and would always say yes to a person wishing to borrow some money. Now, my mother absolutely hates him. He is too virtuous, he is clean in a way that he wouldn’t look at his wife naked in a bath. He can come across as wooden, as emotionless, but they are under the surface. I, on the other hand cannot even pretend to truly understand his character. He is amazingly complex in some respects. To a point that he is just puzzling.
Sylvia on the other hand is a socialite in every respect. To see what I mean just hear this; she went to visit her husband to the front, during war time, when no spouses were supposed to be there and then proceeded to amuse herself with the general (Tietjens’ godfather by the way) while wearing a gold foil dress. Everyone was an insomniac there basically but she came to make her husband wince. Bit of a sadist inside her. Also bit of a masochist. She is amazing and glorious in some respects and a total bitch in some. Being bored with your own damn life is not an excuse.
Sigh. I better stop. Just read this. And watch it. NOW!
Admittedly this is my third try – the first time I read book one and just started book 2. But it was at such an awkward time that being in the middle of ww1 wasn’t a good idea (ok it was just before I got food at a restaurant). Second time I was so confused about what was going on that I just gave up (also I had a new school bag and the book didn’t fit into it). The third time round I started from the beginning and worked my way to the end. It was in London at almost midnight in a hostel that I realised just how much I was enjoying this book.
I was enjoying it so much that I even felt the need to HIGHLIGHT some quotes. Not the ones anyone else would use. Oh no. One of my particular favourites is “his beautifully pointed moustache”. I am such an artist. But in all seriousness, this book is a gem.
Just enjoy this:
“Tietjens, with a carefully measured fury, first cross-examined and the damned the police witness to hell.”
All you need to know about his behaviour is practically in this sentence. He is rude, he walks up to people one would crawl before and tell them what he thinks of them. If you would introduce him to the king he would tell him how to rule. Because morally he is right and because he has a British knowledge that he is Tietjens of Groby. He is a rich guy that is poor but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t behave as if he has an inherent right over everyone at some point. At the same time he sticks up for some people and would always say yes to a person wishing to borrow some money. Now, my mother absolutely hates him. He is too virtuous, he is clean in a way that he wouldn’t look at his wife naked in a bath. He can come across as wooden, as emotionless, but they are under the surface. I, on the other hand cannot even pretend to truly understand his character. He is amazingly complex in some respects. To a point that he is just puzzling.
Sylvia on the other hand is a socialite in every respect. To see what I mean just hear this; she went to visit her husband to the front, during war time, when no spouses were supposed to be there and then proceeded to amuse herself with the general (Tietjens’ godfather by the way) while wearing a gold foil dress. Everyone was an insomniac there basically but she came to make her husband wince. Bit of a sadist inside her. Also bit of a masochist. She is amazing and glorious in some respects and a total bitch in some. Being bored with your own damn life is not an excuse.
Sigh. I better stop. Just read this. And watch it. NOW!