[ book tip by Translated Tips ] Forgács Szuszá writes about the Hungarian edition of "A Jó katona"

To whimper one must, and to whimper is necessary. It definitely does not hurt to experience from time to time the emotions we feel while whimpering. Because this work manages to tickle, and to provide a slow and deliberate sensation of enjoyable torture, like an endless minuet; it lays the reader bare ready for torture with the wish of never wanting it to end (then one can begin all over again by rereading and re-experiencing these sensations all over again), but it does end. It is like a tiny pearl that requires shining over and over again; it is a pearl within the literary canon, at least this is what those who have read the novel say about it.

And with good reason. Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier was written for people who are voluntarily imprisoned in the world of appearances, and willingly maintain this semblance of illusion. ('They managed to do this with incredible clarity, though I believe it would have been better, if they had tried putting each others' eyes out with a kitchen knife. But they were "gentlefolk".') The novel was written for those, who deny themselves the pleasure of love; those who refuse to express their true and honest emotions towards the other; and who are terrified of breaking this illusion, because they strongly believe that this is the only way to maintain their own existence and that of society. They are satisfied with their self-deception, with the denial of their true emotions and natural attractions. They are afraid of the destructive force of fulfillment. And though they realize that their existence is based on lies and illusion, still they are afraid of losing the one person of their desires, whom they have finally allowed themselves to accept and acknowledge.

Genre: it is a well-written love story and riddle, which is experienced over and over again through the memory of the narrator.

I sincerely recommend it to anyone, who is suffering from the pains of love, or will suffer from it, or has ever suffered from it (and wishes to enjoy it at the same time).

[ book info ] Ford, Madox Ford: The Good Soldier. Penguin Books, New York 1999 (first 1915) .