Famous First and Last Lines

“This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”

                The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford begins with this sentence. Published in 1915, the book is set around the time that World War One was occurring and it tells the story of a seemingly perfect marriages and how they fell apart due to human error. The entire book sounds really sad, which I anticipated because of the first line of the book. Death and tragedy are scattered throughout the novel and Ford leaves his readers with a question that he doesn’t answer. Ford (17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was from England. He was mostly a journal critic before he wrote his books. Although he didn’t write many books, The Good Soldier is considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 20^th century and of all time. I do think that I would like to read this book. I’ve always been attracted to sad stories or books that don’t have a happy ending. I think that Ford was a realistic writer because he wrote about the struggles that people faced and how those problems could make or break them.

“This is not the scene I dreamed of. Like much else nowadays I leave it feeling stupid, like a man who lost his way long ago but presses on along a road that may lead nowhere.”

                Waiting for the Barbarians was written by J.M Coetzee in 1980. Coetzee was born on February 9^th 1940 and is from South Africa but now lives in Australia. He is a distinguished writer and has won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. Waiting for the Barbarians is about a small colonial town that is under attack by the indigenous people that surround them. After a Colonel capturing and killing some of them, the Magistrate has a change of heart and decides to help a barbarian girl who was hurt during the attack. He later falls in love with her and asks her to stay with him. Throughout the novel, the Magistrate is trying to do the right thing and help the barbarians while the Colonel hunts and kills them.  This book doesn’t seem that interesting to me and I don’t think that I would like to read it. I don’t usually read books about adventure and I like books that are more realistic. However, it reminds me of King Kong, but in reverse.