Parade's End

[OwooenBled]

I enjoyed the first episode of this on Friday and have read various reviews which mention the books are a challenging read. Has anyone read them?

I have read Parade's End (which is actually four books put together) - in fact, I have read the whole thing possibly five or six times so far as it is pretty much the best book I have ever read, or at least certainly my favourite book. I have just bought the first volume (Some Do Not) of the annotated Carcanet edition which were published just last autumn, which includes a very good introduction.

Anyway, I can thoroughly recommend it - it is a bit of a challenging read, even second or third time around - because it is written in a non-linear fashion, and also because it is a premiere modernist text, it reveals the state of mind (especially Christopher's) with elliptical sentences and half-thoughts. To me, this just adds to the fascination.

Some critics have carped about Book 4 "The Last Post" but I think it finishes the sequence very well indeed and it is very moving in a different way and has a different kind of focus.

(There is a very good biography of Ford by Alan Judd which reveals a great deal of the brilliance of the author, as well as his peculiar life.)

Thank you so much. I will definitely read the books now, and I'll get the biography. I've read a bit about Ford's (eccentric) life, and hope he's now going to be known to a wider audience.

If you have Kindle (or read using Kindle apps for phone/PC) it's available in a BBC tie in edition for 77p at the moment. I've already bought the Penguin Modern Classics edition for £4.99. I have recorded the 1st episode of Parade's End and have both boxes set to record episode 2, so I hope to start watching it soon (away at my mum's for a week now).

Great to see your post Colyngbourne - I have bought Parade's End to go on holiday with next week, but was beginning to get cold feet after all the newspaper comment about how 'hard' it is.

I did read Ford's The Good Soldier a few years ago - it's an amazing book (and quite short and not 'hard'!) which I would very strongly recommend to others.

I have just started reading this after watching the tv adaptation. Finished the first book so far and it is shaping up to be one of the best things i have ever read.

I read a review which said that you struggle a bit reading it then when you have finished think 'that was amazing!' and I think that sums it up