A Handful of Dust vs The Good Soldier: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Adultery, Married people, British, British and irish fiction, Fiction
A Handful of Dust
Tony Last is an aristocrat whose attachment to an ideal feudal past is so profound that he is blind to his wife Brenda's boredom with the stately rhythms of country life. She sets herself up in a London flat and pursues…
vs
The Good Soldier
This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy - or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Good Soldier has the widest readership — 2553 ratings behind its score.
- A Handful of Dust reaches further in scholarship and criticism — cited 53 times.
Scores by source
| A Handful of Dust | The Good Soldier | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 3.7 (2553) |
| Hardcover | 3.8 (46) | 3.3 (45) |
| Apple Books | 3.5 (21) | 4.0 (86) |
Reception
| A Handful of Dust | The Good Soldier | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 46 | 2553 |
| Editions | 83 | 355 |
| Citations | 53 | 33 |
| Film adaptations | — | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 53121 |
| Written reviews | — | 2553 |
| Wikipedia attention | 3550 | 3082 |
| Pages | 232 | 162 |