Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The narrator reflects on a narrative filled with profound sorrow and tragedy.
In plain terms
This story causes more sadness than any other the speaker has encountered.
What can you take from it?
Some narratives deeply move us through their portrayal of human suffering.

Where it applies

  • reading fiction
  • listening to tales
  • reviewing past events

Putting it to work

  • writing memoirs
  • analyzing literature
  • discussing impact

Questions to consider

  • What makes a story truly sad?
  • How does personal history shape your reaction?

Another view

The statement is subjective and depends on the listener's own experiences.

More from Ford Madox Ford

  1. For the judging of contemporary literature the only test is one's personal taste. If you much like a new book, you must call it literature even though you find…

    Permalink to quote #5
  2. You may well ask why I write. And yet my reasons are quite many. For it is not unusual in human beings who have witnessed the sack of a city or the falling to …

    Permalink to quote #7
  3. No author, I think, is deserving of much censure for vanity if, taking down one of his ten-year-old books, he exclaims: 'Great heavens, did I write as well as …

    Permalink to quote #4

Related quotes

  1. In the course of reading he became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorro…

    Nikolai Vasilievich GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol quote #2
  2. I want the reader to feel something is astonishing. Not the 'what happens,' but the way everything happens. These long short story fictions do that best, for m…

    Alice MunroAlice Munro quote #4
  3. Reader, I married him.

    Charlotte BronteCharlotte Bronte quote #36