Ball at Sceaux-Honoré de Balzac

First published in 1915, The Good Soldier might be characterised as a melodrama of English upper class infidelities, cut into little pieces, then retold out of sequence by a narrator who occasionally appears to be half asleep. That is not wholly wrong, yet many have seen in this novel's beguiling voice, innovative narrative technique, and acute depiction of erotic repression a literary masterpiece. In 2015, the BBC ranked The Good Soldier 13th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. (Summary by Peter Dann)