Cold Comfort Farm (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) by Stella Gibbons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cold Comfort Farm (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Book Review: A funny book
Summary: 5 Stars
When I read Precious Bane, by Mary Webb, I heard that Cold Comfort Farm was a delicious spoof of it. Precious Bane is all dark and sober and dreary, as it tells of rural English life. Cold Comfort Farm, first published in 1932, is grotesque and airy and ends unbelievably happily. Flora, with a hundred pounds a year, goes to Cold Comfort Farm to visit her very odd relatives. She at once takes it upon herself to transform the people there. I laughed so much--it is really funny, especially the first half.Book Review: A wicked satire and a wonderful book in its own right
Summary: 4 Stars
'Cold Comfort Farm' should be appended to copies of 'Wuthering Heights' as an antidote for the kind of teenage girl who becomes all moony after reading about Heathcliff (having been one myself, I feel qualified to give this advice). 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' are wonderful and essential reading, but to read a book that so wickedly deflates their melodrama is a delight. Flora Poste is a joy, and the characterisation of her ridiculous relatives is spot-on. Read 'Cold Comfort Farm', it is a pleasure.Book Review: An absolute joy
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw the movie twice; for some reason I left the book sitting on my shelf for almost a year before I picked it up. What a mistake! Get this book! It is a delight to read, Ms. Gibbons has a true gift. It's all too rare that I come across a book that I enjoy as much as I did this one.Book Review: Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a must for anyone who grew up immersed in "Rebecca" and "Wuthering Heights", but has since moved on. It captures the genre dead-on and sets it on its edge, and never drags. The suitor who has the true authorship of the Bronte sisters' works all figured out is not to be missed--gee, if I'd read this book in time, I could have used that in some of my college papers!Book Review: Brilliantly hilarious classic - a must for Austen lovers!
Summary: 5 Stars
Newly-orphaned Flora Poste decides that the hundred pounds per annum left to her by her parents will simply not do. Disregarding her friend Mrs. Smiling's advice that she find employment, Flora seeks out her only relatives to support her. Choosing the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm in Howling, Sussex, Flora sets about making life comfortable and orderly for her bizarre cousins.Setting the action slightly in the future, Stella Gibbons creates a hilariously surreal world pulled straight from Gothic-style novels of the early 1900's where descriptions of the country were prolix, decadent, and elaborate (she precedes those sections with ***). The dark and melodramatic and stereotypical are given much the same treatment Jane Austen gave the original Gothic novels in Northanger Abbey. In general, Gibbons seems to model herself after Austen just as Flora models herself after her favorite books. Flora is reminiscent of Emma Woodhouse (of Austen's Emma), trying to make everyone's life more perfect. Except in Flora's case, it works beautifully.
Flora is a cheeky, but dignified character - everything she predicts happens exactly as she says, no matter how wildly preposterous the situation may be. As she begins to straighten out the chaos of Cold Comfort by allowing each member fulfill their dreams - of course, only in proper channels and as neatly as possible - she in effect takes over the family. The last obstacle is Aunt Ada Doom, a woman every inch as formidable as, well, Flora herself.
Each of the thoroughly memorable characters are totally unique - I dare you to find any more eccentric and still lovable - with Dickensian names, but not the baggage. This is a book that didn't make me smile or chuckle, but positively laugh with glee. It's clever, witty, sly, and extremely satisfying.