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: QUIRKY, BRILLIANT, AND HILARIOUS PARODY...
Summary: 5 Stars
Published in 1932, this novel is a hysterically funny, tongue in cheek parody of the heavy handed, gloomy novels of some early twentieth century English writers who had previously been so popular. Tremendously successful when first published, "Cold Comfort Farm" caused quite a stir in its time. The novel starts out innocuosly enough, when well educated Flora Poste finds herself orphaned at the age of twenty. Discovering that her father was not the wealthy man she believed him to be, she is resigned to the fate of having to live on a hundred pounds a year. Opting to live with relatives, rather than earn her bread, she seeks out a most unlikely set of relations, the odd Starkadder family who live in Howling, Sussex.
Therein begins what is certainly one of the funniest novels ever written. When Flora arrives in Howling, she meets her odd relatives, who live in neglected, ramshackle "Cold Comfort Farm", where they still wash the dishes with twigs, and have cows named Graceless, Pointless, Feckless, and Aimless. Headed by a seventy nine year old matriarch, Flora's aunt, Ada Doom Starkadder, who has not been right in the head since she "saw something nasty happen in the woodshed" nearly seventy years ago, they are a motley and strange crew indeed. Confronted with their dismal and gloomy existence, Flora sets about trying to put things to right.
Peppered with eccentric, memorable characters, this book will take the reader on a journey not easily forgotten. It is one that is sure to make the reader revisit this novel yet again, like an old friend who is missed too soon.
Book Review: READ THIS BOOK!
Summary: 5 Stars
Watching the movie is not enough. This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. Gibbons is charmingly witty and clever. If you enjoy Austen and Victoriana, you will love this book.Book Review: Silly
Summary: 2 Stars
I found this book was written like a comedy but because it only made me laugh once it was just silly. Comedy is one of those itchy things that you either get it, and love it or you don't. I didn't. I found the dialect frustrating: It was supposed to be set in Kent but the dialect read more like northern England, you have to read it slower to work out what is being said and in doing so you lose your attention slightly which takes the edge off the humour to the extent that you're not even aware that humour is present. At least that's what it was like for me. Whatever the nasty thing in the cowshed was isn't explained in the end but you're left feeling that there is a hint of bestiality that didn't really suit the book, being or trying to be a comedy, hence the lack of explanation. I've given it two stars because when Gibbons takes a step back and looks at the overall picture she has a great way of describing scenes.Book Review: Spoof
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always liked a book where the protagonist "fixes everything" and this story fell into that category.. In Flora, Stella Gibbons' has spoofed such a delightful character. Even tho dated as to the parodies of "intelectuals" etc. I found it a very good read.Book Review: Very cold comfort
Summary: 4 Stars
"There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm."
That rather ominous announcement sets the tone for "Cold Comfort Tale," a slyly comic tale about a modern young woman who decides to "tidy up" a backward Sussex farm. Gibbons' deft sense of humour and entertaining characters bring alive what could have been just another coming-of-age novel.
Young Flora Poste unexpectedly finds herself orphaned, with only a tiny yearly allowance. But instead of getting a job and apartment, she decides to go live with relatives, so she can get life experience, tidy up, and make life nice and orderly. After a few vetos, Flora decides to go to Cold Comfort Farm, a "doomed house" whose inhabitants feel they owe a debt to her.
When she arrives, she finds a clan of inbred Sussex hillbillies, including her grimly religious uncle, depressed aunt, "highly sexed" cousins, a very fertile farm girl, and the crazed matriarch, Aunt Ada Doom, who "saw something nasty in the woodshed." Even worse, a pompous writer is infatuated with her. But Flora is determined to make things orderly, and so she begins changing Cold Comfort Farm...
It takes a really good writer to straddle the line between spoofery and a serious book. Stella Gibbons was one such writer, and like Anita Loos, she was happy to eye everything humorously: the idle wealthy (Mary Smiling and her bra collection), people who live in squalor and hate it, but aren't willing to change (the Farm inhabitants), and even intellectuals ("Do you believe women have souls?"). Even the livestock gets funny names like Feckless, Graceless and Arsenic.
For the most part, "Cold Comfort Farm" does seem orderly and tidy -- Flora drags it into the 20th century, sends people off to better lives, and arranges marriages, including one for her fey cousin to a young aristocrat. The only flaw is the ending: Gibbons never tells us what Flora's "rights" are, what Aunt Ada saw, or what happened with Flora's dad.
At first, Flora comes across as rather manipulative and shallow. The odd thing is, as the book progresses, we see that Flora's liking for tidiness is essentially good-hearted. Like one of Jane Austen's heroines, she does these things not just for herself, but for their sakes as well -- she wants a "happily-ever-after" for everybody, including the mad matriarch, her womanizing cousin, and fire-and-brimstone uncle.
While the ending of the book is not as tidy and orderly as I'd hoped, "Cold Comfort Farm" is still an entertainingly wry novel -- call it a comedy of improving manners.