cold comfort farm
Friday, 28 March 2008
Title :: Cold Comfort FarmAuthor :: Stella Gibbons
Completed :: Mar 13 2008
Challenges :: 888 Challenge : 1001 Books
Rating :: 4/5
This is not a cold book - it is absolutely warm, witty and full of charm. It is a Austen, Waugh and Wodehouse latté! What would you do if your parents passed away leaving you £100 a year (keeping in mind that this was a sufficient fund) and you had absolutely no desire to work? Why you spend a few days in London living it up with your good friend, shopping, theatre-going, dining with attractive men. But then it hits you that although you could care less for employment you do desire to do something good and surely your many relatives in the country are infested with problems that need solving. So you pull out your prettiest stationary and you begin to write to those relatives relaying your sad news and requesting a place to stay. Letters go out to every corner of the country with responses that leave you feeling dull and utterly bored until you open the letter addressed from Cold Comfort Farm...
The beautiful Flora packs her trunk and takes with her a valuable copy of The Higher Common Sense, an essential volume which she hopes will aid her in her stay at Aunt Ada Doom's farm. Judith Starkadder, Flora's cousin and acting matron of the farm responded to Flora's letter saying if she must come then she must come since she owes it to her for what was done to Flora's father (a mystery that is never cleared up in the novel as far as I know). Flora immediately sets to the task of solving the problems of the entire farm, of which there are many. From introducing the maid to the idea of contraception, to making over Elfine so that she can marry her true love, to freeing Judith from her obsession with her son Seth via a physchoanalyst. As people begin to leave the farm to follow their destiny Aunt Ada Doom goes into hysterics, declaring that she saw something in the barn over and over (something which darnit is never explained). Armed with copies of Vogue Flora introduces Aunt Ada Doom to the 20th century and sets her loose into the world, specifically Paris.
The whole book is a riot, I love stories where the main character enters a situation where they try to change and solve everything to the betterment of those involved. The names of the farm cows are also a hoot, Aimless, Feckless, Pointless and Graceless and we musn't forget the bull, Big Business! Absolutely delightful! And I'm so pleased to learn that there is a collection of short stories that act as a sort of prequel titled Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm and a sequel titled Conference at Cold Comfort Farm. I must try to track those down because I have high hopes that they are just as funny as this novel.
Other Thoughts ::
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. listening . 155 . +44 . when your heart stops beating .
Labels: book review
posted by Ashleigh @ 16:39,
