Stella GibbonsBesprekingen

I hate it when I have to admit I don't "get" a book. It makes me feel dumb. That said, I "get" what Gibbons was doing with this "comic" novel (and there are some pretty funny bits), but not having the background knowledge of or familiarity with English rural novels popular at the time, much of it went over my head. It's also an odd book in terms of being set in the "near future" (it was published in 1932) with tiny details to indicate as much, but I didn't see the point of those or of the conceit in general.

It wasn't a waste of time, exactly, but it was far from a satisfying read.

3.25 stars

A delightful witty tale (set in the "near future" when written in 1932) of the efforts of Flora Poste (poverty-stricken in a genteel sort of way) to civilize her earthy eccentric cousins, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, Sussex, where she has decided to live after her parents died leaving her a meager income of 100 pounds a year. Not only must she deal with a slew of Biblically named male cousins (whose wives stay in the village to avoid the wrath of Aunt Ada Doom), but there are the animals---a bull named Big Business, and cows called Aimless, Feckless, Pointless and Graceless, one of whom is always misplacing a hoof or a leg. Daft, altogether. I enjoyed it a lot.
Reviewed in 2009

Hilarious. This novel gives D.H.Lawrence what he deserves: advice about hygiene and a good laugh.

An odd little book. I hadn't read any Stella Gibbons previously, and came at this book with no preconceptions. I admired the writing and the manner in which Gibbons tells this story and portrays the characters. There seems to be a constant undertone of conflict (or tension) - among the characters, among the time in which the book is set, and among the various values that the author subsumes the narrative with.

A British classic written in 1944, the characters are varied and many, a series of uninvited guests invade Sunglades, the house of siblings Constance and Kenneth Fielding. (I love how the British names their houses) A friend and her son and a beautiful, young immigrant from Bariamia, who has been employed as a housekeeper are the first of many house guests that upset the peace of the household. The writing is lovely and the characters are well written, with some witty descriptions of all the characters which made me chuckle quite often. I understand The Bachelor is not as goods as Gibbons earlier novel Cold Comfort Farm; I thought this was very good so I think I’m going to love Cold Comfort Farm. Recommend….

Quirky English story. I could see how it would be made into a movie. Easy read.

Cold Comfort Farm is, as one friend described, "a wonderfully snippy takeoff of rural-England novels full of steaming middens and dripping thatches, and what happens when a plucky young heroine decides to fix things up; a bit like what might happen if Austen's Emma visited some of Thomas Hardy's characters."

That said, it's been a long time since I've been this happy to be done with a book! My friend's thoughts above sum up the book perfectly, and it's probably a great read if one is in the mood for that. Apparently, I was NOT in the mood for that this week and the book ended up being irritating. It could be, also, that the characters reminded me too much of my own rural family. Ha! Still, I'm happy to have completed one more book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. But, like several others I've read from that list, I probably could have died without reading this one.

Flora, a socialite in reduced circumstances due to the unmourned deaths of her parents, goes to live with her distant, eccentric country cousins. The family is under the thumb of domineering Aunt Ada (she who saw “something nasty in the woodshed”), who refuses to let any of her kin leave the farm. Flora, however, is determined to change the family’s circumscribed lives for the better.

All sources agree that Cold Comfort Farm is a parody of the British agrarian novel. Unfortunately, I have not read many of those, so I didn’t always get the joke. Still, this satire makes for a pleasant afternoon read while sick a-bed.

This is probably the most fantastic book I've read in months. First - Stella Gibbons!!!! Of Cold Comfort Farm fame!!!! I loved her then, and this one is even worries if such is possible.
A wonderful spoof of Sense and Sensibility, in a way, the story abounds with wistful heroines, inappropriate romances, and hounds. It's absolutely hilarious and everyone should read it. It made me laugh out loud on a crowded plane carrying a chihuahua that barked incessantly, and that's saying something.

Sometimes laugh out loud funny other times smile funny or clever funny. The contrast of writing styles and dialogue between the ridiculous melodramatic ~the farm wreathed in shadows~ or ~the web of sorrows that traps me~ and Flora's no nonsense style is pretty fun and sometimes pretty funny. I imagine I'm missing a lot of humour because of my ignorance of the style it's riffing on and the culture/times of the 30s etc but it's decently funny anyway. The last 4th gets pretty absurd in a good way. There's a couple of oblique suicide jokes and a couple of the endings given to people are maybe not idyllic but it doesn't feel mean or unpleasant or anything. Things are generally played pretty lightheartedly. And the whole portrayal of Flora's London is played for laughs too. I dunno it's good. Also Wikipedia claims it's set in the future which explains why there's a few weird out of place things that confused me (eg there's a videophone at one point!)

Also although there's no gay relationships in the novel one character is notably homophobic but given he's presented as quite unpleasant and also a kind of gross pervert I quite liked it

A little disappointed we never find out what happened to Aunt Ada Doom when she was 2 or what supposedly happened to Flora's father - like they're plot devices and everything it's just specifically brought up at the end and we're told Flora never found out so neither do we. Maybe there's a point I'm missing? Maybe she just couldn't think of anything funny enough for them I guess

This book made me laugh out loud while I was reading it in a cafe, so 4 stars for that. I loved how it reminded me of Wuthering Heights and thoroughly poked fun at the entire genre.
My inner raging feminist had some trouble with the 'taming' of Elfine, but in general, a great weird awkward funny irreverent book.

A Funny Book, but not A Really Funny Book. If I had read a single rural novel of Mary Webb—a genre and author unknown to me—perhaps I too would have found Cold Comfort Farm laugh out loud funny, as the author of my copy's introduction does.

Flora Poste is a precocious nineteen-year-old socialite who, upon the death of both parents, retires to the country to live with her distant relatives, the Starkadders on their farm near Howling, primarily due to her near pennilessness. Flora begins a battle between the city and the country, overcoming such characters as Aunt Ada Doom, the family matriarch who seems incapable of speech beyond "I saw something in the woodshed" and "There have always been Starkadders on Cold Comfort;" Elfine, an unsupervised free spirit a mere two years younger than Flora who is besotted with a local dandy; Urk, Elfine's 40+ year-old cousin who has intended to marry her since her birth; and Amos, the judgmental Starkadder patriarch whose main interest in life is condemning all his fellow man to eternal damnation. Over the course of her six months at Cold Comfort, Flora arranges marriages and converts the novel's most loathsome characters into blissful creatures through the magic of her charm. Those personalities she cannot overcome she convinces to relocate elsewhere in search of their own happiness, leaving Cold Comfort a better place for those remaining.

An odd book full of odd people which lives up to its author's stated intention to "write as though [she] were not quite sure what [she] meant to say but was jolly well going to say something...in sentences as long as possible."½

I do not usually like satire as I generally find it mean-spirited, and I have to confess I was a little worried about this book when I started reading it. But oh my Lord what a wonderful book. It is extremely well written and both in your face and subtle at the same time and it’s so funny. I’m glad I have finally read this. I saw the movie 1000 years ago and I seem to remember being of two minds about it. But I am only of one mind about the book. Well, no that’s not true. There are places where I go oh God no, she’s going too far here. But those doubts get swept away by the tide of enjoyment that follows.

Our protagonist, nineteen-year-old orphan Flora Poste, finds herself left with a meager annual income after her father’s death. Flora, “discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living”, chooses to approach her relations with a request to live with them in return for her annual income.

“When I have found a relative who is willing to have me, I shall take him or her in hand, and alter his or her character and mode of living to suit my own taste”.

Though quite a few of her relations respond to her request, she ultimately decides to live with her eccentric aunt and equally eccentric cousins and extended family, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm in rural Sussex. Her relations refuse to accept her money on account of a “wrong” that had been committed against her father years ago ( she is mostly addressed as Robert Poste's child instead of her given name). This is a matter of concern for her. (“For, if she lived at Cold Comfort as a guest, it would be unpardonable impertinence were she to interfere with the family’s mode of living; but if she were paying her way, she could interfere as much as she pleased.)

The head of the family, Flora’s seventy-nine-year-old Great Aunt Ada Doom rules the household despite not leaving her room except for a few days in the year, to hold a “counting” as Flora’s cousin Elfine explains, ‘’Tes the record of th’ family that Grandmother holds ivery year. See – we’m violent folk, we Starkadders. Some on us pushes others down wells. Some on us dies in childer-birth. There’s others as die o’ drink or goes mad. There’s a whole heap on us, too. ’Tes difficult to keep count on us. So once a year Grandmother she holds a gatherin’, called the Counting, and she counts us all, to see how many on us ’as died in th’ year.”

Fond of Victorian novels (“They were the only kind of novel you could read while you were eating an apple.”), Flora observes her relations as people whose situations can be improved and she relies on her “common sense” ( with her copy of "The Higher Common Sense" as reference) to proceed to exact change in the lives of her cousins to save them from a life of doom and gloom. Aunt Ada constantly refers to having witnessed something "nasty in the woodshed” when she was a child and insists on keeping tabs on her family, holding them to living on the farm (“there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort”). As the narrative progresses, we see what begins with Flora making small changes in the daily lives at the Farm slowly evolves into a full-scale overhaul of the way of life for those at Cold Comfort Farm.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, originally published in 1932, is a light-hearted, humorous and heartwarming novel that stands the test of time. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy reading the classics and wouldn’t mind a story that is crafted with elements from more serious novels, with characters and settings reminiscent of those from the works of authors such as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Thomas Hardy to name a few, but with a comic (read satirical) twist. This edition is a welcome addition to my personal collection. Roz Chast’s cover art is phenomenal and perfectly captures the characters in all their absurdity. I combined my reading with the exceptional audio narration by Pearl Mackie which made for a very entertaining experience. With an engaging narrative, a good dose of humor with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and a cast of interesting (to say the least) characters, this book is a joy to read (and/or listen to).

Flora Poste y los artistas
Stella Gibbons
Publicado: 1949 | 162 páginas
Novela Humor Sátira
Serie: Flora Poste #2 /sAFobIM49_G4

Dieciséis años después de haber puesto el pie por última vez en el pintoresco pueblo de Howling, Flora Poste, la díscola y encantadora protagonista de La hija de Robert Poste, vuelve a la carga para socorrer a los atribulados Starkadder, propietarios de la granja de Cold Comfort. La finca ha sido rehabilitada como un museo decorado en falso estilo rústico inglés, y se convierte en el lugar de celebración de una conferencia del Grupo de Expertos Internacionales, entre los que se cuentan inefables pintores, escultores insufribles, excéntricos sabios orientales, y toda una plétora de intelectuales fastidiosos cuya máxima obsesión es dejar pasmados a los lugareños.

Just sort of wonderful. I really loved this book.

Laugh-out-loud funny at times; very insular, and knowledge of Victorian and Edwardian history and politics is required to get some of the inside jokes Gibbons maps on to very caricature-esque characters. Some of the chapters dragged on and I felt this would have worked better as a short story or novella. The implicit analysis of class relations was done well, and I liked how Gibbons shows her debt to literary predecessors like Austen and Dickens while still firmly rooted in 1930s England.

Stella Gibbons wrote some 26 novels altogether, but none were as successful as Cold Comfort Farm. Gibbons has a clear personal style, which can be recognized throughout her novels. Her work is of high quality, arguably higher than many authors during the same period. Cold Comfort Farm stands out among her novels, but not because it is qualitatively some much better. What most readers will remember about the novel is its irony. Cold Comfort Farm is a parody of older literature, and it is hilariously funny. In her subsequent novels, Gibbons could never achieve the same. It probably couldn't be done, the novel was a one-time hit. Even in Conference at Cold Comfort Farm which is a kind of "Cold Comfort Farm Revisited" she could not pull it off. Thus, Cold Comfort Farm remains a lonely peak among Stella Gibbons 26 novels.

However, the same type of irony or sarcasm is found in her other novels, although it works more subtly. Another difference is that there isn't much to ponder about Cold Comfort Farm, whereas her other novels need some digestion, and improve on rumination.

The charmers is one of her later novels. It was published in 1965. It is a gloomy novel, only brightened up by Gibbons irony. It breathes the heavy, gloomy atmosphere of the late 50s to early 60s. The charmers is foremostly a novel about class.

Aged 53, an old spinster, Christine Smith, fired from her office job, takes up a position as a housekeeper in a community of older artists, mostly people of around her same age. She moves in with them to run the household. It doesn't take long to get laid off, and not because she wounldn't do. The whole affair is an eye-opener for Christene. The people she looked up to turn out to be petty, while she now sees the people of old in a different light.

The story is enjoyable and funny because of the strain of irony that runs through all of it, but the story is uneventful, and I had to reread large parts thinking I had missed out on parts.

Loved this book so much! Hilarious and touching.

Rather funny satirical novel turning the tables on a gothic countryside epic. A truly messed up bunch of people. Fortunately Flora Poste comes along with her trusty guidebook, "The Higher Common Sense," and begins work to set everyone to rights.

I gave this one a 3 because it is well-written. Unfortunately, I did not like the premise of the book - which is a parody and explains that. A single young woman goes to live with her country relatives on a mission to fix them. I really did find it condescending, which I do believe is exactly what the author intended. It just made me uncomfortable.

The Snow-Woman was my latest venture into the works of Stella Gibbons. While I have not found another book of hers yet, that matches my enjoyment of Cold Comfort Farm or Starlight, I generally enjoy Gibbons’ books and do think they are underrated.

The Snow-Woman was delightful, though not riveting, which is what made out most of my rating. I was delighted that there is no romance element in the story, but that there is whole lot about the crumbling of preconceptions and biases, and that in its own little way this book was, as it turned out, a fair substitution for reading A Christmas Carol at this time of year.

Now, the story is neither set at Christmas nor does it involve any sort of traditional Christmas message, but the overall sentiments seem to be the same as we watch the story unfold and wait to to see if the Snow-Woman will melt in the end.

One of the twists in the story was a bit predictable, but there were still plenty of plot developments that kept me reading. Oh, and I might be in the minority, but I loved our protagonist, 70-year-old Maude Barrington, right from the start.

What an utter delight.
I did most of this on audio, and the reader, Anna Massey, was fantastic.
When I started this book, I laughed so much I ordered a print copy from the library so I could read it out loud to my husband too. Now, having finished it, I believe this is one I'll need to buy and keep handy for emergencies.
Gibbons brings to mind the qualities of many of my favorites: the linguistic gymnastics of Wodehouse and the witty social commentary of Wilde and Austen. This has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got to it.
But I'm disappointed I never found out what was in the woodshed!

Wonderful funny book how a fashionable young woman orphan lives with her dreary cousins and manages to change their lives.

Nell's own temperament, with its roots in the liberal tradition [...] had combined with the shortage of labour and the decay of the class-system in England to produce a situation too complex for the privileged children of the new proletariat to grasp, and they felt only an uncomfortable mingling of embarrassment, superiority and mockery. (p. 165)

This paragraph is the nub of Here Be Dragons. First published in post war Britain in 1956, it's a mid-career novel by the English author Stella Gibbons (1902-1989). Wikipedia tells me that Gibbons never repeated the success of her comic novel Cold Comfort Farm, (see my review) and I've read a couple of disappointed reviews of this one reissued by Vintage in 2011, but I like it better than Cold Comfort Farm. I think its depiction of the tectonic changes in postwar English society is horribly, brilliantly perceptive.

And I am always interested in reading about the society my parents chose to leave when we set off for warmer climes. (Plus, there's a passage about the London fog that nearly killed my mother that is chilling to read, if a reader knows that it killed thousands of people.)

Here Be Dragons is an allusion to the dangerous and unexplored regions of the uncharted areas of medieval maps, and the novel explores uncharted territory in the brave new world of postwar Britain. The imperial map of the globe was starting to decolonise, and there were massive shifts in British demographics along with the pain of postwar austerity which contributed to an exodus of people who could leave for economies in better shape. Stella Gibbons nails this upheaval through the character of Nell, who is whisked out of her dull life in Dorset when the Church ejects her father Martin from his living because he has lost his faith. Penniless, the family moves into a grace-and-favour flat lent by Aunt Peggy, and since neither Martin nor his stalwart wife Anna have ever had a job, it falls to Nell to support them. Aunt Peggy, who has a new career as a 'personality' at the BBC, steamrollers Nell into a dreary job in an office. For Nell's parents the idea of 'work' for someone of their class is anathema, but they agree to Nell's badly paid and boring employment because they have no choice, and it is, at least, 'respectable'.

Gibbons doesn't labour the point, but the ensuing years have demonstrated the cruelty of churches to their errant clergy. After years of unpaid labour, they are cast out of their communities with no money, no job, no home, no provision for their old age and no fitness for other kinds of employment. Remember Margaret Hale's father in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1854) and the upheaval caused by his dispute with the church, and how Gaskell used it to expose the schism between new 19th century industrial wealth and old money?

Nell's demoralised parents do not know, of course, how awful her office work is. She is stifled there not just by the smoke-filled room but by her employer's patronising, gendered and anachronistic assumptions. Nell is smart, hardworking and blessed with untapped initiative, but she has no future at Akkro Products until some other hapless woman who is trapped there leaves to marry. Women's work and the labour of the working classes, which was essential to the wartime economy and materiel production, has resumed its prewar limitations, as if nothing had changed. But it has. People of Aunt Peggy's class can't find staff willing to work under the oppressive conditions of domestic service. Nell isn't willing to work for a pittance either. Not for long. She gets herself a much better paid job in a tea-room, and before long has savings to put towards opening a tea-room of her own!

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/21/here-be-dragons-by-stella-gibbons/