Monday, January 15, 2007



Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons


Funnily enough, I picked up this book because I was cleaning the library out of their Kaye Gibbons collection, and scooped this accidentally! Good accident. I had a jolly time reading this quick read. No relation in themes or style to Kaye Gibbons incidentally.

It's a humorous satire, poking fun at the melodramatic novels popular at the time (CCF was first published in 1932). Flora Poste, our heroine, finds herself an orphan--but despite being "athletically and lengthily educated", she has no means of making a living, and off she goes to live with some relatives in the country. She then proceeds to apply her common sense, levelheaded, omniscient, and modern approach to fixing all of the resident evils of the motley family living there.

Yes, the book is fun and quite funny, but it also made me noodle on (my boss uses this phrase, I think it's hilarious) the notion of "fixing" people's problems. I recognized myself in Flora Poste, and while I rather liked Flora, she was also incorrigible and such a busybody! However, dear friends, rest assured that I'm not sure I'm going to become less of a busybody (matchmaking, offering unsolicited advice, etc.) anytime soon...

You may remember, that this novel was a made for BBC movie, starring Kate Beckinsale (who oddly, I find annoying in real life, but fine on sceen) back in 1995. It is now on my Netflix queue as well. (Good reviews of the film too, which is lovely).

5 comments:

Wendy said...

I knew the name of this book sounded familiar (& not in a good way), but I didn't remember reading it. When you mentioned the film, I checked Netflix & I did not like the movie. If I remember correctly, I found it all very forced, especially Kate Beckinsale. I hope you like it more than I did!

Raheleh said...

I hope so too, although, I probably won't see it for ages, it's at position #125 in queue!

Unknown said...

rah keep up the good work. i especially like how you've taken the extra step to point out that this book was adapted into a movie with kate beckinsale. invaluable info, as i will now forego said book and watch kate beckinsale instead.

Pedram Keyani said...

Well well well... Mrs. Raheleh Mansoor is now a bigtime blogger with her own following :-) I like the new skin

Jake said...

This is one of the best 'jolly' reads ever. Love the way Flora's anticipation of country life is spot on. Try out I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates if you like this.