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Liked It5 of 5 members found this review helpful “I read this book first at school – I loved it then and I love it now! |
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“Made me chuckle quite a lot! ”
sid_rw wrote this review 19 hours ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Absolutely hysterical!”
Kim B wrote this review yesterday. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Flora Poste has been recently orphaned, both her parents dieing within weeks of each other. Her father leaves behind for her only a pittance which will make it difficult for her to live on her own. Much to the horror of her friend Mrs. Smiley, Flora devises and executes a plan to beg her relations to give her a home. Amazingly they all agree and she has the pick of the litter Strangely she settles on the horrifying Cold Comfort Farm in out of the way Sussex to live with her Aunt Ada Doom, her mother's sister, whom Flora has never met. When she arrives she finds a sad, dismal home and family and endevors to "tidy things up."
Sara W wrote this review yesterday. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Cold Comfort Farm is a very drool send-up of the rural genre which was so popular in England between the wars. She managed to mock every aspect of those novels with such a light-touch that unless you were quite the fan of that type of novel you might mistake it for one. I enjoyed it quite bit and suspect that this is the type of novel that only gets funnier with each read. I'm not usually one to reread a book, but I can definitely picture myself making an exception for Cold Comfort Farm. It is a shame that none of her other 23 novels are still in print, for I would love to have a chance to read more of Gibbons work. ”
“The movie is actually fantastic as well!”
Nicole J wrote this review yesterday. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“funny spoof on English country living. It's a good break from some more serious reads”
Dianne C wrote this review 11 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“better 2nd time round”
Jan B wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A deeply subversive book - oh, go ahead and laugh but it's one of the best self-help books I've ever read. I too follow "The Higher Common Sense".
Kae10 wrote this review Tuesday, October 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
For a taste of the type of rural-gothic novels Stella Gibbons was satirizing, read "Precious Bane" by Mary Webb.”“Freaking hillarious! ”
katrina b wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“What an odd book this is! The reviews all say it's hysterically funny.... can't say I thought so. However, I also found out that this edition is not the original text. It's a simplified version made for American audiences (who are what? to stupid to understand the original text? come on). Nowhere does the book inform you of this - I found out from the reviews on Amazon. This really bothers me. Perhaps Stella Gibbons original book is terribly funny, but I read this rip-off version, so I don't know.
CMeyrink wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Amazon review:
In Gibbons's classic tale, a resourceful young heroine finds herself in the gloomy, overwrought world of a Hardy or Bronte novel and proceeds to organize everyone out of their romantic tragedies into the pleasures of normal life. Flora Poste, orphaned at 19, chooses to live with relatives at Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex, where cows are named Feckless, Aimless, Pointless, and Graceless, and the proprietors, the dour Starkadder family, are tyrannized by Flora's mysterious aunt, who controls the household from a locked room. Flora's confident and clever management of an alarming cast of eccentrics is only half the pleasure of this novel. The other half is Gibbons's wicked sendup of romantic cliches, from the mad woman in the attic to the druidical peasants with their West Country accents and mystical herbs.”
“Mary B said: 5 stars
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Wednesday, September 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This book was squeal-worthy. It's part of this odd sub-genre that I'm completely in love of with light satire and kooky characters in a small town. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was a great intersection of Emma and Anne of Green Gables. Flora is a 20-year-old, well-educted but unlived girl, who sees life as a novel and immediately categorizes people and places as how they would be in a novel. With some money but not many options for living arrangements, she moves in with distant and unknown relations living on a farm in Sussex. Immediately, she decides to make projects of all of them and improve their lives. She means well and isn't entirely off the mark. Still her observations are quite funny.
I'm surprised this very funny book doesn't have more readers on Shelfari - under 1000. To anyone who has read it... funniest moment? I would have to vote the goat, but the cows are up there. Oooh and the bit on the Brontes! Also would like to add that I agree that Victorian novels are the only things one can eat while eating an apple.
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