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imperfectcj's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fun, strangely futuristic read with a good number of phrases and witticisms to laugh about. One of my favorites for no discernible reason is Mrs. Beetle's non sequitur "Paws off, Pompey!" Not much substance past the fun, but I'm not complaining.
joannawnyc's review against another edition
3.0
Hilarious and perfect in its own way, though quite the cultural period piece.
eleanorryd's review against another edition
3.0
Flora Poste goes to a relative's farm to "fix" it and them. I'm not a fan of that concept. It did work out well for everyone in the end, but the chances of that being the outcome were always small. The first 7 chapters (or something) were pretty depressing so I sort of don't know what to think of this book. Why can't I give it 2,5 stars?
sandyd's review against another edition
3.0
Not as enjoyable as the first book (set 17 years earlier), but still an interesting look at England in 1949. And it was fun to see what happened to some of the characters.
Some of the dialect gave me pause. For example:
"Ay, 'twere. It did shut un up, tu. Our Ticklepenny's, look ee, be so goathling an' crow-picken, even th' Ministry won't trouble wi' un. An' Parker-Poke he did go back to Lunnon, brast un fer a bowler-hatten scowkerd!"
Some of the dialect gave me pause. For example:
"Ay, 'twere. It did shut un up, tu. Our Ticklepenny's, look ee, be so goathling an' crow-picken, even th' Ministry won't trouble wi' un. An' Parker-Poke he did go back to Lunnon, brast un fer a bowler-hatten scowkerd!"
pturnbull's review against another edition
4.0
A parody of rural romance novels set between the wars in England. It's hilarious. Well-connected Londoner Flora loses both parents and decides to live with her relatives at dirty, down-at-the-heels Cold Comfort Farm with the Starkadder family. Flora isn't as masterful as she thinks. Twice she reveals her anti-Semitism during her interior monologs. Notwithstanding this insight into time and place, the novel is laugh-out-loud genius.
metta's review against another edition
2.0
Another rare instance where I enjoyed the film (Rufus Sewell!) more than the actual book. (I'm wavering between two and three stars on this.)
hcq's review against another edition
3.0
Not bad. It reminded me of early Evelyn Waugh, in some ways; that same sort of brittle, between-the-wars British humor. Gibbons isn't as sharp as Waugh, but she's good on the casual anti-intellectualism of the upper classes. Unsurprisingly, she covers some similar ground, as when a young woman takes another in hand, as it were, to make her socially acceptable, and has to teach her to laugh when books are brought up, and to "confess that she's not brainy."
Sigh. Though of course, that last line isn't far off an Orwell one, when he complained that the upper classes in England used to "thank God that they weren't brainy."
Sigh. Though of course, that last line isn't far off an Orwell one, when he complained that the upper classes in England used to "thank God that they weren't brainy."
gerdaha's review against another edition
4.0
I was debating whether I should give this book a 3 or 4 star rating.
The reading was really easy the whole way through, but I got a tad bored in the middle section and had to convince myself to plow through.
Other than that, it was a fairly entertaining read. The beginning really gave me a P.J. Wodehouse vibe, the character of Flora was very much a Jeeves type character, except we saw the events from her perspective. She was witty and charming, and it was very easy to grow fond and attached to her.
I heard that the setting at the farm was supposed to be a parody of novels from the time that were about remote desolate farms and the odd morose characters that inhabited them, but since I haven't read any such novels, this is where the story lost me a bit. Other than Flora it was hard to like any of the other characters until the last third of the book.
All in all, it was a light, (mostly) humorous and a rather sweet read.
The reading was really easy the whole way through, but I got a tad bored in the middle section and had to convince myself to plow through.
Other than that, it was a fairly entertaining read. The beginning really gave me a P.J. Wodehouse vibe, the character of Flora was very much a Jeeves type character, except we saw the events from her perspective. She was witty and charming, and it was very easy to grow fond and attached to her.
I heard that the setting at the farm was supposed to be a parody of novels from the time that were about remote desolate farms and the odd morose characters that inhabited them, but since I haven't read any such novels, this is where the story lost me a bit. Other than Flora it was hard to like any of the other characters until the last third of the book.
All in all, it was a light, (mostly) humorous and a rather sweet read.
spoth's review against another edition
4.0
Written in the 1920s (but set in the 1940s, where everyone gets around by airplane and the terrible Anglo-Nicaraguan War is freshly remembered), this novel is a fun spoof of the dramatic, gloomy rural atmosphere of books like Wuthering Heights. It's frequently hilarious, and there are some excellent scenes and lines - it reads a bit like Jane Austen, and a bit like Wodehouse, although the author's writing isn't as good as either of these. It's best at the beginning, when the characters are in their fullest, most ominous form - but I read to the end with pleasure.