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A review by laura1564
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
1.0
As other reviewers have noted, this is a collection of short stories. Only the first two are about Christmas, and only one of these is set in the world of Cold Comfort Farm. These first stories are the best of the book. The others are unbearably dated and not terribly well written.
I picked this book up because I am a fan of Stella Gibbon’s comic classic, Cold Comfort Farm, and was disappointed to find nearly all these stories lacking the humor and the underlying theme of hope persevering and ultimately triumphing even in the absurdly dysfunction world of the Starkadders. The most disappointing part of these stories is that they are relentlessly bogged down by dated moralizing. There are, here and there some amusing characters sketched, some satiric wit, a little glimpse of the sparkle her most famous book glimmers with, but most of these stories range from dull to downright depressing. All of them focus on women in their 30’s and 40’s, and most of them are frustrating in the way they open up ideas about independent women, and a desire to be recognized as fully equal human beings, but then quash these notions with cautionary tales about sad spinsters, “bad girls”, and “careerists” who should be careful not to put their success before their man. The stories are slightly interesting if read as historical documents of 1930’s culture depicting the “bright young things” of the 20’s who are now feeling middle aged and considerably dimmer. Read for entertainment, they grated on me.
A few things that appear in these stories that I am grateful we have at least made some progress in changing over the last 80 years or so:
-the constant reference to women in their late 30’s to early 40’s as “old women”
-the countless women characters judged for being “bad” and “wicked” because they have sex outside of marriage
-the fact that, in one story, a man is said to be “kind” because he allows his ex-wife to see their children in his home periodically (here’s to modern joint custody agreements)
-the fact that this same story ends by celebrating this ex-wife being cut out of her children’s lives altogether save for once a year when she can meet them at a hotel (she has, after all, been one of the wicked women)
-the denouement of one story when a husband slaps his wife in the face and she not only says she deserves it, but is thrilled to finally be put in her place and says he should have done so years ago
What is interesting is that it is clear that, despite the exceedingly conventional bounds to her tales, Gibbons at the same time is courting ideas about women’s liberation and does at times seem interested in introducing potentially controversial topics related to gender. Over and over it felt as though she was, at first, satirizing the mores of the more conventional “set”, only to then come down with quite earnest and heavy handed defenses of the most conventional possible values. At times, for example she seems to be bringing up extreme examples of social judgement as a commentary on narrow mindedness, as in the ending to one story, in which a woman is shamed out of her town after it comes out that she was with a man 20 years ago before he went off and was killed in WWI, despite the fact she has been pure and chaste ever since. Yet it’s hard to escape the feeling that she really does disapprove of “loose” moral behavior, that she states un ironic judgement of women’s sexual behavior more than once in these stories, and doesn’t really stand on the side of the unconventional woman despite an interest in her.
This seems to be a result of someone who embraced progressive ideas in a youth spent in the roaring 20’s, but then closed herself off to progress as she entered middle age in the 30’s and 40’s. This is certainly a theme across most of the stories. Character after character reflects on the social boundaries he or she opened up in their 20’s youth, but then embraces the conventional life (or is either judged for or suffers for not doing so) in her 30’s or 40’s. While it would be fine to address themes of moving into a new stage of life, the feeling in many of these stories is one of moving from a time of youthful exuberance into a state of being an “old” person stuck in either a sad and lonely existence or tied to the duties of marriage and children. In either case the joy of the woman as an individual is erased and life seems strangely unfulfilling. The exceptions to this rule are the first, and last stories, which offer some hope for change and happiness in life, even after the first bloom of youth. Otherwise, it is a somewhat sad turn to read many of these gloomy mid life crises pronouncements from the same pen who gave Ada Doom such a glorious new lease on life in Cold Comfort Farm.
I picked this book up because I am a fan of Stella Gibbon’s comic classic, Cold Comfort Farm, and was disappointed to find nearly all these stories lacking the humor and the underlying theme of hope persevering and ultimately triumphing even in the absurdly dysfunction world of the Starkadders. The most disappointing part of these stories is that they are relentlessly bogged down by dated moralizing. There are, here and there some amusing characters sketched, some satiric wit, a little glimpse of the sparkle her most famous book glimmers with, but most of these stories range from dull to downright depressing. All of them focus on women in their 30’s and 40’s, and most of them are frustrating in the way they open up ideas about independent women, and a desire to be recognized as fully equal human beings, but then quash these notions with cautionary tales about sad spinsters, “bad girls”, and “careerists” who should be careful not to put their success before their man. The stories are slightly interesting if read as historical documents of 1930’s culture depicting the “bright young things” of the 20’s who are now feeling middle aged and considerably dimmer. Read for entertainment, they grated on me.
A few things that appear in these stories that I am grateful we have at least made some progress in changing over the last 80 years or so:
-the constant reference to women in their late 30’s to early 40’s as “old women”
-the countless women characters judged for being “bad” and “wicked” because they have sex outside of marriage
-the fact that, in one story, a man is said to be “kind” because he allows his ex-wife to see their children in his home periodically (here’s to modern joint custody agreements)
-the fact that this same story ends by celebrating this ex-wife being cut out of her children’s lives altogether save for once a year when she can meet them at a hotel (she has, after all, been one of the wicked women)
-the denouement of one story when a husband slaps his wife in the face and she not only says she deserves it, but is thrilled to finally be put in her place and says he should have done so years ago
What is interesting is that it is clear that, despite the exceedingly conventional bounds to her tales, Gibbons at the same time is courting ideas about women’s liberation and does at times seem interested in introducing potentially controversial topics related to gender. Over and over it felt as though she was, at first, satirizing the mores of the more conventional “set”, only to then come down with quite earnest and heavy handed defenses of the most conventional possible values. At times, for example she seems to be bringing up extreme examples of social judgement as a commentary on narrow mindedness, as in the ending to one story, in which a woman is shamed out of her town after it comes out that she was with a man 20 years ago before he went off and was killed in WWI, despite the fact she has been pure and chaste ever since. Yet it’s hard to escape the feeling that she really does disapprove of “loose” moral behavior, that she states un ironic judgement of women’s sexual behavior more than once in these stories, and doesn’t really stand on the side of the unconventional woman despite an interest in her.
This seems to be a result of someone who embraced progressive ideas in a youth spent in the roaring 20’s, but then closed herself off to progress as she entered middle age in the 30’s and 40’s. This is certainly a theme across most of the stories. Character after character reflects on the social boundaries he or she opened up in their 20’s youth, but then embraces the conventional life (or is either judged for or suffers for not doing so) in her 30’s or 40’s. While it would be fine to address themes of moving into a new stage of life, the feeling in many of these stories is one of moving from a time of youthful exuberance into a state of being an “old” person stuck in either a sad and lonely existence or tied to the duties of marriage and children. In either case the joy of the woman as an individual is erased and life seems strangely unfulfilling. The exceptions to this rule are the first, and last stories, which offer some hope for change and happiness in life, even after the first bloom of youth. Otherwise, it is a somewhat sad turn to read many of these gloomy mid life crises pronouncements from the same pen who gave Ada Doom such a glorious new lease on life in Cold Comfort Farm.