Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Classics)

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I noticed another freakish note, this time in 'In Memory of Ernst Toller'. In that poem, written in May 1939, after Toller, whom Auden knew fairly well, had hanged himself in a New York hotel, Auden ponders the possible reasons for Toller's suicide. He wonders whether some early trauma was the ultimate cause: 'Did the small child see something horrid in the woodshed | Long ago?' By contrast, which is often illuminating, I have used the construction as follows: it is less important to know how you got into this situation – your illness – than how you can get out of it. Rather than concentrating on a distant origin, which could never be proved, you need to think where you are now and how you can move forward. This simple view has often come as a revelation to those who have ruminated about what they did or what had happened to them. Flora was asked what work she will do] "When I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion, but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material.' No one can object to that." From its opening line – “The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged” – to Aunt Ada’s celebrated recollection of “something nasty in the woodshed”, Cold Comfort Farm has the air of a novel written, as it were, in one joyous exhalation, according to Gibbons, somewhere between Lyons Corner House and Boulogne-sur-Mer during the year spanning 1931/32. And so upon this menagerie of freaks, Flora Poste who is their blood relative arrives for a prolonged visit. Nothing seems to phase her, nothing gets her down, and we’ll see what magic she can work to get that farm and its inhabitants in better shape.

Mr. Mybug to Flora. She is not taken with his opinions on sexuality or attempts to "prove" that the Brontes' novels were written by their brother.Essentially this is the American tv series, the Hillbillies rewritten for 1930s Sussex and parodying Hardy, Lawrence, and various other Great British Writers, but is more related to the Hillbillies with incest, hellfire, strange obsessions (cows) and all manner of people who all have mental or emotional problems of the darker, more malign sort.

Like so much British television of the time, "Cold Comfort Farm" was videotaped in long takes, and apparently with insufficient rehearsal. The cast speaks over each other, like a bad Robert Altman movie. The production values are pretty grim--which is perfect for the first part, as the Starkadders start off pretty grim. But "Cold Comfort Farm" remains grim throughout. And why does Flora's friend Mary have that annoying accent? Not only that, the narration by Joan Bakewell simply isn't good (compare it to the narration of Elizabeth Proud in the radio version often repeated on BBC radio 4-extra).Into this maelstrom of petty evil, fear and ineptness, come the heroine. Flora Poste is the posh city cousin fallen on hard times whose father the Starkadders did something unmentionable to and feel guilty about so when she has nowhere to go, they take her in. But not willingly. She sorts them all out and brings them from their ignorant, Gothic-y insular life into the modern world. Although we don't get to read Flora's book, we do see it put into practice. Flora's essential talent is to stop people being ridiculous – or at least, to stop them being ridiculous in situations where they can do any harm. She never displays contempt. She's even polite to Amos Starkadder about the Church of the Quivering Brethren and his opinion that "ye're all damned." Nor does she indulge the emotional excesses or strange beliefs of the Starkadder clan. She doesn't take herself too seriously – and doesn't make that mistake with other people, either, except in that she is loyal to her friends and kind to others. Should we aspire to a similar breed of suave, understated urbanity? It's tempting to see Flora as an ideal version of the author: the parodies of purple prose fit perfectly with Flora's attitudes to anything highly strung. Otherwise, most stories in the collection are fine, if fairly inconsequential. They aren't bad, but if they hadn't been written by the author of Cold Comfort Farm, it's unlikely anyone would seek them out. Except for one story - which is, of course, the one about Christmas at the farm. Cultural Stereotypes. It may be a sophisticated parody of rural tradition novels but let's face it, the novel gets most of its lulz from one of the world's most ancient brands of humour: laughing at farmers. The plot is simple: Orphaned at 19, Flora Poste decides to go and live with her relatives and improve their lives rather than find a job. She settles on the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm, since, according to the novels of rural life she has read, their lives will certainly need tidying up. Arriving at the farm she finds it even more chaotic than she had feared, and the inhabitants more uncouth than she could have imagined.

She was a authority on the on the cut, fit, colour, construction and proper functioning of brassieres (pp12-13) Providing the foundation to a national collection of underwear in the century that went from the corset to the wonderbra by way of regular changes of desired silhouette, I thought would be a good idea, but then I have had my sense of humour surgically removed – it was only taking up space. It originated in Cold Comfort Farm (1932), a parody of contemporary novels about rural life, by the English author Stella Gibbons (1902-89). As Robert Allen explains in Dictionary of English Phrases (Penguin Books – 2006), this novel tells the story of a cheerful young heroine, Flora Poste, who visits her cousins in a dreary Sussex farmhouse dominated by Aunt Ada Doom, who had a traumatic experience in her childhood, as she keeps reminding everyone including herself. Exactly what this experience was, or whether it occurred at all, is left to the reader’s imagination, but Aunt Ada exploits it ruthlessly to feign her madness and as a pretext for demanding constant attention from the family around her. These are extracts from Cold Comfort Farm: Remember the New Guy?: In the book, Rennet is a main Starkadder family member and direct relation of Aunt Ada and Judith, yet is not mentioned to the reader until the Counting. Flora is not even surprised to learn of her existence the way she was to learn of the Starkadder hired hands' wives; Rennet is treated as having been around all along yet was never mentioned before this point... just in time for Mr. Mybug to fall out of love with Flora and fall for her instead.The reason why CCF has survived so well is that it's a splendid book in its own right. You really don't need to know Lawrence or Webb's work to enjoy the book, since the characters and dialogue are so good. It's a bit like Three Men in a Boat or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the works they make fun of are mostly forgotten now, but the work stands on its own … When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. The novel is constructed of two elements the mash-up and topsey-turvey. The novel published in 1932 is set in a topsey-turvey near future – Lambeth has become the posh part of London (Oi!) while Mayfair has become the slums, the wealthy have private planes to zip about the country (not quite so fantastical) while the plot is broadly Jane Austen triumphs over Bronte sisters. Reuben Starkadder: Amos's heir, jealous of anyone who might stand between him and his inheritance of the farm My favorite parts of the book are when Flora decides to give her wispy, poetry-loving cousin Elfine a makeover that improves her love life, and when Flora helps her cousin Seth become a movie star. Flora even comes up with the perfect way of dealing with her Aunt Ada, thanks to a well-timed Jane Austen quote.

As the rustic mayhem unfolds, Miss Poste, who is definitely a modern, metropolitan bossyboots, decides that it’s her mission to bring a metropolitan “higher common sense” to this benighted spot, and sets about trying to redeem the lives of her relatives. Aunt Ada will go flying to Paris. The memories of the woodshed will become domesticated, Miss Poste herself will eventually marry her country cousin, Charles Fairford, and everyone live happily ever after. Sort of. (It’s a comedy, remember?) A note on the text Amos Starkadder: Judith's husband and hellfire preacher at the Church of the Quivering Brethren ("Ye're all damned!") Cold Comfort Farm has been an excellent choice for this month's Reading Group. It's provided - forgive me - fertile ground for discussion about the art of parody, transcending parody and race and class in the 1930s. Less seriously, but probably more importantly, it's also been highly entertaining and extremely funny: just the book to see us through the darkest month. I'm glad it came out of the hat – and I'm grateful to the readers who nominated it. Flora has come along and tamed the wild Starkadders and sanitised their farm. She's interfered. She is like Jane Austen's Emma, only she never gets her comeuppance and never learns not to meddle. I was very much looking forward to seeing this. The cast looked very promising (especially Alastair Sim) and the BBC has a high reputation when bringing classic literature to the screen.

The only parts that I liked were Ada Doom was in her room, and the first portion of the book made me laugh out loud. As a comedy I read Mrs Smiling’s second interest was her collection of brassieres, and her search for the perfect one. She was was reputed to have the largest and finest collection of these garments in the world. It was hoped that on her death it would be left to the nation. The Un-Reveal: The wrong that was done to her father. Flora asks Aunt Ada directly near the end, but she's interrupted—and doesn't seem bothered about it after all.