by Stella Gibbons, 1932
I ADORED THIS BOOK!!!! I learned about it from my British Classics puzzle. It was one of the classics in that puzzle, and the cover had a little blurb, “Very probably the funniest book ever written.”
It was a delight from start to finish. Set in 1930’s England. The main character is a young (19, I think, or early 20’s) and beautiful orphan named Flora Poste. She writes to her relatives seeing which ones will take her in, along with her 100 pounds a year. The only one that accepts her satisfactorily and with a bit of mystery is her Aunt Judith of Cold Comfort Farm. She telegrams her friend Miss Smiling upon arrival at the farm: “‘Worst fears realized darling seth and reuben too send gumboots.’
It’s a dark and brooding farm filled with crazy, unhappy characters, and Flora loves it and them, and wants to fix it – bring order out of chaos. She loves her bedroom but the first thing she does is have her curtains washed. Then she buys old Adam a dish mop to cletter the dishes with, rather than a thorny branch. But he hangs it up in the window because it is so pretty. Then she sets about saving lovely Elfine from marrying crazy Urk. She transforms Elfine into a ravishing beauty and young Richard Hawk-Monitor falls madly in love with her and proposes, just like Flora hoped and orchestrated. Then she saves handsome Seth by introducing him to her American director friend. He whisks him away to become the next film star. Cousin Reuben, she arranges to take over the farm when Amos leaves to be a traveling preacher. Unhappy Aunt Judith she saves by having her sent away ostensibly for treatment and then to become obsessed with old churches. Most difficult is Aunt Ada Doom, who wants no one to be happy and “saw something nasty in the woodshed” and has been cursed, and cursing others, ever since. Flora spends an entire day with her, having special meals brought up at exact times, to the room Aunt Ada Doom has lived in and only left two times a year for decades. Flora had requested from her friend in London, the latest vogue, the Hotel Miramar in Paris prospectus, and ‘photographs fanny ward.’ With these items and a full day with Flora, Aunt Ada Doom is cured. She happily departs Cold Comfort Farm on the day of Elfine’s wedding. The farm has been transformed from a dark and dying place, to the beautiful, happy place it was always meant to be. And Flora made it all happen! She accepted each person as they were, and met them where they were, but then orchestrated the things to happen that each person deep-down wanted to happen. It’s delightful. I loved it!
Flora is so exhausted after the wedding day, and even a little depressed. She gets a ride into town and and calls her cousin Charles, and asks him to come pick her up in Speed Cop II, his airplane. He is SO HAPPY she called him. He picks her up at 8:00 p.m. that night in the field by the farm, and they fly off into the sunset, deeply and madly in love. I almost cried! Such a beautiful book and a beautiful ending.
I loved the entire book but here are some notable paragraphs:
“If she intended to tidy up life at Cold Comfort, she would find herself opposed at every turn by the influence of Aunt Ada. Flora was sure that this would be so. Persons of Aunt Ada’s temperament were not fond of a tidy life. Storms were what they liked; plenty of rows, and doors being slammed, and jaws sticking out, and faces white with fury, and faces brooding in corners, faces making unnecessary fuss at breakfast, and plenty of opportunities for gorgeous emotional wallowings, and partings for ever, and misunderstandings, and interfering, and spyings, and, above all, managing and intriguing. Oh, they did enjoy themselves! They were the sort that went trampling all over your pet stamp collection, or whatever it was, and then spent the rest of their lives atoning for it. But you would rather have had your stamp collection.
“Flora thought of The Higher Common Sense, by the Abbe Fausse-Maigre. This work had been written as a philosophic treatise; it was an attempt, not to explain the Universe, but to reconcile Man to its inexplicability. But, in spite of its impersonal theme, The Higher Common Sense provided a guide for civilized persons when confronted with a dilemma of the Aunt Ada type. Without actually laying down rules of conduct, The Higher Common Sense outlined a philosophy for the Civilized Being, and the rules of conduct followed automatically. Where The Higher Common Sense was silent, the Pensees of the same author often gave guidance.
“With such guides to follow, it was not possible to get into a mess.
“Flora decided that before she tackled Aunt Ada she would refresh her spirit by re-reading part of The Higher Common Sense; the famous chapter on ‘Preparing the Mind for the Twin Invasion by Prudence and Daring in Dealing with Substances not Included in the Outline’. Probably she would only have time to study a page or two, for it was not easy to read, and part of it was in German and part in Latin. But she thought that the case was sufficiently serious to justify the use of The Higher Common Sense. The Pensees were all very well to fortify one’s spirit against everyday pricks and scourges; Ant Ada Doom, the crux of life at Cold Comfort, was another matter.”
I googled it and these books are imaginary books. I love that!
Here’s where she’s arranged for her Aunt Judith to have lunch with her German psycho-analyst doctor friend, Dr. Mudel, in London, and Dr. Mudel has determined her cure:
“‘She will be oll right now,’ he murmured soothingly to Flora, in an undertone, when lunch was over, while Judith was gazing broodingly out of the window at the busy street below. ‘I shall take her to the nursing home, and let her talk to me. There she will stay for six months, perhaps. Then I send her abroad for a little holiday. I make her interested in olt churches, I think. Yes, olt churches. There are so many in Europe, and it will take her the rest of her life to see them all. She has money, yes? You must have money in order to see all the olt churches you want. Well, that is all right, then. Do not distress yourself. She will be quite happy. Oll that energy … it is a pity, yes. It oll turns in instead of out. Now I turn it out … on to the olt churches. Yes.’“