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Cold Comfort Farm

By Stella Gibbons
Series: Penguin Essentials
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3.88 goodreads logo

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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is a humorous novel that follows Flora Poste, an orphaned young woman who decides to live with her eccentric relatives in the English countryside. Upon her arrival, she discovers that the Starkadder family is burdened with secrets and odd habits. Flora takes it upon herself to bring order and modernity to their chaotic lives, leading to amusing and unexpected developments.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy witty satire and a humorous take on rural family life. Set in the English countryside, it explores the eccentricities and absurdities of its characters with sharp and entertaining prose. The novel cleverly pokes fun at the melodrama found in early 20th-century novels, delivering both charm and laughter.

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Sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn a living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only option is to descend on relatives - the doomed Starkadders at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.

We are not like other folk, maybe, but there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm...

Sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn a living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only option is to descend on relatives – the doomed Starkadders at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm.

There is Judith in a scarlet shawl, heaving with remorse for an unspoken wickedness; raving old Ada Doom, who once saw something nasty in the woodshed; lustful Seth and despairing Reuben, Judith's two sons; and there is Amos, preaching fire and damnation to one and all.

As the sukebind flowers, Flora takes each of the family in hand and brings order to their chaos.

Cold Comfort Farm is a sharp and clever parody of the melodramatic and rural novel.

Series: Penguin Essentials

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm is celebrated as an exceptionally humorous and subversive novel, often compared to the works of P. G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh. Critics have hailed it as a wickedly brilliant parody that delivers both charm and wit, making it a standout in English comedic literature.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241951514

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 April 2011

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 113.0mm

Height: 180.0mm

Weight: 136g

Pages: 240

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Series: Penguin Essentials Stella Gibbons

About the Author

Stella Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She went to the North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including the Evening Standard. Stella Gibbons is the author of twenty-five novels, three volumes of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. Her first novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) was an immediate success and won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for 1933. Among her works are Nightingale Wood (1938), The Bachelor (1944), Westwood (1946), and Starlight (1967). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.

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