Fiction Literature Books

My boys (9 and 14) have read many of Matt Christopher's books. All are good, some are great treats. I gave a copy of "The Kid Who Only Hit Homers" to each boy on my baseball team last year. They loved it! This year I am giving each player a copy of Christopher's "Great Moments." I read this collection of great moments (an unassisted triple play in the World Series for example) to my boys and enjoyed every page. We re-read some of the stories they were so much fun. This is a must read for all young/new baseball fans.

I found this book to be very good. Its reading level is 9th grade or so but that didnt stop this 41 year old from enjoying it. The book talks about 9 great moments in baseball and shares a few interesting perspectives on the game. Every fan should know of these charming and touching moments. If you love the game check it out.

In Great Moments In Baseball History, you can learn a lot about some of the greatest players in major league history. Matthew Christopher, the author of this book, put together his view of a 9 tremendous, and courageous pitching performances, hitting clinics, catches, and life stories in this book. Some people who are in the book are strong, courageous, have stamina, but most of all, each person has their own little characteristic different than everyone else's. Anyone who asks me about this book, all I have to tell them is that it is a great read and a wonderful grouping of stories that any true baseball fan can enjoy time and time again.
All of these stories are incredible in their own special way. For example, there is a story about a pitcher who only had one hand and he threw a no hitter against a team who had in the previous week scored 7 runs against him, he showed to everyone that he had courage. Another story describes a pitcher who had cancer and was told that he would never pitch in the majors again, and it would be considered lucky to be able to play catch in the backyard with his son. Against all odds, after just 11 short months he was back in the majors and he was pitching great. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with cancer again and had his arm removed but he is still alive and well. Finally there is my favorite story of Joe Nuxhall who pitched in his first ever major league game at the tender young age of just 15. Although he was nervous he pitched well and was signed to a contract with the Cincinnati Reds at 16 years old (he was the youngest player ever to play major league baseball).
Matthew Christopher added great little details to every story to kind of add some drama to each one. For example, he told the audience how even though Babe Ruth was old and out of shape he could still hit three homeruns in a baseball game and have fun doing so. Another example is in the story of the pitcher with cancer, Christopher added in the detail of how he "might" be able to play catch with his son in the backyard to add some drama to the already dramatic situation. There are also so great word usages in the stories and he places every one of them in the perfect spot to help the reader make sense of everything.
Great Moments In Baseball History is a great book about heart warming, funny, and enlightening stories and people. Every story is different and exciting in that one special way that you can always remember. Also the author describes everything very well and it is easy to understand every word that is being said. Finally you can learn a lot from every person in the book and a piece of their life that may reach out and touch your own life.

Matt Christopher is one of the best baseball writers for young readers out there. This is another notch in his belt. Pick this up.

This is a wonderfully sophisticated, intelligent book with sharp commentary on multiple social issues of her time.(and ours in certain aspects) All of the characters are wonderfully imperfect, restrained and original and are caught in the intriguing webs of dilemmas but their behviors are very coherent with their characters and subcultures. This author truly deserves our utmost respect.

My comments are related only to the electronic version/aspect of this edition of Middlemarch rather than on the classic story. While this edition is readable it's a huge disappointment. There are so many typos that the reader is easily and regularly disturbed by trying to sort out misspellings, missing periods, or mangled sentences and paragraphs. Very unprofessional of Amazon to offer books that haven't been thoroughly edited. Kindle is a wonderful device - why not make sure the books are perfect? Why should a customer expect less in an e-versions than one does in hard copy?

Masterpiece? Greatest English novel? Well, I don't know about that -- it's very good, but it's not perfect. But it is funny, and it's a page-turner. Our heroine, Dorothea, is an intellectual stuck in a very provincial town, and she just wants someone she can have an intelligent conversation with, and whom she can help do some kind of serious work. A very marriageble but not especially bright gentleman courts her, and brings her a puppy as a present. Dorothea doesn't _mean_ to be rude, but she speaks her mind, that she doesn't approve of having pets just to pet them -- she thinks dogs are happiest when they have some serious work to do. I laughed out loud at this point, as at so many others. I know just how she feels! And I also understand the sighs that her friends sighed as they rolled their eyes. That's our Dorothea! The gentleman caller eventually marries Dorothea's sister, and they (and the puppy) live happily ever after. Dorothea lives happily ever after, too, but only after being very, very serious about things for several hundred pages. You'll love her, and you'll laugh all the way.

Middlemarch is a challenging book to read for several reasons. One, it is too long. Two, the author has a tendency to go off on philosophical tangents. Three, the author will sometimes spend several paragraphs on the inner workings of the mind of a very minor character who is hardly pertinent to the story. These flaws aside, I will say that I enjoyed Middlemarch very much. It is easy to get caught up in the lives of Dorthea, Will, Fred, Mary, Dr.Lydgate and Rosamond and many others. George Eliot wrote wonderful dialogue in this book--the conversations between characters are very interesting. I thought Dr. Lydgate was the most compelling person in the book. He had such high hopes and was a good and honorable man. Yet, he let himself be ensnared in a silly marriage and here the author is very insightful in portraying Dr.Lydgates trapped, disappointed existence with Rosamond. What he wants in a wife and marriage and what she wants in a husband and marriage are miles apart and so, in the end, they resign themselves to one another. I also liked the character of Mary. She's a strong woman who knows what she wants. Although Dorthea can be irritating at times, with her insistence that everyone see things the way she does, she is good and goodness is appealing in a central character. Her relationship with Will Ladislaw is portrayed well. Their love for one another was truly believable. While reading Middlemarch, there were a few times in which I felt as if I were slogging through, but there were many more times when I didn't want to put it down. So, all in all, a good read and worth the effort.

I love this book (I have read it before) and thought I would get it on Kindle since it is one of my favorites. Unfortunately the Kindle version must have been slapped quickly into digital format via optical character reader or something similar, with no quality check done on it. It is full of typos that would have been easily caught with a simple spellcheck, for example instead of the word "call" it said "cal:" There are numerous examples of this and it is very distracting.

The book The Call of the Wild is a fantastic story about a dog going to Alaska and trying to survive in harsh conditions. The theme of the story is survival. The main setting is freezing Alaska. The main character of the story is a dog-named Buck. Buck is a mix of a St. Bernard and a Scotch Shepard. He is mainly a gray color and is very aggressive when someone or something aggravates him. He is a quick learner, and adapted to Alaska within a few days. He mainly learned from the other dogs by observing them. Buck learned the dog law in Alaska, The Law of Club and Fang, which is kill or be killed, and eat or be eaten. The main conflict is Buck trying to survive and the resolution is when Buck is finally free and can freely roam Alaska. In the story Buck has two jobs. The first is with two good owners: Perrault and Francois, who grew to love Buck and cried when they were done with their job and traded him and the crew. On that one, they were delivering items to Dawson and back. The second trip was much harder, because he had three owners: Two of them were mean men while the other was a woman that cried all the time. They delivered mail, which was much heavier and made a harder trip which lead to an unhappy turn of events. In the first part of the story, Buck is in his hometown in California, and his owner sells him. Next, he gets in Alaska and sets off on his first job. After a while, he goes on his second journey. Finally, Buck is free to roam in Alaska. He is now acting like his wolf ancestors. I recommend reading this fantastic and heartwarming book.

A must read for dog lovers, young and old. A wonderful story of drive, determination, transformation and love. Beautifully told. It stands the test of time, a true classic.

Buck is a big beefy cross dog living a happy life. A dognapper gets him, and sells him into a life of work and sled pulling. The dog endures a bunch of harsh treatment until he finds an owner who really likes him and treats him well.

That ends badly, and the dog follows his violent and atavasitic instincts in the end.

The Call Of The Wild
The Call Of The Wild was one of the most positive experiences from a book. It started out a little boring, but eventually became more interesting.
The characters were so believable that it felt like you could be in their shoes, from every pat on the head or scratch on the belly, to every beating or fight. My favorite character was John Thorton because he protected and cared for Buck. Jack London did a fantastic job of creating all of the characters. Jack London had a way of making you want to read the book over and over again. He had so much action that it held you close. One of my favorite scenes was when John Thorton belted Hal for whipping and bashing Buck with a club, because he didn't have enough strength to pull the sled. A nether favorite scene was when the Yehat Indians attacked John' campsite and killed everyone while Buck was out hunting. When Buck came back he slashed the throats of the Indians.
I might have possibly changed a few parts where animals have died, but then it wouldn't be a true story. I would definitely recommend this book, because it has many emotions throughout the whole novel.
By Crystal Chapman

Jack London's style is very captivating. I finished it in one sitting, as it is pretty short novel and too gripping. There are least two strong messages in this magnificent story, adaptation is probably the greatest asset to lead and also we have a propensity to give in to our ancient savage instinct. If you are strong like Buck, the central character, no matter where, you will lead and leave your legacy. Also the dark side of the story is our real calling; though we have been evolved (genetically or socially or both--have it your way) to be civilized, we still hear the call of the wild from our ancient fathers. Why four stars not five? The lives of Native Americans (Yeehats--though a fictional tribe) does reflect much regard, may be because it was written a hundred years ago. I really do not suggest Jack London was racist, the scene seemed little unfairly graphic. Read the book by all means.

Our mom just finished reading The Children's Homer to us. It was interesting. The story is about people and adventures. We liked the part when someone sings a song about Odysseus building the horse. It's the children's homer and we think you should learn more about the journey of Odysseus. You will also learn about Achilles and some of the battles of Troy. We like that Odysseus was most wanting to get home to his family.
Ages 10, 8, and 7.

This beautifully written book by the famous Irish poet should be read by, or to, every child to give them an introduction to the most important work (Not including Religion) ever composed.The story here told has inspired people of all civilisations for nearly 3,000 years. No person should be allowed reach adulthood without having experienced some aspects of Greek classical civilisation and these action-packed tales of heroism, humanity, weakness, tragedy and joy are a great starting-point. A sampling of the stories of the Iliad, Odyssey and of other Greek myths and heroes can be the start of a lifetime of fascination.

Although the language in this book is rather challenging, we still found it accessible and enjoyable. These classic stories can get too "watered-down" in the easier versions, which takes away the richness and depth that has made them classics in the first place. My 12 year old homeschooled son looked at these and Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy and Wanderings of Odysseus and ultimately chose this one, but the Sutcliff books are a good alternative if the advanced language proves to be too much of a barrier. She has several good classic retellings. Either way, these stories should be a part of every child's education--they're wonderful!

I read this book to my 7 year old, homeschooled daughter. Her children's choir is singing the story of Odysseus and this book brought the songs to life for her. She never wanted me to put it down. The language is sophisticated but she could follow the story and was entranced by it.

Ho hum--I will never get my 5th grader to read this tome--however moving the story line and imagery. It is too thick to easily add to a history block of Ancient Civilizations around the world. The language is too dated. The narrations dwarfs the action. The standard, for good youth literature today, requires writers to SHOW the meaning and NOT TELL IT.
Thankfully, author Geraldine McCaughrean wrote a wonderfully telling of GILGAMESH, so I turned around and ordered her retelling of Homer's THE ILLIAD and THE ODYSSEY which is titled, ODYSSEUS.

Does anyone want my copy of Padric's version. The cover art is great.

What a wonderful book! Swift is the delightful kind of author that can combine humor, fantasy, and thought-provoking satire in a truly tongue-in-cheek book. And yet, it is more serious than that. A book that is both serious and whimsical at the same time. Go figure. I realize this is not the kind of book that will attract everyone, but those who read it with an open mind and maybe some knowledge of the time period will be in for a real treat. Heck, they don't even need the background knowledge. There is a reason that this book is a favorite of children as well as adults.

Gulliver is a ship surgeon who truly cannot seem to stay out of trouble. Every voyage he takes leads to disaster and the discovery of some impossible land: the miniature citizens of Lilliput, the giants of an unpronouncable names, the 1984 forerunners of Laputa, and the utopia of sentient horses.

These are all charming places, full of fantasy and flaws that are enjoyable to read. This is what attracts the kids and, hey, the adults.

Yes, the book is talky, but that is what makes it so charming. This is not so much a novel as it is an account--if you were telling about it, you would probably narrate the entire thing yourself, as well. To me, it makes it slightly less unbelievable.

Despite all the fantasy, Swift uses the book to poke fun at the lifestyle--frankly, I find its observations on human nature timeless.

I'm sorry, those without the patience to read, but here is another reason why we have the classics.

There is no need for me to go into what a marvelous and timeless classic "Guliver's Travels" is. The satire, while nearly 300 hundred years old, is as fresh today as it was in the 1720s.

What I will say about this particular edition is that it is very beautifully done. (If you can get the hardcover edition instead of the softcover, all the better.) The typeset, color engravings and supplemental material in the appendices add up to an excellent edition of this classic. I highly recommend it either as a gift or as a copy for your own library.

The outsiders is a heroic book about the troubles of growing up as a greaser in town also full of Socs. Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny need to make difficult decisions after several accidents leading to them becoming heroes and juvenile delinquents. I would reccomend this book to people that enjoy stories with suprising twists and thrills along the way.

This audiobook is okay. The quality is good, but there is not a guide to what is the tracks of the four different cd's. Not user friendly in that sense. The narrator is also very country--which I'm not sure is appropriate for a supposed Oklahoma kid.

This audio tape is outstanding! The reader does a great job in reading the novel word for word with a comfortable pace for my 7th graders. He changes the voices for the lead characters. When my students request the audio instead of reading it out loud, then I know that this is a good tape. I recommend this audio tape to anyone who loves to be read to.

Reading a novel is one thing but listening whilst reading adds a new dimension to it. The Outsiders is written by an American author and it's set in the 1960s. I am Australian and the language in the novel is not. It makes sense to listen to a trained actor deliver the novel with the correct intonation, dramatic intensity and charaterisation that simply reading cannot provide. The themes in The Outsiders are relevant to today's teenagers who deal with peer pressure, dysfunctional families and the all too human need to belong somewhere....anywhere. Conflict is sustained throughout and there is the final resolution. This is good to play on a car trip to keep teenagers engaged instead of hearing "are we there yet?"or to improve reading skills by listening whilst reading. This is one way to help improve word recognition. Especially suitable for people with vision difficulties who may find it easier to listen to, rather than read a book. Very enjoyable.

I cannot say enough about this story. This is truely a masterpiece from the familiar opening to the satisfying conclusion, a work of art. Beautiful.
Sydney Carton is a cheracter that I will not soon forget.
If you read nothing else, read this. YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY.

By the year 2006, can Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities still hold relevance? The answer is a simple yes. It is a great tale of how love, revolution, and chaos can all fall into place at the same moment. But the most interesting topic that he addresses is the theme of rebirth or revolution. This rebirth is not only that of France, but of Dr. Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton. All of them are changed by the events happening during the time of the novel. They reshape their ideals, reintroduce themselves into the world, reinvent themselves, and revitalize their spirits. That is way resurrection is the most noticeable subject in this novel.
France is about to undergo the bloodiest revolutions that Europe has ever seen. The peasants of France revolt in hopes creating a government that will take care of their needs. They have little food and the food that they do have is rotten. Dickens does an absolutely amazing job of describing the peasants' awful situation. However, he only depicts the tragic peasants with only a negative depiction of the aristocrats. A great example of this is the way in which he descries Monseigneur's massive house and he's chocolate eating, "Monseigneur, on of the great lords...he must have died of two. (122-123)" This is a very critical view of a man with power because it never shows another side to him. This implies that he is always greedy and only looks after himself. Another bias view of the wealthy is seen in Marquis. Who is shown as a selfish, non-sympathetic man who gets what he deserves, death. "It is extraordinary... The horses there: are they right? (129-130)" With no positive view of an aristocrat, it is impossible to make a fair judgment about the rich, or the poor. Dickens goal is to justify a revolution based on poor character of the rich ruling class. He succeeds in doing so at the cost of the aristocrats of France.
The most obvious character to undergo change is Dr. Manette. As the very first chapters show, he is "recalled to life. (14)" in the course of the novel. In the literal since, he is taken out of a wrongful imprisonment of 18 years with no contact with the outside world. But on a much deeper level however, the book focuses on how he comes back into the world. He transforms from a weak, feeble shoemaker to a strong character that's able to control crowds and lead them towards the greater-good. The only fault in this complete change is that he does occasionally go back to his old ways in making shoes when he becomes depressed. But these episodes are too brief to change the fact that Manette has a complete turn around from who he is at the beginning of the novel to the end.
Charles Darnay also exemplifies a person who recreates himself in order to use the second chances he gets in life. Born into wealth, he sees the maltreatment that the rich shows towards the poor. That is why he revokes his power and rights in order to live a regular life. But after he is nearly sent to jail in England he reinvents himself as a lover as he falls in love with Lucie. However when the opportunity comes for him to save the day, he puts on his hero cape and goes back to France. Again he is arrested, but this time his life is in jeopardy has he faces the gallows. And only help from Carton is he saved from the clutches of death.
Sydney Carton is the most interesting characters in the novel because of the drastic changes that he undergoes. Dickens shows Carton as a worthless drunk with no future "Sydney Carton, idlest... that humble capacity (102)". As time goes on, he falls in love with Lucie but doesn't allow his feelings to interfere with her life. That is until Darnay's life is in danger. Carton gives up his life in place of Darnay. This clearly shows that he makes a major change in his character. This change happens because he wants to make up for the wasted life that he has lived by sacrificing himself to save another. This brings about a sense of peace in him that he has never felt "It is a far... I have ever known (443)"
With so much change and unstableness going on in the novel, it is easy to understand why the country and the fore mentioned characters of Manette, Darnay, and Carton undergo such dynamic shifts in their personas. France has its revolutions, Manette is recalled to life, Darnay is reborn twice, and Carton is resurrected as a hero and martyr. That kind of writing leads me to the conclusion that life is all about second chances and renewal. This was Dickens' purpose in writing a novel like this, and that is why A Tale of Two Cities is a book that stands out amongst the greatest literary pieces of all time.

A Tale of Two Cities paints a beautiful while dark story of the French Revolution and how it affects an English family. It is, by all standards, a classic. Yet, if you decide to read it and are younger than a high school senior, I suggest reading it with a good dictionary by your side. It is written in the English of over one-hundred years ago and so I would also recommend a version that includes notes on what certain phrases mean as well as a guide to the allusions used in the story. I am not recommending the abridged version, though. Reading it as it was written gives a much different experience that seems more genuine. The copy of the novel that I read was published by Pocket Books and includes explanatory notes and more which I found very helpful.
As I read I saw examples where Dickens (the author), implied satirical messages and themes relevant to the time when the book was written. Then, the situation in England resembled pre-Revolution France. Also, 1848, was known as the "Year of Revolutions". He may have been trying to discourage revolution and encourage solutions through political change, not violence. Dickens also implied, through his words, that a revolution could happen anywhere, even in England. He encouraged his message frequently but it never got old and wasn't monotonous. By using a variety of different situations, Dickens kept his message in the reader's mind. For example, at a burial of a spy in England, a mob forms and turns the burial into show of irreverent mourning and violence. He is implying that under the right conditions any group of people can turn into a violent mob. He also writes that history will repeat itself under the same circumstances. This message would have been very pertinent at the time. These messages about the state and flaws of society were frequent but were well integrated into the story. Many were fun to read due to Dickens' good use of satire and humor.
One complaint that many historians, literary critics, and others have had about A Tale of Two Cities is that the characters and depiction of the social classes are too unrealistic. I, too, thought that some of the characters were somewhat unrealistic, yet I don't believe that Dickens made them that way without reason. One example is in a moment with a member the French aristocracy. While riding at breakneck speed through downtown Paris, this noble's carriage hits and kills a child. In response, he turns to the grieving father and coolly tosses him a gold piece and drives off. I saw this action as very unrealistic, but this isn't supposed to be literal. This noble's action is part of his characterization that is just supposed to show that he is very cold. It is also supposed to symbolize the oppression of the peasants by the aristocracy. The lower class had been oppressed for so long and Dickens sums up their oppression through this one noble's action. Still, some of the characters' actions are unrealistic. After a condemned man is read his condemning sentence, he is perfectly composed and shows no signs of anxiety or emotion but love for his wife. There is no way that any human could be unafraid after that. Despite some unrealistic moments in Dickens characters, his description of the classes and their struggles is excellent. This is probably because of his experience. As a boy, Dickens was a peasant, which explains why his descriptions of peasant life and their strife are so detailed. I personally found Dickens' characters very appealing and his description of French society very enthralling.
If you are unsure if you want to read this book, my advice to you would be: definitely read it. Dickens creates a capturing world with a deep plot, exquisite use of imagery, and striking characters, all in one of the most exciting times in history. Pick it up and you won't regret it.

i bought this for my two 2 yr olds. it's great brain exercise and they never get tired of going thru the pages. it also builds their vocabulary. highly recommend the I Spy books.

We love I SPY books! I also buy them as birthday, Easter and Christmas gifts for friends and family. They are always greatly appreciated. The kids and I love to snuggle up on the couch together, and look for the objects. Beautiful pictures! And you never get bored!

Book is set up great for 2 year olds. A picture of the object on one side to find within the other side.

It is incredible to think that this little book was written over 75 years ago, but stays as fresh and funny as the day it was first published.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, is a darkly comic, tongue in cheek, parody written in 1932.

Upon the death of her parents, the newly impoverished Flora moves in with relatives, the Starkadders, who live in what we would now consider squalor, on Cold Comfort Farm. There she encounters all sorts of eccentrics and sets about turning their lives around.

It is a slim volume but extremely good; humorous and sends up all those earnest melodramas so popular at the time it was written. It is a very English book and initially may not appeal to all American readers, but is one of the few books that improves upon re-reading. If you don't get it the first time, leave it a few months and then read it again. It is absolutely worth it.

Not all the ends are tied up, and what the dotty aunt experienced in the woodshed is left to your own imagination.

One of the funniest books I've read. I'm ashamed I'd never heard of it until a friend turned me on to the film. It's one of those books I'll pick up again every couple of years, and it still makes me laugh.

The weird futuristic theme is a bit of a drawback - it's unnecessary, and a little confusing the first time you read the book. But it's easy to ignore. I'd like to know why the author decided to set it in the near-future - was it trendy at the time? Or a parody of something going on in the popular literature of that time, that I'm just not well read enough to quite understand?

This is the book that makes marvelous fun of them. If you slogged through Wuthering Heights and Tristram Shandy and Jane Eyre and The Mayor of Casterbridge or Return of the Native wishing someone would just smack some sense into someone or have a little normal fun, this is the book for you. And if you loved those books, you'll love this one even more. Gibbons attacks the Gothic and Pastoral novels on their own turf and turns them on their ears while delivering a few good jabs at the Modern Novels of the 1930s to boot. Literary humor so good it'll make you giggle and snort and want to read aloud.

This particular edition, while it has the most awful cover art on the planet, happens to have very nice introduction by Lynne Truss--the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves--which gives some wonderful and funny background on Gibbons, her life, times, and writing. It's also amusing on its own and great info if you're stuck writing book reports.

There are some oddities to this book in which a "near future" England of 1938 has no hints of World War II, but that makes it so much more delightful. It is a book that exists in a bubble just like the worlds of the stories Gibbons lampoons so well. Cold Comfort Farm is a literate and intelligent piece of writing that is also hilarous and great fun to read.

The humor of this glorious funny book resides mainly in Gibbons' masterly control of prose style; if you have only seen the movie, you know less than half of what the author has to offer. Yes, she creates a wonderful gallery of extraordinary characters, and the story clips along nicely if rather predictably, but it is the author's language that really gets you laughing out loud. Written in 1932, the book is a parody of a certain kind of rural melodrama popular at the time, but of the authors mentioned by the Oxford Companion to English Literature as models only D. H. Lawrence is still read today. But no matter; there are strong echoes of Hardy and the Brontes as well, and anyway the language works just fine on its own. It ranges from gothic descriptions of a landscape primeval and stark, throbbing with the fecund sap of plant and beast, to gnomic sayings delivered in a rural dialect so thick as to be incomprehensible if one did not realize that half the words in it were probably made up by the author. And, as an added incentive, Gibbons has helpfully marked her most purple passages with two or three stars, "according to the method perfected by the late Herr Baedecker."

Flora Poste, twenty, fashionable, well educated, and recently orphaned, decides against working for a living so writes around to various distant relatives asking them to take her in. She decides to go to live with the Starkadders, some distant cousins whose alarming address is Cold Comfort Farm, Howling, Sussex. (This will seem less odd if you know English place-names, and throughout the book Gibbons' choice of names is both almost plausible and brilliantly absurd.) The farm is described in the first of the starred passages, beginning thus:

"Dawn crept over the Downs like a sinister white animal, followed by the snarling cries of a wind eating its way between the black boughs of the thorns. The wind was the furious voice of this sluggish animal light that was baring the dormers and mullions and scullions of Cold Comfort Farm. The farm was crouched on a bleak hill-side, whence its fields, fanged with flints, dropped steeply to the village of Howling a mile away . . . ".

The extended family she meets there, all with short biblical names of Old Testament force, is equally dour, and the living conditions are primitive to say the least. The household is presided over by the matriarch, Great Aunt Ada Doom, who "saw something nasty in the woodshed" as a child and has barely emerged from her room since, but terrifies the others into submission for fear of completing her descent into total insanity. But Flora determines to take the farm and the family in hand, beginning with the youngest, the nature spirit Elfine, and working up to the old woman. The manner in which she does so forms the plot of the rest of the book.

The gothic style which the author handles so well depends upon the ability to evoke impending doom, and Gibbons virtually redefines the verb "impend." So the first half of the novel at least is superb. However, as light and warmth are brought into Cold Comfort Farm, the doom begins to dissipate. In nineteenth-century terms, Gibbons' influence changes from Bronte to Jane Austen, whom she can certainly match in witty observation, though at the loss of the gothic elemental power. The plot, too, lacks suspense; everything that Flora undertakes to do works out with few surprises; the main parody element at the end is the neatness with which it all does work out, even including the resolution of Flora's own romantic needs. But in exchange, as others on this site have mentioned, Stella Gibbons achieves a transformation of a different kind: the forbidding cast of caricatures to whom we are first introduced has become a family of real people, whom Flora finds herself caring about quite a lot. And the reader too. Skill of this sort takes Stella Gibbons beyond the ranks of a mere parodist and reveals her as a true novelist.

[I actually read the book in the older Penguin edition, which has a fine cover, quite relevant to the period, taken from a painting by Stanley Spencer. But it is rather sloppily printed. The Penguin de luxe edition (which I have seen but didn't buy) is much better produced, and has the added bonus of a cover by Roz Chast -- a masterly match-up of two funny women working eighty years apart.]

Lovely book. Funny and entertaining. Say the movie first so had some preconceived ideas about the characters but was able to enjoy the differences. Entertaining on a number of levels.