Book Review : Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our protagonist, nineteen-year-old orphan Flora Poste, finds herself left with a meager annual income after her father’s death. Flora, “discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living”, chooses to approach her relations with a request to live with them in return for her annual income.

“When I have found a relative who is willing to have me, I shall take him or her in hand, and alter his or her character and mode of living to suit my own taste”.

Though quite a few of her relations respond to her request, she ultimately decides to live with her eccentric aunt and equally eccentric cousins and extended family, the Starkadders of  Cold Comfort Farm in rural Sussex. Her relations refuse to accept her money on account of a “wrong” that had been committed against her father years ago ( she is mostly addressed as Robert Poste's child instead of her given name). This is a matter of concern for her. (“For, if she lived at Cold Comfort as a guest, it would be unpardonable impertinence were she to interfere with the family’s mode of living; but if she were paying her way, she could interfere as much as she pleased.)

The head of the family, Flora’s seventy-nine-year-old Great Aunt Ada Doom rules the household despite not leaving her room except for a few days in the year, to hold a “counting” as Flora’s cousin Elfine explains, ‘’Tes the record of th’ family that Grandmother holds ivery year. See – we’m violent folk, we Starkadders. Some on us pushes others down wells. Some on us dies in childer-birth. There’s others as die o’ drink or goes mad. There’s a whole heap on us, too. ’Tes difficult to keep count on us. So once a year Grandmother she holds a gatherin’, called the Counting, and she counts us all, to see how many on us ’as died in th’ year.” 

Fond of Victorian novels  (“They were the only kind of novel you could read while you were eating an apple.”), Flora observes her relations as people whose situations can be improved and she relies on her “common sense” ( with her copy of "The Higher Common Sense" as reference) to proceed to positively impact the lives of her cousins to save them from a life of doom and gloom. Aunt Ada constantly refers to having witnessed something "nasty in the woodshed” when she was a child and insists on keeping tabs on her family, holding them to living on the farm (“there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort”). As the narrative progresses, we see what begins with Flora making small changes in the daily lives at the Farm slowly evolves into a full-scale overhaul of the way of life for those at Cold Comfort Farm. 

Originally published in 1932, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is a light-hearted and heartwarming read that stands the test of time. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy reading the classics and wouldn’t mind a story that is crafted with elements from more serious novels, with characters and settings reminiscent of those from the works of authors such as  Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Thomas Hardy to name a few, but with an amusing (read, satirical) twist.  This edition is a welcome addition to my personal collection. Roz Chast’s cover art is phenomenal and perfectly captures the characters in all their absurdity.  I combined my reading with the exceptional audio narration by Pearl Mackie which made for a very entertaining experience. With an engaging narrative,  a good dose of humor with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and a cast of interesting (to say the least) characters, this book is a joy to read (and/or listen to).