Cold Comfort Farm

Author: Stella Gibbons
First published: 1932
This edition: Penguin Books, 2006
pages: 233

I checked this book out of the library at the same time as Vile Bodies. The two were written around the same time, and I had the same hang-up with both books, which was that I could not relate to the characters. I must confess that my favorite type of novel is the long Victorian novel full of deep character analysis, in which I the reader am intimately aware of every fluctatuation of thought that inspires every action of the main character(s). Vile Bodies and Cold Comfort Farm were written around the same period as each other by members of the same society, and in my opinion they were both influenced by impressionistic ideals, in which little glimpses of the characters are given for the reader to draw his own conclusions about the character. Well, here are my conclusions about Flora Poste, the main character of Cold Comfort Farm.

I see Flora Poste as a twin for Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse. Just as Emma is self-absorbed, assigns herself "projects" wherein she meddles in others' lives, and ultimately realizes she loves the man who has been there all along waiting for her, so is Flora Poste self-absorbed, ridiculously meddlesome in others' lives, and slow to realize she loves her long-time friend. Jane Austen (rather famously) explained when she started writing Emma, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," and it seems that perhaps Gibbons had the same thought when she created Flora Poste. Well, I actually like Emma Woodhouse (especially as portrayed by Romola Garai!), and I also find Flora Poste tolerable.

Lynne Truss explains in the introduction that Cold Comfort Farm was intended as a parody of the rural novels of Mary Webb, of whom I have never heard. Since I am not familiar with the subject of the parody, some of the humor is lost on me. However, that is not to say that the book doesn't tickle my funny bone in plenty of places. All in all, I enjoyed reading it, but I probably would not read it again, and if somebody asked if I would recommend it, I would say, "Watch the movie instead." Really, Kate Beckinsale turns Flora Poste into a charming, winsome little thing and I "got" the humor a lot better in the movie. Sorry if that makes me a lame English major, but it's true. :)