Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Gibbons,_Stella" sorted by average review score:

Cold Comfort Farm
Published in Audio CD by Penguin Books Ltd (02 September, 1999)
Authors: Stella Gibbons and Eileen Atkins
Amazon base price: $
Used price: $19.75
Buy one from zShops for: $30.30
Average review score:

QUIRKY, BRILLIANT, AND HILARIOUS PARODY...
Published in 1932, this novel is a hysterically funny, tongue in cheek parody of the heavy handed, gloomy novels of some early twentieth century English writers who had previously been so popular. Tremendously successful when first published, "Cold Comfort Farm" caused quite a stir in its time.

The novel starts out innocuosly enough, when well educated Flora Poste finds herself orphaned at the age of twenty. Discovering that her father was not the wealthy man she believed him to be, she is resigned to the fate of having to live on a hundred pounds a year. Opting to live with relatives, rather than earn her bread, she seeks out a most unlikely set of relations, the odd Starkadder family who live in Howling, Sussex.

Therein begins what is certainly one of the funniest novels ever written. When Flora arrives in Howling, she meets her odd relatives, who live in neglected, ramshackle "Cold Comfort Farm", where they still wash the dishes with twigs, and have cows named Graceless, Pointless, Feckless, and Aimless. Headed by a seventy nine year old matriarch, Flora's aunt, Ada Doom Starkadder, who has not been right in the head since she "saw something nasty happen in the woodshed" nearly seventy years ago, they are a motley and strange crew indeed. Confronted with their dismal and gloomy existence, Flora sets about trying to put things to right.

Peppered with eccentric, memorable characters, this book will take the reader on a journey not easily forgotten. It is one that is sure to make the reader revisit this novel yet again, like an old friend who is missed too soon.


Cold Comfort Farm
Published in Audio Cassette by G K Hall Audio Books (1996)
Author: Stella Gibbons
Amazon base price: $64.95
Used price: $12.00
Buy one from zShops for: $13.98
Average review score:

Well, I tried...
I was urged to read this novel. "Hilarious! Hysterical! Will make you laugh aloud!" One friend said she read it while undergoing chemotherapy and laughing out loud, and had the nurses laughing, too. Another friend has this as one of her perennial favorites. I respect both friends, so I gave this a try. I really did. Twice. The second time, I stopped trying to plow through and just skilled around. I admit I did laugh aloud, but only when I was struck by the reflection that these two friends thought it funny. My advice: forget it. If you want to laugh aloud, pick up THREE MEN IN A BOAT (To Say Nothing Of The Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, and pass on this one.

My favourite book: Funny, clever and brilliant.
I can't tell you how many times I've read Cold Comfort Farm but everytime I do I can't help but laugh out loud and enjoy it just as much as the first time I read it.

It is the story of expensively educated Flora Poste, whose parents die when she is only 20. Rather than make a living for herself by working she decides to foist herself onto her relatives at Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex. The Starkadders are a decidedly odd bunch consisting of; Aunt Ada Doom who saw "something nasty in the woodshed" when she was two and is assumed to be mad, Judith, alone with her grief, Amos, called by God to preach of hellfire and damnation, Seth smoldering with sex and obsessed with the 'talkies', Elfine who runs wild in the woods and the fields, and other crazy characters. Flora feels it is her duty to bring order into this chaos and to tidy the lives of these uncivilised relatives as she is an excessively tidy person and dislikes a mess.

Stella Gibbon's novel is charming, incredibly funny and parodies the earthy, melodramatic novels (Thomas Hardy and D.H Lawrence et al) of the period extremely well. It is a must read and shall remain my favourite book for many years to come.
If you want to see one of the tv adaptations of the novel I would recommend the version starring Kate Beskinsale as the best.

FANTASTIC!
This is an elegantly written, extremely funny book. Characters are well drawn and captivating. You will feel you know these people, as they reach such a broad spectrum of personalities. If you want to laugh, read this book. It's a blast.


Britain: Travellers' Nature Guide (Nature Guides)
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (2003)
Authors: Martin Walters, Bob Gibbons, Stella Tranah, and Michael Wood
Amazon base price: $16.10
List price: $23.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $15.98
Buy one from zShops for: $15.18
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
Published in Hardcover by Longman Trade/Caroline House (1940)
Author: Stella Gibbons
Amazon base price: $10.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Modern Classics Fiction)
Published in Paperback by Penguin Books Ltd (27 April, 2000)
Author: Stella Gibbons
Amazon base price: $
Used price: $8.47
Buy one from zShops for: $8.45
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Published in Textbook Binding by Longman Trade/Caroline House (1949)
Author: Stella Gibbons
Amazon base price: $10.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.

France: Travellers' Nature Guide (Nature Guides)
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (2003)
Authors: Bob Gibbons, Martin Walters, Stella Tranah, and Michael Wood
Amazon base price: $16.10
List price: $23.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $15.98
Buy one from zShops for: $14.50
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Greece: Travellers' Nature Guide (Nature Guides)
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (2003)
Authors: Bob Gibbons, Martin Walters, Stella Tranah, and Michael Wood
Amazon base price: $16.10
List price: $23.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $15.98
Buy one from zShops for: $11.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.

The matchmaker
Published in Unknown Binding by White Idon Publishers ()
Author: Stella Gibbons
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Out of the Woodshed: A Portrait of Stella Gibbons
Published in Hardcover by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (16 July, 1998)
Author: Reggie Oliver
Amazon base price: $
Collectible price: $18.52
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.