Nightingale Wood (Virago Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Review
NIGHTINGALE WOOD is in essence, a sprawling, delightful, eccentric fairy tale . . . There is romance galore, a transformative dress, and a ball, much dizzy kissing in hedgerows and beyond, spying, retribution and runaways, fights and a fire, poetry and heartbreak, a few weddings AND funerals, and a fairytale ending with a twist. What luxury to stumble upon this quirky book, and the fascinating modern woman who wrote it. It is a rare unadulterated pleasure and high time for its encore (Sophie Dahl )
Book Description
A modern, satirical fairytale that has been unavailable for decades, by the author of COLD COMFORD FARM
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
65 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Oh what a lovely lovely book.
I am learning humility late in life as I discover and love authors I turned my nose up at years ago. Stella Gibbons joins these distinguished ranks and I am going to own up and say I have never read Cold Comfort Farm (I now have a copy waiting to go), despite the fact that the author used to be a regular reader at HIghgate Library where I worked in the 1960s. She was a very quiet, elegant, charming lady and though I knew who she was, I was not overwhelmed with excitement as I was then a stripling of 18 and not impressed by what I saw as authors of 'nice' books. I do remember her coming in one morning looking rather cross and her telling me that she had had a wonderful idea for a book which came to her in the middle of the night, only she did not write it down, and now she had forgotten it. I wonder which one that was?
In Nightingale Wood we meet Viola Withers, a young penniless widow, who is forced to live with her late husband's family in a cold joyless house. Mr Wither, a miser and a misery who rules the roost and who will not let his daughter Madge have a dog, Mrs Wither who thinks Viola is just a common shop girl and Tina, who is in love with Saxon, the chauffeur.
Viola meets and falls in love with Victor Spring, the local Prince Charming, dashing, handsome, rich and clever, but who dallies with her feelings while becoming engaged to the oh so suitable, but shrewish, Phyllis. Viola finds her life repressive and boring but can see no future other than to stay where she is and moulder away. She yearns for freedom and happiness:
"She looked across the saltings to where the sea was and as she lifted her face, rosy with the steady smoothing of the cold wind, the sun darted a bright gold beam across the marshes......she heard a strangely thrilling noise....nearer and nearer it came, until suddenly there swept over her head a flock of wild swans, rushing on white gold wings into the sunset. Laughing with excitement, she ran down the track the follow their flight but the sunset, and tears, dazzled her and she could not see.
They were so beautiful....wouldn't it be wonderful if she could always feel like she had felt when they thundered over her head, not wanting anyone, happy to be quite alone and looking at something as beautiful as those swans?
But the sun had gone behind the clouds again and the wind was getting up, it was nearly half past three and the last bus left at four."
This book is sheer delight from start to finish. It is funny, witty and amusing, but also sympathetic and gentle, even to the ghastly Mr Withers, who really is a tyrant in his home:
"Mrs Withers came in but he took no notice of her because he had seen her before"
but
"Emmie's a good wife to me, a very good wife, suddenly thought Mr Wither. And then, like a cold wind - What shall I do when she's gone?"
The story of how the Withers family find love and/or fulfilment and whether Viola marries her Prince Charming or not against all the odds, is just lovely (sorry to overuse this word but cannot think of an alternative), and kept me up till late last night fighting to keep awake in order to finish Nightingale Wood. Cornflower Books has also reviewed this title so check out what she has to say here .
Off now to check all of Stella Gibbon's output and make a note of all their titles as I am compiling my wish list for my visit to Hay on Wye next month. I have a sneaky feeling I am going to come back with a bootful of books.
Oh I do hope so....
I am learning humility late in life as I discover and love authors I turned my nose up at years ago. Stella Gibbons joins these distinguished ranks and I am going to own up and say I have never read Cold Comfort Farm (I now have a copy waiting to go), despite the fact that the author used to be a regular reader at HIghgate Library where I worked in the 1960s. She was a very quiet, elegant, charming lady and though I knew who she was, I was not overwhelmed with excitement as I was then a stripling of 18 and not impressed by what I saw as authors of 'nice' books. I do remember her coming in one morning looking rather cross and her telling me that she had had a wonderful idea for a book which came to her in the middle of the night, only she did not write it down, and now she had forgotten it. I wonder which one that was?
In Nightingale Wood we meet Viola Withers, a young penniless widow, who is forced to live with her late husband's family in a cold joyless house. Mr Wither, a miser and a misery who rules the roost and who will not let his daughter Madge have a dog, Mrs Wither who thinks Viola is just a common shop girl and Tina, who is in love with Saxon, the chauffeur.
Viola meets and falls in love with Victor Spring, the local Prince Charming, dashing, handsome, rich and clever, but who dallies with her feelings while becoming engaged to the oh so suitable, but shrewish, Phyllis. Viola finds her life repressive and boring but can see no future other than to stay where she is and moulder away. She yearns for freedom and happiness:
"She looked across the saltings to where the sea was and as she lifted her face, rosy with the steady smoothing of the cold wind, the sun darted a bright gold beam across the marshes......she heard a strangely thrilling noise....nearer and nearer it came, until suddenly there swept over her head a flock of wild swans, rushing on white gold wings into the sunset. Laughing with excitement, she ran down the track the follow their flight but the sunset, and tears, dazzled her and she could not see.
They were so beautiful....wouldn't it be wonderful if she could always feel like she had felt when they thundered over her head, not wanting anyone, happy to be quite alone and looking at something as beautiful as those swans?
But the sun had gone behind the clouds again and the wind was getting up, it was nearly half past three and the last bus left at four."
This book is sheer delight from start to finish. It is funny, witty and amusing, but also sympathetic and gentle, even to the ghastly Mr Withers, who really is a tyrant in his home:
"Mrs Withers came in but he took no notice of her because he had seen her before"
but
"Emmie's a good wife to me, a very good wife, suddenly thought Mr Wither. And then, like a cold wind - What shall I do when she's gone?"
The story of how the Withers family find love and/or fulfilment and whether Viola marries her Prince Charming or not against all the odds, is just lovely (sorry to overuse this word but cannot think of an alternative), and kept me up till late last night fighting to keep awake in order to finish Nightingale Wood. Cornflower Books has also reviewed this title so check out what she has to say here .
Off now to check all of Stella Gibbon's output and make a note of all their titles as I am compiling my wish list for my visit to Hay on Wye next month. I have a sneaky feeling I am going to come back with a bootful of books.
Oh I do hope so....
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nightingale Wood is a kind of buffer state outside the village; a handy place for confrontational or dramatic meetings, but most of the action takes place in, and the outside world is seen through the prism of, the Withers' household in Essex, where the newly widowed daughter-in-law Viola is shortly to arrive and take up residence. The patriarchical Mr Withers could be said, in Siegfried Sassoon's words, "to hunt a bitch pack" as there are two unmarried daughters, his wife, and three women in the kitchen, and only the god-like chauffeur Saxon to redress the balance. One further "character" haunts the book, like a spectre at the feast, and that is Money. The ups and downs of Mr Withers's financial affairs govern the daily happiness at The Eagles and affect the atmosphere crucially. He is like a marionette whose puppeteer is £sd.
"never could be sure what his money was up to........ he prowled uneasily after it in the financial columns of the Press".
"Mr. Withers's heart was fairly light as he set out for a walk ....... it was a fine day, the money was better..."
"Mr Withers, because the money had again rallied, was on top of the world. He showed it by suddenly giving the four women a pound each."
"It is a beautiful sight, Victor's money. It grows: it runs healthily round the country like a sound bloodstream: it never suffers from the palpitations and nerve storms that affect Mr. Withers's money".
It could be said that worrying about his money has robbed Mr Withers of many simple pleasures, and he acts in an emotional vacuum, completely unaware of the concerns and desires of the other women under his roof, except to deny and control them. In the main, they manage to subvert his plans, and each of the three young women achieves what she wants out of life despite his intervention. Stella Gibbons writes with delicate irony and a wry comic touch; having read of Mr Withers's combover on page 1, it is quite hard to take him seriously after that. A recurring motif after the Infirmary Ball, as the ladies prepare for bed, is the decreasing cost of their face cream........ Phyllis's at 6/6 a pot, Tina's at 2/6, while Viola "was already dreaming, with her face covered with a cream at sixpence a tube and a dance programme under her pillow".
If any publishers are out there wondering which seam to mine next, consider the OOP novels of Stella Gibbons.
"never could be sure what his money was up to........ he prowled uneasily after it in the financial columns of the Press".
"Mr. Withers's heart was fairly light as he set out for a walk ....... it was a fine day, the money was better..."
"Mr Withers, because the money had again rallied, was on top of the world. He showed it by suddenly giving the four women a pound each."
"It is a beautiful sight, Victor's money. It grows: it runs healthily round the country like a sound bloodstream: it never suffers from the palpitations and nerve storms that affect Mr. Withers's money".
It could be said that worrying about his money has robbed Mr Withers of many simple pleasures, and he acts in an emotional vacuum, completely unaware of the concerns and desires of the other women under his roof, except to deny and control them. In the main, they manage to subvert his plans, and each of the three young women achieves what she wants out of life despite his intervention. Stella Gibbons writes with delicate irony and a wry comic touch; having read of Mr Withers's combover on page 1, it is quite hard to take him seriously after that. A recurring motif after the Infirmary Ball, as the ladies prepare for bed, is the decreasing cost of their face cream........ Phyllis's at 6/6 a pot, Tina's at 2/6, while Viola "was already dreaming, with her face covered with a cream at sixpence a tube and a dance programme under her pillow".
If any publishers are out there wondering which seam to mine next, consider the OOP novels of Stella Gibbons.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A totally charming book in every way. A deeply satisfying cinderella story with a reasonably happy ending, plenty of humour, and the best description of an english spring i've ever read. I do hope more of her back catalogue returns to print, it would be a real shame to loose this kind of observational humour.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Starting backwards
Having heard the last few minutes of the radio four play of Nightingale Wood, I just had to get the book to find out how it began. Read more
Published 1 month ago by W. Aitken
Ironic and funny 1930s class warfare
A sardonic look at the pre-WWII British class structure, mostly from the top down, that poses the question: "Can the truly vapid and clueless (albeit moderately attractive) find... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Blue in Washington
Feel good read.
If you want to escape into another world, read this. Not quite as funny or quirky as Cold Comfort Farm, but as warming as a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in. Read more
Published 7 months ago by KAW
Satire
I am tempted to compare Stella Gibbons with Jane Austen. They both write about a small class of society in a golden age dealing mercilessly with their characters' weaknesses and... Read more
Published 9 months ago by E. Woolley
Engaging and fun but also rich
I had also enjoyed 'Cold Comfort Farm' and was looking for a read equally sparkling and light. Having finished 'Nightingale Wood' hours ago I can confirm that I found it more... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Poppy Field
Something nasty in the bookcase
I was seduced by Sophie Dahl's enthusiastic review and as I am such a fan of Stella Gibbons' classic 'Cold Comfort Farm', I settled down with great anticipation to thoroughly enjoy... Read more
Published 14 months ago by NEMO
A beautifully twisted fairytale
Nightingale Wood is a fairytale says the cover, and yes it is.
The story of Cinderella, set in the 1930s, still recognisable but twisted into something new and something... Read more
The story of Cinderella, set in the 1930s, still recognisable but twisted into something new and something... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Fleur Fisher
A cinderella for the 1930s
This is one of the most entertaining of Stella Gibbons's "other" novels, ie apart from "Cold Comfort Farm". Read more
Published 18 months ago by Reggie Oliver
1930s satire
An enjoyable read of the classic 1930s domestic type, a little bit fairytale and a little bit satire. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Multikulti
The very best kind of souffle!
This is such a fun book to read. Lightly and delicately it traces the lives and loves of Mr Withers and his family of women, the staunch if slightly bewildered Mrs Withers, his... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Jill Besterman
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