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Cold Comfort Farm (Essential Penguin)
 
 
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Cold Comfort Farm (Essential Penguin) (Paperback)

by Stella Gibbons (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD] DVD ~ Kate Beckinsale

Cold Comfort Farm (Essential Penguin) + Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD]
Price For Both: £13.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (3 Sep 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140274146
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140274141
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.4 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 29,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > G > Gibbons, Stella

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Product Description

Product Description
A classic of its kind, a dazzling parody of the earthy, melodramatic novels of the period. Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn her own living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only option is to go and live with her relatives the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm. What relatives, though: Judith, alone in her grief; raving old Ada Doom, who once saw something nasty in the woodshed; Amos, called by God; Seth, smouldering with sex; and Elfine, whojust needs a little polish. Flora feels it incumbent upon her to bring order into the chaos. And she turns out to be remarkably good at it.

About the Author
Stella Gibbons was born in 1902. She studied journalism at University College, London, and then worked for ten years on various papers, including The Evening Standard. COLD COMFORT FARM, her first novel, was published in 1932, and was followed by other novels, short stories, and poems. She died in 1989.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Cold Comfort Farm (Essential Penguin)
70% buy the item featured on this page:
Cold Comfort Farm (Essential Penguin) 4.1 out of 5 stars (28)
£6.99
Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Classics)
14% buy
Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Classics) 4.0 out of 5 stars (7)
£6.99
Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD]
6% buy
Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD] 4.8 out of 5 stars (10)
£6.98
I Capture the Castle (Vintage Classics)
5% buy
I Capture the Castle (Vintage Classics) 4.7 out of 5 stars (72)
£4.79
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars SOMETHING NASTY HAPPENED IN THE WOODSHED..., 11 Mar 2003
By Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
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 innocuously 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.

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A total joy!, 19 Mar 2007
By Andy Millward (Broxbourne, Herts, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Cold Comfort Farm is a total joy from beginning to end. Stella Gibbons populated her book with wonderful characters and takes delight in using her command of the English language to extract humour from their every whim. Her style is not unlike Evelyn Waugh and none the worse for the comparison. Small wonder that this slim volume has become among the most loved comic novels of the 20th Century. Heartily recommended for the pleasure of one and all.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless treasure., 17 Oct 2001
By mogasdunlop@aol.com (Essex, England) - See all my reviews
Cold Comfort Farm is the tale of Flora Poste, an orphan of 19, who is in every sense of the word a modern women. She decides to spend time with her farmer cousins the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm in deepest Sussex. The Starkadder family consists of an amazing array of characters. Aunt Ada Doom, a control freak of serious proportions; who when no bigger than a 'titty wren' "saw something" in the woodshed. What, we are never told. Aunt Ada uses this incident to help maintain her all prevading control over the family. Cousin Judith and her husband Amos, who's spare time is spent preaching "hell fire and brimstone" to a local sect called the "Brethern" His yet unrecognised goal, but soon to be fulfilled, is to become a Preacher touring the county in a Ford van. There are the sons, Seth and Rubin. Seth is a smooth, oily, handsome young man who's abiding passion is the movies closely followed by "molloking". When Flora asks what molloking is, she quickly decides that she need not know. Rubin the eldest son is a man of the soil. His only interest is the farm. His whole world stops and starts at the farm gate. Elfine, a woodland sprite of the most intidy sort, in severe need of guidance. Adam Lambsbreath, so sunk in the ways of Cold Comfort Farm as to be at one with the dumb beasts he tends. The animals themselves, Viper the great gelding, Big Business the bull and of course, Aimless, Feckless, Graceless and Pointless the milk cows, who seem to understand more than their human guardians. These are the people that Flora takes her on herself to "help and guide", to what in her opinion are more fulfilled, satisfactory and tidy lifes. Needless to say not without a great deal of opposition. The humour is wicked, irreverent and eagle eyed. The very absurdities of the story are so true to real life that it is completely believable. A gem that must give pleasure to any reader, a must for any library.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Funny
I really like this book. I found it's light hearted humour very entertaining and at times frankly hilarious! Read more
Published 2 days ago by K. J. Dean

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little country classic!
This small book is a real treat! It's a parody of country life, with some very eccentric, warm and wild characters who provide a lot of humour. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Cumming

2.0 out of 5 stars You need to know the genre to appreciate this I think...
I bought this book as it was listed as 'hysterically funny' and a great parody - I kept on with it as I expected to start laughing at every page turn. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Fiona Wilton

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyful, warm and funny
I put off reading this for ages, thinking it might be funny in a bleak and savage way (Tom Sharpe rather than PG Wodehouse) - but then it kept turning up in lists of people's... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs Norris

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic
I'd heard of Cold Comford Farm, remembered seeing bits when it was televised, but had got out of the habit of reading. Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. Clark

1.0 out of 5 stars poor writing
This was a boring book, the style is difficult to follow and it's unfunny in today's times. It may have been funny in 1932 but in 2008 it just seems pointless. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Nathan Strange

5.0 out of 5 stars A COMIC MASTERPIECE!
A comic masterpiece from start to finish, Stella Gibbons conjures up enough gothic horrors to fill up a farmhouse and several outbuildings and sends Robert Poste`s child to sort... Read more
Published 18 months ago by M. Drake

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest books of all time
This book is wonderful. I first read it at as a teenager and come back to it time and time again. If you're looking for roustabout toilet humour don't buy this book. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring beyond belief.
I had been meaning to read this book for such a long time, partly because of the many good reviews, but what a disappointment! Read more
Published on 28 May 2007 by Mr. Colin D. Attwood

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't work for me
Kept seeing this as a book I should read - I did. OK there was some humour in it and some good characterisations but it didn't live up to the hype for me. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2005 by totnes_nigel

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