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Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Modern Classics)
 
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Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Stella Gibbons (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (27 April 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141182652
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141182650
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 173,667 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

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

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Product Description

Product Description
Flora has been expensively educated to do everything but earn her own living. When she is orphaned at 20, she decides her only option is to go and live with her relatives, the Starkadders, at Cold Comfort Farm. What relatives though. Flora feels it incumbent upon her to bring order into the chaos.

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Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Modern Classics)
50% buy the item featured on this page:
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Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD]
7% buy
Cold Comfort Farm [1995] [DVD] 4.8 out of 5 stars (10)
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars SOMETHING NASTY HAPPENED IN THE WOODSHED..., 31 Dec 2002
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 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.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun on the Farm!, 26 April 2005
By Mrs. D. J. Smith "eowyngreenleaf" (Luton, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Cold Comfort Farm is a genuinely funny modern classic. Orphaned at 20 and with only £100 a year, Flora Poste kindly offers herself out to a collection of relatives and thus finds herself at Cold Comfort Farm - and there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm! What follows is Flora's attempt to 'civilize' the inhabitants of the farm and organise their lives in a series of entertaining events. If Flora admires Jane Austen, there is certainly a touch of Emma Woodhouse about Flora! The ending is absolutely classic, and although we never find out what Ada Doom saw in the woodshed that was so nasty, or the wrong done to Robert Poste, Flora's father, or indeed if the goat survived, perhaps the imagination is best served by these remaining bizarre mysteries! The book and its varied inhabitants will stay with you long after you have finished reading it!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Mishaps and adventures in the English countryside., 7 Jul 2005
By A Customer
This book is hilarious and will have any reader laughing, especially if they are familiar with D.H.Lawerence's body of work, for this novel is "A National Lampoon" of his and others novelist revisionism which was highly popular at the time of this book's publishation. It also gives a sly wink to Jane Austen, with Flo echoing the lead of Austen's novel "Emma". If you enjoy P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves & Wooster books, them you'll love this. Well worth buying.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing or diverting but hardly 'very funny'
Well, that is how bossy-boots Flora instructs Elfine in how to express herself ...

It sets out to be an amusing little read about nothing and it largely succeeds... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mrs P

4.0 out of 5 stars Timeless entertainment
Apologies to all those on my flight last week who could hear me sniggering and chuckling as I absorbed Cold Comfort Farm. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2006 by Zannie

1.0 out of 5 stars Yawn after yawn
This is the most over-hyped book i have ever tried to plough through!!I simply cannot understand why anyone would claim this to be a favourite book. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing nasty in THIS woodshed!
Fantastic!

It took me a while to get around to reading Stella Gibbons' masterpiece, but the waiting was well worth it. Read more

Published on 8 Feb 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest book i have ever read
A true modern classic, I don't think any other book will even come close to knocking this off from its position as my favourite ever book. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2003 by wildgypsy_01

4.0 out of 5 stars TERRIFIC FUN
The equivalent of comfort food, a long bath, a glass of wine and a night in with a video. This is a very funny, occasionally very clever and light-hearted novel: moral in a sense... Read more
Published on 27 May 2003 by Lovborg

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic
Well when i began to read this book it literally sent me to sleep but i persisted and i found it hard to put down, i wanted to find out what Flora was going to do next! Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2000

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