Cold Comfort Farm

What makes it funny?

The Starkadders give their troubles the grandeur of a rural tragedy; Flora sees things that need sorting out. Gibbons piles up guilty silences, lustful young men and terrifying sermons until the atmosphere becomes ridiculous. The invented country vocabulary joins in, including a coy term for Seth's sexual pursuits: mollocking.

The comedy at work

The novel sends up the solemnity and extravagant language of rural melodrama. Flora's interventions keep puncturing it. Wheaton Public Library's review highlights the wider targets too: class, romantic ideas about country life and cultural authorities who take themselves very seriously.

Try this if…

For readers who enjoy literary parody and eccentric families being reorganized by someone with complete confidence in her own judgment. One book-group reader reports not having laughed so much in a long time; another enjoyed it but hesitated to recommend it, calling it a matter of personal choice.

Good to know

The comedy includes sexual innuendo, pregnancy and caricatures of religious preaching. Invented dialect and odd turns in the plot are part of its style. The reviewer at Keeping Up With The Penguins enjoyed the book while finding the plotting uneven and the ending unsatisfying.