Boekverslag: Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
Samenvatting
Bookreport
Summary
1. The main-character in the book is Flora Poste. She is 19 years old and orphaned.
2. Flora stays the first days after her parents died with a friend, Mrs. Smilings. Mrs. Smilings thinks Flora should get a job and learn how to work, because she?s expensively educated with a lot of comforts. But Flora writes letters to her relatives in Scotland, Sussex and other areas in the UK, because she wants to live there and help with the house-keeping. Mrs. Smilings says that she cannot live off her relatives, but Flora persists that she?ll live on her relatives. She chooses the Starkaddar family of her niece in Sussex, who lives on Cold Comfort Farm. She has to leave the man she?s in love with, Charles, but she doesn?t want to admit that. On Cold Comfort Farm live a lot of people: there are 4 cousins, Micah, Urk, Caraway and Harkaway. Flora?s niece is Judith Starkadder, and her husband is a hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher, named Amos. Their children are Reuben, who?s life is the farm, and Seth, a young man who?s obsessed with girls and sex. Then there are two half-brothers of Amos: Luke and Mark, and an old man named Adam Lamsbreath. He is secretly in love with the soft and sweet Elfine, who seems very young to me. Adam also milks Aimless, Feckless, Graceless and Pointless, the cows, every day. The only bull they have is called Big Buisness. An other important person is Aunt Ada Doom, who said she ?saw something in the shed? but the book never tells what she actually saw there. She also knows about some problems the family had with Flora?s father, but that also stays a secret till the end. More people help on the farm but they?re not important to the story.
3. Flora wants to change the whole farm, tidy things up and bring order in the chaos. In the beginning she?s being the civilized women, but she changes as she gets to know the people on the farm. But while she?s improving the farm, she also improves the people there and that is not good. She actually manipulates people, and the people feel happy, but the end result is the destruction of the Starkaddar family. But the book is supposed to be humorous so actually you have to take everything not to seriously. Flora writes her experiences to Mrs. Smilings. The letters are short, but very funny: with a lot of criticism to the Starkaddars.
4. So, in the end the farm is more chaotic then it has ever been. Flora sends a letter to Charles, who said to her that if she couldn?t live there anymore, he would come and get her with his plane. So Flora packs her bags and leaves a note on the table in the kitchen. Without saying goodbye to any of the Starkaddars she leaves the farm with Charles in a plane.
5. I think the theme is that you can?t change and manipulate people, because the only result you get is trouble.
Story-techniques
The author writes like any other writer I think. She?s really good in writing funny things so I think that is a good quality of her writing. It?s funny that she writes in an ?accent-English?. That?s not so easy to read but it becomes more clear to the reader what kind of person says it.
The characters are good described so it?s not difficult to remember who somebody is as he returns again in the story. The author describes actually everything really good, the landscape, the farm, the rooms in the farm and other areas that occur in the book. You get really involved in the story because you know so much of everything that is there.
I couldn?t find in the book for how long Flora stays with the Starkaddar family, but I think it are a few months in the summer, because midsummer day occurred and the season was quite good.
You can read every thought of all the characters, except some secrets who only Judith, Amos, Adam and Aunt Ada Doom know.
Theme
I already did the theme of the book in the summary. Flora wants to change too much on the farm and manipulates her relatives but it ends totally wrong. It seems that the farm improves but after all it?s for nothing. The title is the name of the farm: Cold Comfort Farm. ?Cold? and ?comfort? are opposites of each other, it doesn?t really go together. So the farm has a weird name and I think it describes the ambience on the farm.
Literature-history
1. The book is first published in 1932.
2. Stella Dorothea Gibbons was born in 1902 in London. She went to North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College in London. She worked for about 10 years on various newspapers, including the Evening Standard. She first wrote a book of poems in 1930. Her first novel was Cold Comfort Farm and she won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for it in 1933. She wrote another 7 novels, some of them play also at Cold Comfort Farm, and 2 short stories. In 1950 appeared her Collected Poems. She married in 1933 with actor and singer Allan Webb and they had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.
3. The story has nothing to do with the political/economical situation in the UK in the 20s. It?s a book with the message that you shouldn?t try to change someone?s life. But it is a satire so don?t take everything too seriously.
4. I haven?t read any other novels or short stories of Stella Gibbons so I can?t compare this book to others.
Criticism
1. The funny passages have ofcourse a really positive working to me: they make me laugh and laughing is good for you! I also like it that the story ends quite happy, with Flora and Charles flying away and deeply in love. But before that happened Flora was being quite insipid because she left the farm alone with the trouble she had made!
2. Passages that were really interesting were the funny passages, so I just choose a few out of them: when the author introduces the cows with the funny names, when Flora asks Seth about a word she doesn?t know, but after seen Seth?s grimacing face she says quickly that she doesn?t need to know! Another great passage was when old Adam Lambsbreath, who is in love with the young Elfine, finds out that Graceless lost one of her legs, but he didn?t notice before, because he was so in love.
3. As I said in nr. 1 here, Flora left the farm without saying ?goodbye?, but she only left a short note. That?s not very tolerant of her I think, she made the farm more chaotic then ever! Other things that I didn?t like were the long descriptions of everything.
4. At the back-lid of the book there is a quotation from the Independent: ?Delicious ? Cold Comfort Farm has the sunniness of a P.G. Wodehouse and the comic aplomb of Evelyn Waugh?s Scoop?. I don?t know these books so I can?t compare but it sounds good because of the ?delicious? and ?sunniness?.
5. I didn?t know that manipulating people could make such trouble. I think you shouldn?t run away like Flora does, that is insipid. You should try to help them and give them their normal life back, well, if they still want you in their house ofcourse!
6. As I said before, it wasn?t too difficult to read and I liked the way the author wrote the ?accent-English?. And I could understand the jokes although some were really English proverbs. But a dictionary can help with those things.
7. It was a great, funny and interesting book. I couldn?t stop reading and I really wanted to know what would happen in the ending. It?s such a pity that you can?t discover what secrets the Starkadders have, you?ll never know!
8. Yes, I would recommend other people to read this book. It?s so funny and you?ll laugh your head of sometimes! It?s not difficult to read and that?s also a great advantage.
9. I couldn?t find any reviews of the book. I did find a review from a film they made of this book, but I can?t compare that because the film is different from the book.
Bookreport
Summary
1. The main-character in the book is Flora Poste. She is 19 years old and orphaned.
2. Flora stays the first days after her parents died with a friend, Mrs. Smilings. Mrs. Smilings thinks Flora should get a job and learn how to work, because she?s expensively educated with a lot of comforts. But Flora writes letters to her relatives in Scotland, Sussex and other areas in the UK, because she wants to live there and help with the house-keeping. Mrs. Smilings says that she cannot live off her relatives, but Flora persists that she?ll live on her relatives. She chooses the Starkaddar family of her niece in Sussex, who lives on Cold Comfort Farm. She has to leave the man she?s in love with, Charles, but she doesn?t want to admit that. On Cold Comfort Farm live a lot of people: there are 4 cousins, Micah, Urk, Caraway and Harkaway. Flora?s niece is Judith Starkadder, and her husband is a hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher, named Amos. Their children are Reuben, who?s life is the farm, and Seth, a young man who?s obsessed with girls and sex. Then there are two half-brothers of Amos: Luke and Mark, and an old man named Adam Lamsbreath. He is secretly in love with the soft and sweet Elfine, who seems very young to me. Adam also milks Aimless, Feckless, Graceless and Pointless, the cows, every day. The only bull they have is called Big Buisness. An other important person is Aunt Ada Doom, who said she ?saw something in the shed? but the book never tells what she actually saw there. She also knows about some problems the family had with Flora?s father, but that also stays a secret till the end. More people help on the farm but they?re not important to the story.
3. Flora wants to change the whole farm, tidy things up and bring order in the chaos. In the beginning she?s being the civilized women, but she changes as she gets to know the people on the farm. But while she?s improving the farm, she also improves the people there and that is not good. She actually manipulates people, and the people feel happy, but the end result is the destruction of the Starkaddar family. But the book is supposed to be humorous so actually you have to take everything not to seriously. Flora writes her experiences to Mrs. Smilings. The letters are short, but very funny: with a lot of criticism to the Starkaddars.
4. So, in the end the farm is more chaotic then it has ever been. Flora sends a letter to Charles, who said to her that if she couldn?t live there anymore, he would come and get her with his plane. So Flora packs her bags and leaves a note on the table in the kitchen. Without saying goodbye to any of the Starkaddars she leaves the farm with Charles in a plane.
5. I think the theme is that you can?t change and manipulate people, because the only result you get is trouble.
Story-techniques
The author writes like any other writer I think. She?s really good in writing funny things so I think that is a good quality of her writing. It?s funny that she writes in an ?accent-English?. That?s not so easy to read but it becomes more clear to the reader what kind of person says it.
The characters are good described so it?s not difficult to remember who somebody is as he returns again in the story. The author describes actually everything really good, the landscape, the farm, the rooms in the farm and other areas that occur in the book. You get really involved in the story because you know so much of everything that is there.
I couldn?t find in the book for how long Flora stays with the Starkaddar family, but I think it are a few months in the summer, because midsummer day occurred and the season was quite good.
You can read every thought of all the characters, except some secrets who only Judith, Amos, Adam and Aunt Ada Doom know.
Theme
I already did the theme of the book in the summary. Flora wants to change too much on the farm and manipulates her relatives but it ends totally wrong. It seems that the farm improves but after all it?s for nothing. The title is the name of the farm: Cold Comfort Farm. ?Cold? and ?comfort? are opposites of each other, it doesn?t really go together. So the farm has a weird name and I think it describes the ambience on the farm.
Literature-history
1. The book is first published in 1932.
2. Stella Dorothea Gibbons was born in 1902 in London. She went to North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College in London. She worked for about 10 years on various newspapers, including the Evening Standard. She first wrote a book of poems in 1930. Her first novel was Cold Comfort Farm and she won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for it in 1933. She wrote another 7 novels, some of them play also at Cold Comfort Farm, and 2 short stories. In 1950 appeared her Collected Poems. She married in 1933 with actor and singer Allan Webb and they had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.
3. The story has nothing to do with the political/economical situation in the UK in the 20s. It?s a book with the message that you shouldn?t try to change someone?s life. But it is a satire so don?t take everything too seriously.
4. I haven?t read any other novels or short stories of Stella Gibbons so I can?t compare this book to others.
Criticism
1. The funny passages have ofcourse a really positive working to me: they make me laugh and laughing is good for you! I also like it that the story ends quite happy, with Flora and Charles flying away and deeply in love. But before that happened Flora was being quite insipid because she left the farm alone with the trouble she had made!
2. Passages that were really interesting were the funny passages, so I just choose a few out of them: when the author introduces the cows with the funny names, when Flora asks Seth about a word she doesn?t know, but after seen Seth?s grimacing face she says quickly that she doesn?t need to know! Another great passage was when old Adam Lambsbreath, who is in love with the young Elfine, finds out that Graceless lost one of her legs, but he didn?t notice before, because he was so in love.
3. As I said in nr. 1 here, Flora left the farm without saying ?goodbye?, but she only left a short note. That?s not very tolerant of her I think, she made the farm more chaotic then ever! Other things that I didn?t like were the long descriptions of everything.
4. At the back-lid of the book there is a quotation from the Independent: ?Delicious ? Cold Comfort Farm has the sunniness of a P.G. Wodehouse and the comic aplomb of Evelyn Waugh?s Scoop?. I don?t know these books so I can?t compare but it sounds good because of the ?delicious? and ?sunniness?.
5. I didn?t know that manipulating people could make such trouble. I think you shouldn?t run away like Flora does, that is insipid. You should try to help them and give them their normal life back, well, if they still want you in their house ofcourse!
6. As I said before, it wasn?t too difficult to read and I liked the way the author wrote the ?accent-English?. And I could understand the jokes although some were really English proverbs. But a dictionary can help with those things.
7. It was a great, funny and interesting book. I couldn?t stop reading and I really wanted to know what would happen in the ending. It?s such a pity that you can?t discover what secrets the Starkadders have, you?ll never know!
8. Yes, I would recommend other people to read this book. It?s so funny and you?ll laugh your head of sometimes! It?s not difficult to read and that?s also a great advantage.
9. I couldn?t find any reviews of the book. I did find a review from a film they made of this book, but I can?t compare that because the film is different from the book.
Boek informatie
- Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
- Stella Dorothea Gibbons
- Engels
Handige opties
- Meer boeken van:Stella Dorothea Gibbons