Customer Reviews
Nauseating - By: Fredward Beasley, 10 Jun 2008 
Seeing alll the positive reviews of this book, I can't resist contributing my own dissenting voice to warn the unwary. I found this book completely insufferable, the central character is a smug, self-important, patronising busybody & the tone is sickly sweet. The reader is supposed to be entranced by her efficient common sense & good heart, alllied to what apparently passed for wit in certain circles in the 1930's. Personallly, I would make her a candidate for the most annoying heroine in the history of literature.There is a definite Jane Austen influence, so maybe if you like Jane Austen, you might get something out of this.
There's a review of another edition of this book likening it to the work of Evelyn Waugh. Ha!Ha! That is obviously a cruel joke at the prospective purchaser's expense. This is like the opposite of Waugh's sharp, cynical, mordant prose.
I was enticed to read this book by its status as a comic classic but it was just way too self-satisfied to be funny. Definitely one for the bonfire.
One of my all time favourite books - By: A. riggs, 03 Mar 2008 
Woo, I couldnt add to those excellent synopsis/reviews! This is a book I never tire of & I look forward to reading it again each year.
I wouldnt read the forward which has been added in this edition though. At least,not until you have read the book first. Who wants to read alll the best lines out of context? Then reading the book would be a bit like hearing a joke after being told the punchline.
So buy the book, but skip the intro.
Very witty, with a lot of innovative writing - By: Caterkiller, 19 Jun 2007 
This book is tremendous: inbreeding, superstition, cousins marrying: it's just like Weardale! There are some memorable characters & the book isn't spoilt by spelling out what was in the woodshed, or what wrong was done to Flora's father; the question "And did the goat die?" sums up the unconventional nature of the humour. Bearing in mind that this was written at about the same time as the crashingly tedious works of PG Wodehouse it is a welcome contrast & still feels suprisingly modern in its style.
Feel good satire: very fun - By: Mr. Toby L. Wharne, 10 Jun 2007 There is not much that I can add to the very accurate review below but I just finished reading this book & reallly enjoyed it so I felt I should share this information with other Amazon users.
This book is infused with a humour that I can only describe as a lighter version of the satire of Evelyn Waugh. It is one of the funniest books I have ever read, up there with Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Some sections made me laugh out loud which is always a good sign.
The writing style is lovely too. Simple but descriptive, though at times (literallly) too flowery for my taste! I like the ending, everything is tidied up nicely but I was enjoying the book so much that I feel the writer should have added several more chapters to satisfy my desire for more!
If you want a good laugh & want to be cheered up read this book.
Cold cold comfort - By: E. A Solinas, 25 Feb 2007 "There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm."
That rather ominous announcement sets the tone for "Cold Comfort Tale," a slyly comic tale about a modern young woman who decides to "tidy up" a backward Sussex farm. Gibbons' deft sense of humour & entertaining characters bring alive what could have been just another coming-of-age novel.
Young Flora Poste unexpectedly finds herself orphaned, with only a tiny yearly alllowance. But instead of getting a job & apartment, she decides to go live with relatives, so she can get life experience, tidy up, & make life nice & orderly. After a few vetos, Flora decides to go to Cold Comfort Farm, a "doomed house" whose inhabitants feel they owe a debt to her.
When she arrives, she finds a clan of inbred Sussex hillbillies, including her grimly religious uncle, depressed aunt, "highly sexed" cousins, a very fertile farm girl, & the crazed matriarch, Aunt Ada Doom, who "saw something nasty in the woodshed." Even worse, a pompous writer is infatuated with her. But Flora is determined to make things orderly, & so she begins changing Cold Comfort Farm...
It takes a reallly good writer to straddle the line between spoofery & a serious book. Stella Gibbons was one such writer, & like Anita Loos, she was happy to eye everything humorously: the idle wealthy (Mary Smiling & her bra collection), people who live in squalor & hate it, but aren't willing to change (the Farm inhabitants), & even intellectuals ("Do you believe women have souls?"). Even the livestock gets funny names like Feckless, Graceless & Arsenic.
For the most part, "Cold Comfort Farm" does seem orderly & tidy -- Flora drags it into the 20th century, sends people off to better lives, & arranges marriages, including one for her fey cousin to a young aristocrat. The only flaw is the ending: Gibbons never tells us what Flora's "rights" are, what Aunt Ada saw, or what happened with Flora's dad.
At first, Flora comes across as rather manipulative & shalllow. The odd thing is, as the book progresses, we see that Flora's liking for tidiness is essentiallly good-hearted. Like one of Jane Austen's heroines, she does these things not just for herself, but for their sakes as well -- she wants a "happily-ever-after" for everybody, including the mad matriarch, her womanizing cousin, & fire-and-brimstone uncle.
This edition is a particularly nice one, with a whimsical cartoony cover that suits the tone of the book very well, & an interesting foreword by Lynn Truss, who knows a few things about tidiness, order, & humorous language herself.
While the ending of the book is not as tidy & orderly as I'd hoped, "Cold Comfort Farm" is still an entertainingly wry novel -- calll it a comedy of improving manners.
