Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Farm (September 1932) is the first book by British author Stella Gibbons. Upon publication, it became an instant success. The comic novel is a parody of rural romances that were popular in Britain at the time. The story was adapted for two BBC television shows in 1968 and 1981. It was also made into a film starring Kate Beckinsale in 1995. Cold Comfort Farm is classified under the category of Classic Humor Fiction. It was named to a list of the 100 Most Influential Novels by BBC News.

Gibbons wrote two more books about the characters from Cold Comfort Farm, the primary setting of the novel named in the title. A prequel called Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (1940) consisted of a series of short stories. The sequel was titled Conference at Cold Comfort Farm (1949). Neither of the spinoffs achieved the same success as the original story. Although Gibbons wrote 22 more novels and several collections of poetry, her subsequent work never matched the success of her first book.

The events described in the novel take place over a five-month period from February through June. Given the book’s publication date, the reader can assume that the year is 1931. The action begins in London, and several subsequent scenes take place in the city. However, most of the story unfolds at Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex. The story is told using a limited third-person narration from the viewpoint of the novel’s protagonist Flora Poste. A few other scenes offer internal monologues conducted by Adam, Aunt Ada, and Judith.

As the tale opens, 20-year-old Flora Poste has recently been orphaned. She identifies with the upper class, but she has inherited very little money on which to live. Flora has a decisive personality and likes life to be orderly in all respects. She decides to write to distant relatives and ask for a place to stay in exchange for her small annual income. After receiving several uninteresting replies, Flora is intrigued by a gloomy response from her cousin Judith in which Judith hints that the Starkadder family owes Flora recompense for some wrong done to Flora’s father. Judith invites Flora to make Cold Comfort Farm her home.

When Flora arrives, she finds an emotionally dysfunctional family. Guided by her pragmatism, Flora makes it her mission to organize their chaotic lives. As the novel follows Flora’s adventures, it explores the themes of obsession versus reality and the dangers of remaining mired in the past. The author also satirizes the overwrought rural melodramas that were so popular with reading audiences at the time.

NOTE: All page numbers are taken from the Must Have Books print edition of the novel (2019).

Plot Summary

Flora Poste, having received an expensive but useless education, has no idea how to earn a living. She becomes aware of this fact when her parents die suddenly, leaving her only 100 pounds of income per year. She declines several invitations to live with relatives, including an invitation from her attractive cousin Charles and his mother. Flora is intrigued by an invitation from her Starkadder relations, who own a property in Sussex called Cold Comfort Farm.

Once Flora arrives at the farm, she is struck by the overwrought behavior of her relatives. Flora is determined to sort all of them out, in particular her Cousin Judith, her husband Amos, and their three children, Reuben, Seth, and Elfine, who all live under the thumb of elderly Aunt Ada. Aunt Ada is the family matriarch, and she stays in an upstairs room, rarely coming down to make an appearance. She claims to have seen something nasty in the woodshed at the age of two that so unnerved her, she has been traumatized ever since. Flora forms the opinion that Aunt Ada is only traumatized when it suits her purposes, and she sets out to break the old lady’s iron hold over her family.

Over the course of the novel, Flora learns what each of her family members wants most in life and finds a way to give it to them. She even succeeds in convincing Aunt Ada to come downstairs and enjoy life in the outer world again. Having completed her mission of tidying up the Starkadders, Flora leaves Cold Comfort Farm to marry her cousin Charles, and everyone lives happily ever after.