Slightly Less Beloved Classics takes a second look at the lesser-known works of celebrated authors. Here we shall decide what is to remain by the wayside and what is to be led gaily back home, lauded with timbrels and trumpets and fatted calves. This first installment concerns English novelist Stella Gibbons and the insufficiently famous Nightingale Wood.
Stella Gibbons, if she is remembered now at all, is best known for the admittedly delightful Cold Comfort Farm (later made into an equally delightful film in 1995 with Kate Beckinsale and the bad guy from A Knight’s Tale), her satirical 1932 novel about the tragedies of rural English life, where Thomas Hardy and the Brontë sisters get it in equal measure.
If you are a particular type of bookish woman–reflective without being sentimental, easily drawn out but rarely forward–this is the kind of book you read often and deeply cherish. You know about what Aunt Ada Doom saw in the woodshed. You may very well long for your own cletterin’ brush. But Stella Gibbons did not lay down her pen in 1932, content to skewer ANGUISH ON THE MOORS but the once, and write nevermore. She went on to publish more than twenty additional novels, the best of which may very well be Nightingale Wood.
It is more than a bit like the Cinderella story. There’s an orphan of sorts, and something of a prince. Sophie Dahl, in the introduction to the 2008 edition, writes that “Prince Charming is charming, yes, but he’s also a little dull, vulgar and complacent. Cinderella is beautiful and true, yet a tad apathetic.” The stepsisters, for their part, are more prosaic and self-centered than cruel, even a little downtrodden. They have their own adventures to worry about. Also, there are multiple garden parties, an excellent addition to any novel.
No one can sketch a fully-fleshed character in as few words as Gibbons. On Mr. Wither, the novel’s closest equivalent to an evil stepmother (really more of a dreary, slightly befuddled step-guardian) and his interactions with his wife of 40 years:
Mrs. Wither came in, but he took no notice of her because he had seen her before.
That’s on the first page, by the way. And there are lines this good on almost every other page, too, I can assure you.
Do you normally pride yourself on being rational and practical, only to shock yourself with how quickly and gleefully you surrendered to foolishness and naïveté the first time you fell truly in love? Stella Gibbons understands:
“It has been hinted that her [Viola’s] nature was affectionate; now that it had received encouragement there was no holding it; she was in love, so much in love that she did not realize that it was Wednesday morning and the letter had not come; and that the man she was in love with was the legendary Victor Spring. Victor had now become Him. He was less of a real person than ever. She never once thought about his character or his income or his mother. She was drunk. She wandered about like a dazzled moth, smiling dreamily, and running downstairs when the postman came, crying:
‘Anything for me?’
He had said: ‘Good. I’ll write to you,’ so of course he would. It was not like last time when he had not said anything.”
Allow yourself a pang of remembrance, but pass over the self-recrimination.
Do you like heroines? This book is chockablock with them. You can’t throw a stone within its pages (not that you could, of course, but if you did) without hitting one.
Do you like dreamy, beautiful girls whose inner lives develop richness and depth after falling in love? Meet Viola. She has grey eyes.
Do you like snappy, peevish girls who prefer books to people and have a knack for saying the wrong thing? Meet Hetty. She becomes a Communist.
‘I want to go to College. I want to be educated. I want to meet interesting people. And I want a job,’ said Hetty, in a savagely careful voice as though she were repeating a lesson. ‘And I see no reason–absolutely no reason at all, Aunt Edna, why I should not do those four things. That is why I don’t care for dancing or the Bunny Andrews of the world. But there is no point in prolonging this argument, is there? Shall I wear the gold shoes or the brown satin?’
Do you like plain, frowsy outdoorswomen who only care about dogs and sports? Meet Madge. She gets to triumph over her father in small but significant ways.
Do you like women who suddenly wake up in their mid-30s and run headfirst toward everything they have always wanted? Meet Tina. She learns how to drive.
There are fairy godparents, too, although not for Cinderella. There is very little magic, but there is a handsome chauffeur and a house-fire and more than one heart is transformed. There is more than one wedding, and more than one woman who does not wed at all, and there are dogs, and feverish assignations. It is as delightfully practical as it is delightfully romantic.
It must be odd to be as happy as that, thinks Hetty, following down the church between the ranks of smiling, moved, wistful faces. I’d sooner have my life than hers.
Works Referenced
Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm (Amazon| Indiebound)
Stella Gibbons, Nightingale Wood (Amazon | Indiebound)
Tags: behaving foolishly in love, books, cold comfort farm, read everything, slightly less beloved classics, stella gibbons
I need to read this right now.
I had never heard of any of these things. The Toast is clearly where I will discover just how ill-educated I am.
Oh wow I’ve never read anything by Stella Gibbons other than Cold Comfort Farm, must rectify this. ‘something nasty in the woodshed’ is such a meme in my family.
Ahhhh yesssss! Words cannot describe how much I love Stella Gibbons! Westwood is my favourite though- awkward bookish Margaret Steggles (!) falls in with a group of bohemians, and much fun and misunderstandings ensue. I just found this exchange between her and the Jewish refugee who lives with them:
“Margaret, I haf a many sadness. I tell you about it.”
Margaret was so inexperienced as a confidante that no feeling of dismay overcame her on hearing this threat; indeed she hardly heard what Zita said, so overjoyed was she at the prospect of frequent visits to Westwood as Zita’s friend.”
Ahh! I’ve never met another person who’s even heard of “Westwood”, let alone read it. I love it, too, although sometimes I’m hesitant to recomend it even to people who love “Cold Comfort Farm” because it’s such a different book. It’s funny in parts, but for the most part is wistful and a little bittersweet. It makes me think of autumn, and people resigning themselves to things.
Warning to potential readers: there is an old-fashioned and rather dismaying portrayal of a little girl with Down’s Syndrome (lots of talk about creepy blank eyes, for instance), but don’t let it turn you off the book altogether. I’ve learned to accept such things as products of their time and move on.
Allow yourself a pang of remembrance, but pass over the self-recrimination.
Brb, getting this tattooed on all parts of my body that I see on a regular basis.
Ahhhh wonderful! Next you must do Villette! Jane Eyre is obviously amazing but Villette is my deep passion.
Ah, there was a great Villette post on the Hairpin a few years back!
Had to go searching and of course you are so right. VILLETTE!!
(late to the party) I am reading Villette and wondered on a forum if I should carry on, because nothing had really happened yet at a quarter of the way through. And someone was all like “you should totally carry on reading if you like spoilery spolier things things that happen” except instead of spoilery spoiler SHE ACTUALLY WROTE WHAT HAPPENS. Ugh.
(latest to the party) I SAW THAT and it was awful.
OH MY GOD WHO ARE YOU (too excited/weirded out)
A lurker. I don’t think I’ve ever commented there at all. “brave” though fwiw
Ah ok. I’m so glad someone agreed with me. I may have overreacted. But still! Spoilers, man.
Nahhhh, I think they overreacted to being called out.
I object. He-who-was-the-bad-guy-in-A-Knight’s-Tale is the actor who played Stanislaw in the BBC series of Middlemarch, Rufus Sewell, and I’ve tipped my cap for him. How can some much swarthy manliness from Dark City and The Illusionist be relegated merely as “the bad guy”???
Okay, now I’m gonna read the article; I just had to pop down here to mention stuff.
Poor Rufus Sewell got really locked into the typecasting as the bad guy for a while there, which is a shame because he’s delightful. (His small part as a pastor in Amazing Grace is lovely.)
I think you mean Ladislaw. And yes, Sewell is gorgeous,though I dislike that adaptation.
“A particular type of bookish woman–reflective without being sentimental, easily drawn out but rarely forward.”
My people! This does sound exactly like the kind of book I would read and adore, and I already know before I read it that Hetty will be my favorite character. I really should just start a new reading list for books I discover on The Toast….
…I may have made a Pinboard. I will keep it updated with titles from review posts, Jaya Catches Up, This Week In Reading, &c.
It’s odd that as much as I love CCF that I haven’t sought out any more Stella Gibbons.
I will right that wrong!
Also, Westwood!
I just added Nightingale Wood to my wishlist the other week! The Toast be creepin’ through my search history
This is tragically unavailable as a print book in my library system. To the bookstore! CCF is one of my favourites; why did it never occur to me to read more Stella Gibbons??
It is tragic, TRAGIC, that I have not read this. Also and related: I am totally a “Flora”.
I love Cold Comfort Farm. And I love the movie. It’s my favorite “movie to nap to,” which is actually high praise.
ALSO! the book CCF is weirdly futuristic. Just subtle things here and there to let you know that it’s a slightly alternate reality, but I think that’s one of the charmingly weird things about the book.
I misread this as “movie to rap to,” which would be absolutely stellar.
well someone (not me) should definitely write a CCF rap, and I think Starkadder would be a pretty great hip hop name. The album, Nasty in the Woodshed, drops next spring.
Why does my library not have this book?? Boo.
well someone (not me) should definitely write a CCF rap, and I think Starkadder would be a pretty great hip hop name. The album, Nasty in the Woodshed, drops next spring.
Clearly I need to buy this book today.
Clearly I need to buy this book today.
Just bought this. Thanks!