First published 1932
Flora Poste finds herself orphaned and nearly penniless, forcing her to seek refuge with distant relatives she has never met. She arrives at Cold Comfort Farm to discover the Starkadder family trapped in cycles of melodrama and mutual torment. The relatives wallow in ancient grievances and romantic entanglements that have festered for years. Flora observes their theatrical suffering with detached amusement and decides to apply her practical nature to their problems. She sets about reorganizing their chaotic household with the efficiency of someone accustomed to managing social situations. Each family member presents a different puzzle of dysfunction that Flora methodically solves through manipulation, bribery, and common sense. The farm becomes her laboratory for testing whether rational intervention can cure irrational behavior. Flora discovers that fixing other people's lives provides her with both entertainment and purpose in her newly reduced circumstances.
Genres: fiction, domestic-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, comedy, family-drama
Vibes: thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, rational-intervention
Setting: Cold Comfort Farm
Period: 20th-century
256 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics