Cold Comfort Farm

Flora is a Mary Poppins without the magic, an Emma in the 1930's, a strong willed and confident 19-year-old who finds herself orphaned and without cash.

She's not the type to worry or grieve. Homeless, she invites herself to the farm of some relations known as the Starkadders. They're all stuck in a rut, a bit dark and gloomy, led by the intimidating and incoherent presence of Aunt Ada. “Busybody” Flora gets to work and changes the Starkadders narrow lives for the better.

Flora maneuvers her relatives into doing what she thinks they would be best at and plays matchmaker for the younger set. Not so much because she cares for her relatives, but because she just can't leave things alone and, in her mind, they're not capable of doing the right thing without her!

It's a fast and funny novel, nothing too complex. I was really in the mood for some humor and this did the trick. Flora is amusingly vain and superior; she's tart, not sweet. There's some cynical lines like these that keep the book from being too cute for its own good:

“Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.”

“Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?”

“That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.”

This was written nearly 90 years ago, but I do think it has a timeless appeal.