Marling Hall (VMC)

I love Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire series, and this book finds our favorite county families deep in the blackouts, rationing, deprivations and non-stop war work of WWII. Several reviews note this is darker than previous books, and I agree, but it is fitting that characters would stop at certain points and reflect on those they have lost; not that these very proper British gentry with their stiff upper lips would ever do something so embarrassing as wallow in self-reflection and self-pity, of course! That's just not done; as the saying goes, the Right Sort of People - Thirkell's books are shockingly snobbish by today's standards of who those people are - Keep Calm and Carry On. It was especially moving to me when Thirkell reflected on the difficulty her elderly characters face trying to deal with their world vanishing forever; yes, they are dreadfully politically incorrect, referring casually to any dark-skinned foreigners as the "n" word, which is always a jolt and gobsmacks the modern reader. But it is moving when Miss Bunting, or "Bunny", a beloved longtime governess to the best county families, reflects quietly at Christmas toward the end of the book on her charges that have been lost, and acknowledges that many more may not come home from the fighting. At the same time, Thirkell so bitingly and hilariously sums up scenes and characters that I find myself laughing out loud! Two such scenes, just to give a taste - Mrs. Marling and her adult daughters visit their cousins the Leslies for tea at Holdings, their family home. Lady Emily Leslie is aging and delightfully dotty, a million thoughts and comments going in different directions, and her adult daughter Agnes is soft, motherly, and totally besotted with motherhood and her 5 children. Between the children, the flaky but adorable Lady Emily and the oblivious Agnes, the Marling party begins to feel overwhelmed and seeks to extricate themselves: "Mrs. Marling felt that the family atmosphere of Holdings was closing round her like treacle and she and her party would gradually be absorbed and live there unnoticed till they died. It was now or never. She stepped over the hassock and said good-bye to Lady Emily." And this hilarious but refreshingly unsentimental introduction to a chapter about Christmas at Marling Hall: "Most of the principal characters in this book being by now thoroughly uncomfortable in their various ways, Christmas did its best to bring on the culminating point of horror." Sounds harsh to sentimental American ears, but she goes on to irreverently and humorously explain the joys of tons of family, servants, dogs, and luggage descending on the Hall, as the residents try to put on a traditional English Christmas among the deprivations and shortages of war. I love her humor, her warmth, and her sharp (but never vicious) wit - delightful!

not my usual type of reading material, but i have an interest in the WWII time period, so it was interesting to me from that point of view. i feel like i learned a lot about country life in england during that time, but i found the book itself rather tedious to read. so little happens in this novel, that when a ripple finally DOES wend its evil way across the domestic tranquility, it feels like a breath of fresh air -- albeit a maddening one! the author portrays the type of society that a woman like dr. laura would immediately be ostracized from -- for having the gall to speak up & tell it like it is. i guess i am just too american? i found myself wanting to SCREAM at some of the characters -- no doubt the author would be pleased, but i found it extremely exhausting; &, as a writer, i resented the obvious techniques the author used to manipulate me, the reader, into liking who she wanted me to like & into disliking who she wanted me to dislike -- but that's probably just me. as i said before, Marling Hall does NOT represent my usual taste in books. i think i was also expecting something a little more jane austiny (whose books i enjoy), which it definitely is NOT. so i don't want to discourage anyone who might enjoy a light romance, which this definitely IS. also, the copy i have is published by carroll & graf, but it doesn't have the problems mentioned by the other 2 reviewers -- my copy is clean & crisp.

Angela Thirkell's novels are terribly dated and un-PC today, but if you can get past that, there's a lot of skillful observation of character and a reasonable amount of humor. This one is not quite out of the top drawer, but should be satisfying to her fans (like me). Like most of her Barsetshire novels, it centers on a single family, the eponymous Marlings, but also updates us on other characters introduced in earlier novels. The main topic is the inconveniences and tragedies of life in rural England in the depths of the war. Rationing is much on everyone's mind, and motivates a lot of the goings-on. Upper lips are of course very stiff, so naturally no word of complaint is heard from the Marlings when they have to reduce their staff from 8 to 4! Thirkell's strengths and weaknesses are abundantly on display here. She genuinely cares for the county families who are her principal subject, and sensitively depicts the nuances of their behavior, feelings, and thoughts. Most appealing perhaps is the attractive war widow Lettice Watson, who is heroically bringing up two little girls all by herself, with the help of a nurse, a maid, and of course all her mother's servants when needed. Thirkell also has sly fun with a quartet of female factotums -- the aforementioned nurse, an annoying French governess, and two characters familiar from other novels: Lady Emily Leslie's perfect secretary Miss Merriman, and the formidable ex-governess Miss Bunting. But as usual, the main butts of Thirkell's jokes are those who for one reason or another don't fit into this tight little society. Mrs Smith, a widow whose manners are as appalling as her taste (Edwardian, of course), rents her house out to the equally dubious Harveys, a brother and sister from London, whose decidedly urban attitude make them inevitable outsiders in Thirkell's world. Like many a busy writer of comic novels, Thirkell never bothers to to breathe life into her minor characters. Every time they appear, they exhibit the single tic that identifies them. Sometimes this is funny, and sometimes it's tedious. So I guess my thumb is pointing at about 2 o'clock. If you're already a Thirkell fan, of course you'll read it. For those who haven't ventured into the Thirkell circle as yet, start elsewhere -- maybe one of the earlier novels, or Northbridge Rectory.

I love these Virago reprints! They are gorgeous and I devoutly hope Virago will republish all the Angela Thirkell's books! Great story also!

Wonderful!

Les Marling s'adaptent tant bien que mal aux changements qu'amènent dans leur vie la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Mais c'est finalement l'arrivée des Harvey, le frère et la soeur, qui pourraient le plus bouleverser leurs habitudes... C'est le genre de lecture qu'il faut savoir savourer, prendre le temps d'apprécier et je n'étais pas dans le bon état d'esprit pour cela. J'ai quelques difficultés à me concentrer en ce moment si l'intrigue n'est pas vraiment prenante et ce n'est certes pas le cas des romans d'Angela Thirkell où il ne se passe quasiment jamais rien. Habituellement, ce n'est pas un problème parce que c'est voulu, bien sûr, et que ses personnages m'amusent beaucoup mais ce ne fut pas le cas cette fois-ci. Je les ai trouvés, pour la plupart, plutôt ternes, sans peu d'intérêt, voire carrément agaçants. Les seules qui m'ont amusées ce sont les nurses, Miss Bunting en particulier, et j'ai hâte de découvrir l'opus qui lui est dédié. Mais quant à celui-ci, aussi difficile que ce soit pour moi de l'admettre, et malgré les parallèles interessants que l'on pourrait faire avec Mansfield Park, je n'ai pas vraiment apprécié ma lecture. Voilà, c'est dit. Ça n'enlève rien à mon envie de lire l'ensemble des Barsethsire Chronicles bien sûr, après tout il est rare que tous les tomes d'une série aussi longue soient aussi bons les uns que les autres, et je me suis trop souvent amusée à les lire pour leur en tenir rigueur.

Interesting read would recommend

A good read.

Am reading my way through the Barsetshire books, some are better than others, but I enjoyed this one. If your hobby is people watching (next to reading, of course) there will be lots to chuckle over.

This book was suggested by a friend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I shall read more by this author.