Cold Comfort Farm

“Cold Comfort Farm” is set in the near future according to the note before the dedication. How does this affect the story? Do you think contemporary readers viewed the setting differently than we do today?

In the Forward, the author mentions that she as a journalist and that "the life of a journalist is nasty, brutish, and short. So is his style." a. Do you agree or disagree with both comments? b. Her quote is a reference to Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” which promotes the idea that a strong monarch is the most effective form of government. Do you see any parallels between a strong monarch and the main character, Flora Poste?

The book opens with a quote from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Do you see similarities between Flora Poste and Jane Austen's heroines, like Elizabeth Bennett of “Pride and Prejudice” and Emma Woodhouse of “Emma?” Are these parallels intended to satirize or honor Austen?

Baedeker is a German publishing house most famous in the 19th and 20th century for their travel guides. Gibbons states in the Forward that she will set off certain passages in the novel with one, two, or three asterisks in the form of Baedeker. What is the effect of these passages and did you find it distracting or did you find that it supported the story line?

The author was inspired to parody the “loam and lovechild” novels of authors like Mary Webb, as well as earlier works by Thomas Hardy, and claimed that: “The large agonised faces in Mary Webb's book annoyed me ... I did not believe people were any more despairing in Herefordshire [sic] than in Camden Town.” If that is the case, why did Gibbons choose rural Sussex as the novel's setting? Is she remarking on the view of nature? Would the novel have been as humorous if it were set entirely in an urban environment?

What are some examples of symbolism supporting Gibbon’s parody?

"One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favorite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing-gown." a. Flora’s statement is interesting since she “lives” in a parody. Do other characters in the novel remind you of other literary figures from the novels of the Brontes, Hardy, etc.? If so, which ones and why? What about the biblical characters (Judith and Amos)?

Some critics see the Starkadders as stock, comic characters. Do you agree, or was there more to them than first meets the eye?

Flora’s mother “wished people to live beautiful lives and yet be ladies and gentlemen.” How does Gibbons bring together these two satirized ideas in the novel?

In the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition, Lynne Truss writes that a serious issue underpins Gibbons’ comic stylings. What do you think about Truss’ idea that: “its underlying serious point about people invoking childhood misery—‘I saw something nasty in the woodshed!’—and using it as a means to exempt them from normal life, and have power over their families. . . . Stella once wrote that she had not only created the woodshed, but was ‘practically born in the place’. But fortunately, she added, ‘The door happened to be ajar.’”

Several “secrets” remain unanswered by the end of the novel, such as what Aunt Ada saw in the woodshed and what wrong was done to Robert Poste, Flora’s father. Were you disappointed that these questions were never answered?