Cold Comfort Farm (Penguin Classics)

Don't you just love books with nice tidy resolutions, where the good people end up triumphing and the baddies get their just desserts? Somehow I'd missed out on reading Cold Comfort Farm before. Glad I was able to remedy that, and to enjoy the ride.

This book was selected for a book club reading. It was thoroughly entertaining and provided an escape from dreary January evenings. The setting and period were reminiscent of an Agatha Christie story--a favorite of mine.
I did find the Kindle version had misspelt words--probably a 'spell check' overcorrection.

The starkness of Cold Comfort Farm made the humor unexpected. Such a queer cast of characters. Resolution always came so fast, I did not always see it coming. I would like to see the movie and how well it was adapted.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Make sure you get this edition as the Introduction by Lynne Truss is a valuable lead in. I would recommend you also watch the movie. It is a delight with a cast of brilliant actors. Neither the book nor the movie let the other down - a rare experience. You will want to read it over and over. Enjoy!!

Flora is an entertaining main character who chooses exactly what she wants to do in life and achieves it. There are definitely some memorable and very strange characters in this novel and I was overall entertained throughout although I thought some of the sexual references were a little strange and out of place making me feel sometimes like I was trapped in one of those quirky 1960's movies. The ending was dramatic and satisfying but overall there just wasn't the character development or uplifting lessons that I like to get out of classic novels. It is really a matter of taste and this just isn't my favorite kind of genre but the humor is definitely there and she is a good storyteller.

This was fun, the characters were so odd, one couldn't help but wonder how Flora kept so calm. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I was thrilled at an ending in which one sensible lady put everything to rights.

A sweet read with a comical undertone. Cold comfort is a light hearted story that can be read over a weekend. Each character is interesting and beautifully described. The story line is easy going and will leave you feeling good

Classics are all too often treated with kid gloves and thought to be old, brittle, fragile, and boring. Once a book has been required reading in a high school or college class, it is automatically assumed to be boring. Should you find yourself holding a required copy of Cold Comfort Farm, I'll let you in on a great secret. You're about to discover one of the funniest books ever written.
Cold Comfort Farm is not just a classic, it's a masterpiece of wit and warmth. Beautifully written and fun to read you'll fall in love with Gibbons' world and find yourself returning again and again.

A terrific book and a terrific movie. It's English and a period piece, but not about class systems and very rich people. It's a feel-good book that isn't sappy or predictable. I really loved this book!

Pay attention that this book is an abridged edition. When we got to our book discussion group this evening, we found that we had completely wasted our time reading it because we didn't have the Foreword and Introduction, therefore we didn't realize it was satire and a parody. I cannot understand why the publisher would publish an abridged edition of this book.

As many have stated, this is an abridged version and lacks a great deal of the novel's descriptive prose. It also alters some words to make it easier to understand. This version might be useful if you'd like to cut corners in one of your classes, but if not, go with the Penguin Classics version.

While the short story set at Cold Comfort Farm before their recovery is quite ingeniously sardonic, the other stories in the collection are all love stories. In these, various survivors of the British post-WW1 wild twenties cope with families, house guests, lost loves, crushes, and being the last wild ones left. They are sweet and soothing, with gentler humor than the sharp parody of Cold Comfort Farm, a must-read novel if ever there was one.

Run away, run away screaming from this version of the book! This is NOT the book Stella Gibbons wrote. I don't know how it's legal to make serious changes to a book and publish it under the original author's name. The charm and humor of the original is completely lost in this badly re-written version of the book.