The Lark

by E. Nesbit

"When did two girls of our age have such a chance as we've got - to have a lark entirely on our own? No chaperone, no rules, no..."
"No present income or future prospects," said Lucilla.

It's 1919 and Jane and her cousin Lucilla leave school to find that their guardian has gambled away their money, leaving them with only a small cottage in the English countryside. In an attempt to earn their living, the orphaned cousins embark on a series of misadventures - cutting flowers from their front garden and selling them to passers-by, inviting paying guests who disappear without paying - all the while endeavouring to stave off the attentions of male admirers, in a bid to secure their independence.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Romance, British Literature, Summer, Coming Of Age

263 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.

Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.

At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.

Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).

In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Adult novel by the woefully forgotten E Nesbit, author of some of the greatest ever kids books. This is a very entertaining light-hearted comedy with a strong period feel reflecting the disconcerting cultural shift post WW1. There's some fun romance, linguistic and narrative playfulness, plucky heroines and a general sense of hurling oneself into life. Cheering.

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly charming, delightful book. It cast a spell on me which did not let go till I finished.
Fun, witty, heartwarming, life affirming……..I could go on and on.

It is 1919- Jane and her cousin Lucille finally leave boarding school. Thinking they are well off, they are ready for a lark- an adventure. Well, it seems their guardian has squandered their money on bad investments and they are left with 500 pounds and a small house. Young as they are- Jane ~21 and Lucilla about 18 or so, they decide they will just have to learn to earn a living. They are both extremely likeable girls. It was so much fun watching them try to make money out of what they had on hand. They met lovely people who helped them along the way.
There is a Mr. Rochester which was a cute shout out to Jane Eyre. There were a few other literary mentions. They meet so many nice people as well as a few nefarious ones. Never a dull moment with Jane and Lucilla- everything is a lark to them. `
Of course, it does read a bit like a fairy tale, but I didn’t mind that at all.
I love spunky young women, who want to be able to stand on their own.
It was a total “lark” to read this book. Highly recommended if you are looking for a well written, lighter read.

Thanks Simon from “Tea or Books” for putting this book on my radar.

Published: 1922

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lark is basically the perfect type of book for summer reading—for my summer-reading tastes, anyway. Old-fashioned, British, light without being absolutely frivolous, and simply enjoyable to read.

Just after the end of World War I (a time that still feels much more Edwardian than Jazz Age), cousins and orphans Jane and Lucilla are taken out of boarding school and presented with a regretful letter from the guardian they've never met, informing them that he has embezzled and lost most of their inheritance and is fleeing the country, leaving them a cottage and a small sum of money to tide them over until they figure out how to make a living. The girls decide to approach the situation with a chin-up attitude and regard it as "a lark," and set about finding their livelihood—trying things varying from selling cut flowers to taking in boarders (or paying guests, which they abbreviate to PGs, pronounced Pigs). Jane and Lucilla are by no means the world's best businesswomen, but they're willing to take chances and have a knack for making friends (sometimes in very unlikely places) who are able to help them along; and both their successes and failures are greatly entertaining. Among those friends is a nice young man who is obviously smitten with Jane, though he is forced to be tactful in his pursuit owing to Jane's determination to keep everything on a just-friends basis. He also has a mother who possesses very definite matrimonial plans for him in a different direction, a circumstance that eventually leads to a couple of the book's funniest moments.

In short, it's very much how you would imagine grown-up fiction by E. Nesbit to be. There are many elements similar to her children's books The Railway Children and The Story of the Treasure Seekers, such as moving to a new and unfamiliar home, trying to find ways to make a living and approaching it in a cheery spirit. (If the book has an odd streak it's a curious lenience toward the profession of burglary!) Jane and Lucilla are eminently likable girls, quite human enough to have their frustrations and bad days and an occasional quarrel, but true and affectionate friends enough to put things right again quickly. I also appreciated the way the "magic spell" bit was handled at the end, with Jane feeling guilty over her belief that she's practiced witchcraft, and then relieved to discover that what she saw was not a vision but a flesh-and-blood coincidence. The story has a nice balance of fun and heartfelt moments, an enjoyable writing style and sprightly dialogue. Basically, it's a lark.

[Christina Baehr]

This was an absolute delight. I highlighted 120 passages. If I had to choose three prose stylists that I’d most like to shape my own prose, I think they would be RLS, EM Forster, and Nesbit.

In an exceedingly cosy narrative peppered pleasingly with small frolics, two young women of limited means and boundless 1920s banter and optimism are left a charming cottage and have to find a way to make a living. Flowers is the answer, so we get luminous descriptions of English cottage gardens and so many scenes of tea drinking and china and silver and a charming collection of supporting characters, including a classically-handsome homeless man.

The last two chapters fall apart a bit, but did not diminish the intense pleasure I received from this intentionally light-hearted cosy romp. While there is one romantic pairing, it’s not romantic at all. Nesbit’s strength is in platonic relationships, and she plays to it well with the friendship between the two heroines.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I became a teenager, I started exploring my library's young adult section. Besides all the Montgomery books, it held mostly vampires, dystopia, and moralistic issues novels. My wee self was supposed to make the leap from children's literature to stories about girls getting trafficked through false modeling ads? No, thank you. We all know how my eventual reading of Twilight went, I still don't like dystopia, and I hate it when novels preach. So I skipped straight from children's to adult classics. During/after college I finally caught up on some YA, and found lots to love, that I wish I could give my younger self.

Now, The Lark is what I wanted YA to be. It's about young adults, they have fun and make mistakes and struggle, but it's a human story, incredibly funny, and satisfying. There is a dash of intrigue and magic to keep the plot chugging. It would have been the perfect choice for adolescent me, who grew up on Noel Streatfeild, Eleanor Estes, and Elizabeth Enright.

The Lark hits my very favorite literary soft spot, "young woman inherits gorgeous old house." (In this case, it's two young women, but the house only belongs to one of them.) It is also my first Nesbit (how??? I knew I'd love her but it took me forever to give it a go) and I feel that a wonderful new world is opened to me. I loved the setting, the characters, the writing. It was just such fun! Highly recommended for a light read.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read, and very much enjoyed, many of E. Nesbit's books for children over the years, but was somehow unaware that she had also published eleven books with an adult audience in mind.  It was with delight, then, that I picked up a copy of The Lark in the library, and read it outside on a gloriously sunny summertime day - the perfect setting, I feel, for such a novel.  The novel was first published in 1922, and has been recently reissued by both Penguin and the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint of Dean Street Press.

In 1919, nineteen-year-old cousins Jane Quested and Lucinda Craye leave their boarding school, only to find that their guardian has gambled away all of their money.  He leaves them with only a 'small cottage in the English countryside', and quickly flees, checking in on them only very occasionally.  One the pair realise that their fortune has been squandered, and all they have is the aforesaid small cottage in Kent, and £500 to live on, Jane declares: 'Everything that's happening to us - yes, everything - is to be regarded as a lark.  See?  This is my last word.  This. Is. Going. To. Be. A. Lark.'

The girls, both orphaned, hope to secure their independence, and in doing so, 'embark on a series of misadventures'.  They begin a flower-selling enterprise, and soon realise that they will have to relocate to larger premises in order to meet the demand of working men for their posies.  A plot ensues which is filled with more money-making schemes, misunderstandings, two very plucky heroines, and so much heart.

One gets a feel for the protagonists, and their differences, immediately.  Jane is by far the more outgoing cousin, who spouts annoying and endearing comments to her cousin throughout.  At the outset, she says to Lucinda: 'But we shall never do anything if we think of ourselves as two genteel spinsters who have seen better days.  We must think of ourselves as adventurers with the whole world before us.  Frightfully interesting.'  Lucinda is more quiet and cautious; she is the serious and pragmatic one of the pair, whilst Jane is comically headstrong, and unrelentingly in charge.

Nesbit's customary lighthearted amusement peppers the book, and proved such an enjoyable element.  She lends a commentary to proceedings, filled with asides and gentle satire.  She writes, for instance, 'John Rochester was young and, I am sorry to say, handsome.  Sorry, because handsome men are, as a rule, so very stupid and so very vain.'  Rochester soon proves to be the sole exception to this rule, and becomes involved in the lives of the cousins.  Jane tells Lucinda, who appears quite taken to him, that they will take none of his nonsense, however: 'We've got our livings to make, and we don't want young men hanging round, paying attentions and addresses and sighing and dying and upsetting everything.  If he likes to be a good chum I don't mind, but the minute I see any signs of philandering, the least flicker of a sheep's eye, we'll drop Mr Rochester, if you don't mind.'

Nesbit's descriptions are exquisite, something which strikes me in her work for children too.  She has such a glorious way with words, and is able to quickly build vivid pictures of characters and surroundings.  Of Rochester's first glimpse of the cousins, for instance, she writes: 'He saw a glade, ringed round with rhododendrons and azaleas, their big heads of bloom glistering in the wan light cast from the Japanese lanterns that hung like golden incandescent fruit from the branches of the fir-trees.  In the middle of the glade a ring of fairy lights shining like giant glow-worms were set out upon the turf.'  

Nesbit conjures up such a sense of nostalgia in the imagery which she creates: 'It was a very nice dinner - the cold lamb from yesterday, and what was left of the gooseberry-pie, and lettuces and radishes, and what sounds so nice when you call it (fair white bread).  The sun shone, the green leaves flickered and shivered in the soft airs of May.  The peonies shone like crimson cannon-balls, and the flags stood up like spears; the birds sang, and three very contented people ate and talked and laughed together.'

There are a lot of recognisable elements of the children's adventure story within The Lark, and this, I think, made it all the more enjoyable.  The story takes twists and turns, some of which tend to be a little melodramatic, but due to Nesbit's plotting and prose style, this approach works very well.  The novel can become a little farcical at times, but this further ensured that there were a lot of surprises in the plot.  The whole plays out rather well, and I very much enjoyed its blithesome tone.

The Lark is very of its time, but it still feels modern and relevant in many respects.  It is a novel which would sit perfectly upon the Persephone and Virago lists; it has a similar charm to works by Dorothy Whipple and Marghanita Laski, to name but two authors.  It is a real treat to read, and I hope that this review will encourage others to pick it up.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's wonderful how bacon clears the mind.

Actual quote from early on in this book.
I think that sums up the whimsical, fun feeling of the story, but I'll add a few more details.
This is about Jane and Lucilla, two girls in their late teens who have every expectation of inheriting a comfortable amount of money some day. But while they are at school they receive unexpected news from their trustee. He has been unsuccessful in his investments and lost the money. He's leaving the country, and giving them the deed to a house and a small sum of money in hopes that they can somehow get by.

Jane immediately decides that the only way to handle the situation is to treat it as "A Lark" and not worry too much about the potential disaster it could be. They cast about for ways to support themselves and finally decide to sell flowers. How they go about making a success of it, networking with neighbors, expanding their business, and each falling in love make up a thoroughly charming story. There's a young Mr. Rochester, so yes, there's a Jane and Mr. Rochester (insert begrudging chuckle here), but far from being Gothic and broody, he's helpful and an all-around great guy.

I will leave you with some more perfect quotes from this very fun book:

John Rochester was young, and, I am sorry to say, handsome. Sorry, because handsome men are, as a rule, very stupid and so very vain.
-----------------
What man could walk out of a clump of rhododendrons at midnight into a magic circle of little green lamps and say, in cold blood, to a group of schoolgirls: "I am the Greek god to whom this lady has referred?"
-----------------
"Very well," said Lucilla with an air of finality, coming down the steps; "we have told you not to in at least seven different ways, because it was our duty, but if you really mean to--well, do then!"
-----------------
"Forgive me," said Rochester, "for interrupting you, but don't you think that what you really want--what we all want--is tea?"
Amen.

[Dominika · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was zany and marvelous. It had its weak points, but Edith Nesbit is such a dab hand at style and characterization, she could write about anything and I'd eat it up.

I sort of wish I had saved this one to foist as a reading selection on my book club. Lots to talk about and lots to delight over.

[She Writes · Rating 4 out of 5]

E. Nebitt's The Lark, a Furrowed Middle Brow book, published by Dean Street Press, is a light hearted adult read that reflects Nesbit's humor, as well as her Victorian era author sensibilities. In The Lark, Nesbit, known for her children's books, introduces readers to cousins Lucilla and Jane. The story takes place in 1919 and reveals two young women left with a small inheritance struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately, they are also graced with good looks, a strong work ethic, an older man who takes an interest in them (as well as a few men closer to their own ages), and a charming place to work with. They also share a sense of mission as well as a sense of humor--their lives depend on the former and perhaps also the latter.

This work of fiction was first published in 1922. While it is not a work of critical praise, it is a delightful story clearly intended to make Nesbitt's reading audience smile. Nesbit manages to make me wish I were an English woman (much like Rosamunde Pilcher's Penelope Keeling of The Shell Seekers, once did), living in a small cottage surrounded by my English garden.

I look forward to reading other reviews of The Lark, and am pleased Dean Street Press brought attention to this little known treasure.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This book is a confection, and I enjoyed it much more once I took it in that spirit, rather than thinking of it as a serious novel. It started off a little slowly for me, but improved a lot in the second half, and I even laughed aloud a couple times.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 3 out of 5]

E. Nesbit (1858–1924) wrote many charming books for children; this one, however, is for grownups, more or less. In today’s world it would probably be classified as “new adult.” Set just after World War I, it tracks two just-out-of-school cousins who find their secure life suddenly upended when most of their money is lost by a rather feckless guardian. He leaves one £500 and the other a small cottage just outside of London.

Jane and Lucilla decide to treat their new life as an adventure (the “lark” of the title), and they mostly succeed. They decide to sell flowers for a living and to that end obtain the right to cull the blooms from an abandoned manor house in their neighborhood. They don’t really make a success of the endeavor, so when they are given the opportunity to live in the abandoned house, they start taking in paying guests. This turns out pretty disastrously as well, but along the way they develop a number of friends and admirers who help sustain them.

Jane and Lucilla are moderately adorable, and they do charm some young men who become suitors to one degree or another. They also seem able to attract members or the real working classes who develop an unhealthy loyalty toward them. This book is fairly dated and some of the stereotyping and portrayals of lower-class people are a bit cringeworthy. Nesbit also adopts a coy style that occasionally went over the top. Fans of Angela Thirkell might enjoy this story; it is witty enough but pretty shallow.

[Ludovica · Rating 5 out of 5]

La bellezza di questa storia è che conserva molte caratteristiche che fanno pensare ad una favola: la spensieratezza e l’ingenuità delle protagoniste, l’intervento costante di un destino benevolo e lungimirante, la bontà dei sentimenti, una natura capace di curare ogni ferita e i “cattivi” che non sono poi tali.

Nonostante ciò, il romanzo è ben inserito in un preciso contesto storico. Le due protagoniste si trovano, infatti, a vivere in un’epoca di cambiamenti. La nuova generazione di donne voleva scrollarsi di dosso la rigidità delle convenzioni sociali che limitavano fortemente non solo la spontaneità dei rapporti tra le persone ma soprattutto le loro possibilità lavorative.

L’autrice fu un’attivista politica e questo suo romanzo è permeato di un chiaro messaggio sociale. La storia si svolge negli anni immediatamente dopo la fine della Grande Guerra. Anni in cui imperversava la povertà che segue ogni conflitto e in cui gli uomini che avevano servito al fronte si ritrovarono ad essere degli indesiderati al loro ritorno alla vita civile e al mondo del lavoro. Nelle parole di Edith Nesbit è evidente la convinzione che per risollevare l’economia bisognava partire proprio da questo problema.

Seppur raccontato con un tono ironico, lieve e privo di drammi, questo libro è a suo modo un romanzo di formazione. Jane e Lucilla, attraverso le avventure e disavventure cui vanno incontro, si confronteranno con il mondo del lavoro e degli affari e con quello dei rapporti umani in generale e con gli uomini in particolare, sempre ricco di incompresioni. Le due protagoniste, dapprima ingenue e un pò spaventate dalle complessità della vita adulta, acquisteranno man mano sicurezza e diventeranno padrone del proprio destino.

Ciò che mi lascia perplessa è vedere che l'editore abbia scelto di puntare, nella quarta di copertina, sui due argomenti meno presenti nel romanzo: i tratti fantastici (inesistenti) e il romanticismo (poco presente). Presentare il libro in questi termini a mio avviso è troppo semplicistico e ne sminuisce la trama.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the funniest (in the sense of oddest) book! I’m so glad Kate’s Kindred Spirits book club is discussing it. I do like it but it is…maybe quirky is the best word for it.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. Nesbit, unsurprisingly, can really tell a story. Some episodes of the Lark were better than others, but the adventures of Lucilla and Jane had me captivated. At points there were slightly too many characters involved, and I struggle to keep track of them all, this could’ve been my attention span, rather than the fault of the author.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This needed tightening; it had something of the first draft about it, with some parts underdeveloped and others a little too long. But this is still a Nesbit novel and that means charm, humour, hijinks and everyday magic. Despite the unevenness, I enjoyed it a lot.

[Carrie Brownell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the last novel written by E. Nesbit and written for adults, not for children. I found that it had all the charm of the classic Nesbit that we know and was a sweet, imaginative story. Very enjoyable. Kind of reminded me of D.E. Stevenson.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute delight!

[Chautona Havig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is absolutely lovely in most respects, but the very end was a minor disappointment.

I didn't know E. Nesbit had books written for an adult audience. I was only familiar with her youth fiction (Railway Children, Five Children and It, The Enchanted Castle). However, reading about this book ensured I had to read it.

Those who love the family wholesomeness of authors like D. E. Stevenson or even Josephine Lawrence etc. will feel right at home in The Lark. Two young women find their inheritance lost and left with nothing but a cottage and five hundred pounds. They must move from the school where they've been hanging on for a while and into that cottage because they can't afford the school anymore. Once there, they set about various ways to earn their livelihood.

So what's so great about it? Relationships. Both girls are lovely young women who are flawed enough not to be annoying. They have squabbles, make mistakes, try again, but in general are loving and supportive not only of each other but of those they meet. It's an "it takes a village" sort of story set in England between the wars with a great cast of characters.

My only two problems with the book are:
1. I was uncomfortable with the bit of midnight revelry in the woods. However, it was handled well and as more of a silly game than anything serious, and it made for a fun plot point later. I've seen it in other books, but the set up for this one felt like it was taking things too far... and then it just didn't.
2. The end felt a bit rushed. There's a hint of what might be for one of the girls and a knowing for the other. The "what might be" for one threw me. I didn't see that coming at ALL. I should have, looking back. The other girl was obvious almost from the beginning, and I LOVED that their little deception totally didn't turn out as they expected. I kept cracking up with each revelation.
Still... it was rushed. We went from all is well to a whirlwind change and everything settled in maybe a chapter and a half. Still, I give it five stars and I refuse to apologize for it.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lark is the story of two young women making their precarious way in the world having just left school and come into a small-ish legacy. The two don’t feel their inheritance is quite enough to live on comfortably – so look around for ways to increase their income.

As the novel opens we meet cousins and schoolgirls Jane and Lucilla with their friend Emmeline (ever after not seen again). The girls are in a library surrounded by books. Jane has decided to conjure a spell which will enable her to see her future husband. There is some discussion about whether this is a good/realistic plan – and Jane skips off to the woods to carry out her spell – it’s just a lark!

“Life is a lark — all the parts of it, I mean, that are generally treated seriously: money, and worries about money, and not being sure what’s going to happen. Looked at rightly, all that’s an adventure, a lark. As long as you have enough to eat and to wear and a roof to sleep under, the whole thing’s a lark. Life is a lark for us, and we must treat it as such.”

Meanwhile John Rochester; (yes Rochester and Jane – no doubt tongue-in-cheek) following a frustrating encounter with his rather managing mother – about whom he should marry – heads off through the woods. You can rather guess the rest.

The second chapter moves the story forward about four years, the girls are still at school although about to leave – having stayed there safely, long enough for the war in Europe to finish, they are both now around eighteen or nineteen. The Great War has just ended, Jane’s father has died, and a Great Aunt had left Jane a nice amount of money – which has scandalously been mismanaged by her trustee. Finally their patron and trustee writes, allowing them to leave their Devonshire school. His instructions direct them to a tiny cottage somewhere just outside of London. The girls arrive at Hope Cottage, hungry not knowing what to expect.

Full review https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/... /

[Mrs Darcy of the House Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

È un romanzo leggero, spensierato e scritto davvero bene. La curiosità si mantiene alta per tutto il libro anche se effettivamente non succeda poi chissà cosa. È una commedia degli equivoci che strappa un sorriso divertito ad ogni capitolo.
Ha un elemento che a me nei romanzi in genere non piace: il dedicare poco spazio agli eventi salienti e più a quelli riempitivi. Qui, invece, funziona benissimo e rende il tutto più godibile.
La Nesbit fa un quadro della società di quel periodo storico, post I guerra mondiale, davvero ben fatto e fa percepire fortemente questo bivio in cui si trovarono le donne: tra passato e modernità, tra regole di buon costume e alleggerimento delle briglie.
Jane e Lucy sono le eroine che mancavano e che non vogliono assolutamente essere le eroine, romantiche, di un libro. La cosa è evidente anche perché ai "dolci sentimenti" è dedicato il minor spazio possibile. Ingenue ma caparbie si ritrovano senza un soldo e si rimboccano le mani prendendo tutto come se fosse un gioco. Alle (vere) femministe piacerebbero sicuro.
Nesbit cara troverò altri tuoi libri e li leggerò!

[Verity W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This falls firmly into the category of novels about distressed gentlewomen find unlikely ways to earn themselves money, which is a category that Ireally like (Miss Buncle's book for example, in some ways Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild). This time it's two cousins who end up in reduced circumstances after their trustee gambles away their cash and have to figure out how to make ends meet (in a we-can't-afford-a-servant type of way, not in a starving and on the streets way). They turn to flower selling and manage, over the course of the book, to gain a big house, a nice garden and a squadron of men to help them. I started reading it months ago - and then ended up reading probably 95 percent of it ove the course of a couple of days. It's nice easy reading - albeit easy reading that wraps up a little quickly and only works because it's a book and you can't see the people in question (disguises, mistaken identities etc). Lots of fun - like a children's adventure but for adults, which I suppose considering that it's Enid Nesbit we're talking about, possibly isn't a surprise!

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2017/04...


Today I made the exciting discovery that a) E. Nesbit wrote books for ADULTS, and b) this adult novel centers on a pair of plucky cousins! Plucky down-to-earth young ladies are my favorites! And these two are in something of a pickle: their guardian has gambled away their inheritances and has left them high and dry (with a house and 500 pounds) to make their way in the world. Which they do, with aplomb, and with a lot of sheer hilarity I had not entirely expected from Nesbit. Too delightful, and just what I needed. A.

[Amena · Rating 4 out of 5]

After my last read, I needed something relaxed and fun to delve into. I picked this one up and loved it. It is utterly charming and delightful. Set in 1919, it follows the lives of two cousins as they set to mark their independence. They cut and sell flowers, attempt to run a guest house, make wonderful friends, have laughable challenges. It's entertaining, light hearted and made me smile so much. I feel like it celebrates the joys of life when everything is carefree. Utter joy and the reader has a 'lark' too. Totally recommended.

Rating: 4🌟

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of my effort to read all the E Nesbit books I didn't read as a kid, I downloaded this library book. It was pretty awesome like all her books. However, the ending kind of threw me for a loop. On the upside, I wasn't expecting it so that made the book fresh and different. The downside is that I was looking for a comfort read that was predictable and that would gave me the proverbial happy ending and I didn't get that. Oh, it wasn't a sad ending. More like an abrupt one. One of those book endings that make you think to yourself "Wait, that's it?!"

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real treat

This book is a delight from start to finish. The two girls have a real lark, and so does the reader. As soon as something threatens to pall we drop it and rush to the next topic. If one is expecting depth of character or an exploration of post war mores, one might be disappointed, but as a lovely Nesbitean celebration of the joys of life when one is young and carefree, The Lark hits the spot. I loved it.

[J.F. Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teenage fiction before teenage fiction existed. (Or teenagers for that matter.) A jolly romp with lots of twists and turns but a surprisingly modern attitude to the young, independent heroines. I really like E.Nesbit - her characters always seem real - and this was the perfect accompaniment to two snow-bound couch-potato days. It won't change your life, but it might make you smile!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

A wonderfully apt title for the adventures of Jane and Lucilla, upon leaving school and having to make their ways in the turbulent world of 1922.
Light, full of mirth, evanescent and a sheer delight, this book had a lot of heart, even if the plot felt lacking in a little substance. Happy to report though that the book ended with something that was expected and a lot that was not.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read ,i wanted to be one of the girls in their small perfect house and the wild flowery gardens.they made good of the situation they were set in and made their way -met lovely young men ,made a business and then made more ways of earning money. so on their own quite suddenly ,they were brave and clever and took care of each other and made their life A Lark-

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real slice of life from 1919 that was sweet and light with elements of feminism just breaking through! Hoped it would be a bit like a Nancy Mitford but wasn't as funny. Lovely writing though and humorous bits - way to long tho!

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming and quirky story told with Nesbit's inimitable style.