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Somehow I've never read this before, and I guess I'm glad I did? I mean, this is really one of the silliest books I've ever read. Of course, that's mostly on purpose--it's a parody of a certain sort of rural novel that I've never read (besides, like, Thomas Hardy), but can easily imagine thanks to this one (it's like Northanger Abbey and whatever melodramatic gothic novels Austen was playing with--you don't really have to be familiar with the source materi ...more
Somehow I've never read this before, and I guess I'm glad I did? I mean, this is really one of the silliest books I've ever read. Of course, that's mostly on purpose--it's a parody of a certain sort of rural novel that I've never read (besides, like, Thomas Hardy), but can easily imagine thanks to this one (it's like Northanger Abbey and whatever melodramatic gothic novels Austen was playing with--you don't really have to be familiar with the source materi ...more
Flora Poste is one of my favorite heroines of all time; she's bossy, meddlesome, and snobbish. She throws her distant relatives into confusion with her arrival on their D.H. Lawrence-lite farm, upsetting the miserable rut they all are in. It's a quick read and very funny.
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I laughed so much. I giggled, I grinned, I snorted unbecomingly. Some of the most deliberately evocative lines ever, all delivered with tongue in cheek sincerity. What a joy. I will reread this for sure.
This book did not blow me away. But there were parts of it that are remarkable (especially for its time), entertaining and beautiful. Feminist jabs at people who thought the Bronte sisters weren't capable of writing? Brilliant and necessary. I love Gibbons' mastery of language and wit. On the whole though, I suspect that a large portion of this book's subtle humor went completely and totally over my head. Mostly because I'm not familiar with a lot of the authors/literary styles other reviewers n
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The most hilarious novel I have read in years. So freaking funny. I have nothing but positive things to say about this book, and I especially liked the protagonist's practical approach to contraceptives and wearied attitude towards intellectuals, particularly the male novelist writing a biography that attributes all of the Bronte sisters' novels to Branwell.
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Nov 11, 2008
Flora
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
20th-century-women-writers
Feb 19, 2009
Heidi
marked it as to-read
Oct 23, 2011
Nina
marked it as to-read
Jul 13, 2014
Hannah
marked it as to-read
