Skip to main content

Friday book list # 8: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons


Books and other publications (including poems) mentioned in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, including imaginary works. For further discussion of some of these (and for annotations of other stuff in the book) visit the BookDrum entry for Cold Comfort Farm.

Real:
Novels: 
Did She Love Him? by James Grant
Home Influence by Grace Aguilar
How She Loved Him by Florence Marryat (this should actually be How They Loved Him)
Macaria, or Altars of Sacrifice by A. J. Evans-Wilson 
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Poetry:
'Julian and Maddalo' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
'Adonaïs' (An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.) by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Publications:

Imaginary:
Novels: 
The Fulfilment of Martin Hoare by Anthony Pookworthy, A.B.S, L.L.R.

Non-fiction:
The Higher Common Sense and Pensées by the Abbe Fausse-Maigre (these are works of philosophy)
Madame Olga's Dream Book (presumably a book of dream interpretations)
Odour of Sanctity (a history of sanitation)
Victorian Vista (a life of Carlyle) - interestingly, there was later published a book titled Victorian Vista, but about a different subject altogether. I can't but wonder if the author got the idea from Gibbons.

Play:
Manallalive-O! by Brandt Slurb
On Your Toes! 

Publications:
"Haussman-Haffnitz on Brassières" (magazine? thesis? I have no idea)
Milk Producer's Weekly Bulletin and Cowkeeper's Guide
Photo Bits (there was a real magazine with that title, but as it ceased publication in 1914 and Cold Comfort Farm was published in the 1930s, I doubt it's the same magazine, although probably it is of similar nature) 
Internationally Progressive Farmers Guide and Helpmeet

Planned but not yet published (both by Mr. My(er)b(ur)g: 
Scapegoat: A Study of Branwell Brontë (alternative title: Pard-Spirit: A Study of Branwell Brontë)
Virginal

Doubtful:
News of People (presumably a magazine or newspaper). I could not determine whether this was real or not, but the editor of the BookDrum entry for Cold Comfort Farm suggests the title is a parody of the title of the tabloid News of the World.

Comments

Wow! That's a lot of book (both real and imaginary!) references.
Bibliophile said…
Yes indeed. I am considering reading the obscure Victorian titles at some point. And of course the references to the Brontës set me off on my Brontë project.
fiefoe said…
I was so sure the 'Did She Love Him?' 'How She Loved Him' pair was imaginary before looking them up!

Popular posts from this blog

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down ...

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark: Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines. Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds. Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap. Fold the square diagonally in two. Yo...

Icelandic folk-tale: The Devil Takes a Wife

Stories of people who have made a deal with and then beaten the devil exist all over Christendom and even in literature. Here is a typical one: O nce upon a time there were a mother and daughter who lived together. They were rich and the daughter was considered a great catch and had many suitors, but she accepted no-one and it was the opinion of many that she intended to stay celebrate and serve God, being a very devout  woman. The devil didn’t like this at all and took on the form of a young man and proposed to the girl, intending to seduce her over to his side little by little. He insinuated himself into her good graces and charmed her so thoroughly that she accepted his suit and they were betrothed and eventually married. But when the time came for him to enter the marriage bed the girl was so pure and innocent that he couldn’t go near her. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t sleep and needed a bath in order to go to sleep. A bath was prepared for him and in he went...