Tag: #ThirkellBar

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series In Order: Final Wrap-Up!

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Yes, after more than two years of reading a book a month, I finally finished reading all of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels in order. That’s 29 of them! A few brave folks at least kept up with me by reading and or by commenting on one or more of my reviews.

  • Brona of Brona’s Books
  • Silvia Cachia
  • Davida Chazan
  • Christine of All the Vintage Ladies
  • Liz Dexter of Adventures in Reading
  • Penelope Gough
  • Gypsi
  • Helen of She Reads Novels
  • The Readable Word
  • Renee
  • Anne Roy
  • Sue
  • Mary Taylor-Lee
  • Simon Thomas of Stuck in a Book
  • Yvonne of A Darn Good Read

I hope I didn’t forget anyone.

Having finished this project (yay!), I thought I’d wrap up by making a few points about the project in general:

  • Was the project worth it? In a way. Before I started it, I had been reading the books arbitrarily, when I came across them, and I think I had read eight or nine of them before. However, attacking them in this way, I would have vague ideas that I had seen characters before but could seldom remember much about them or their relationships with other characters. Reading the books in order helped with this a lot. Some characters who recurred in almost every book became very familiar to me and I could remember others easily. However, I wished I had made a spreadsheet for myself from day one to note relationships and what I knew of each character, it got that complicated, especially toward the end when Thirkell seemed to introduce characters out of the blue and for only one book.
  • Were the books written before and during the war really the best ones? That’s the common understanding, but I think they kept up their quality longer than that. In answer to this question, I would say that the last four or five books weren’t quite up there with the rest.
  • What is the effect of reading one a month? Reading one a month does have the problem that you get a little tired of Thirkell’s tropes. She has character types that reappear and she has conversations that keep repeating. Also, she does remind you of things that happened to the characters, but towards the end, she brings these things up more than once a book. I think if you were reading one book a year, as you would if you read them as they were released, this wouldn’t bother you as much as if you are reading one a month. In fact, the reminders of what happened to the characters in previous books would be helpful.
  • Did the last book being finished by someone else matter? Maybe not. The only difference I could detect were a few conversations, especially at the birthday party, that didn’t seem as clever as usual. Otherwise, I really couldn’t see much difference. However, I have no idea how finished this novel was before Thirkell died. If anything, I would say that there were fewer things repeated in the same book, a problem I had been running into for the last three or four books.
  • Were there things I didn’t like about the books? Yes, there were quite a lot of comments that we now consider politically incorrect, especially toward the end of the series. At first, I just put them down to the times, but after a while, they seemed to get worse. There were some racist expressions, despite there being no actual nonwhite characters, and a lot of classist attitudes.
  • What is valuable about this series? Even though it is set among privileged characters, it is a chronicle of the changes to society that were caused by the war and its aftermath.
  • Who were my favorite characters? Lady Emily, Lucy Marling, Miss Merriman, Wicks, Lord and Lady Pomfret (Gillie and Sally Foster), Lord Stoke, Gradka, whom I at first found irritating, but afterwards made me laugh as soon as she appeared.

Anyway, I’m glad that I finished this project and am glad to be finished with it!

Review 2244: #ThirkellBar! Love at All Ages

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If Love at All Ages can be said to have a plot, it’s the wedding of the vicar Mr. Oriel and Lady Gwendolyn, the sister of the Duke of Towers (not to be confused with the Earl of Pomfret Towers). If these names do not sound familiar, it’s because as far as I can remember, we have not met these characters before, or anyone else in that family, and we don’t really seem to get to know them now. However, other familiar characters help with or appear at the wedding.

The back of the novel also mentions the christening of the first child of Lady William Harcourt (previously Edith Graham, who monopolized at least three of the previous novels), but by the time we get done with the wedding, I’d forgotten it.

The title hints that the book includes another love affair, and since Lady Gwendolyn and her intended are well into middle age, the implication is that it involves younger people. This is just a hint that there may be a suitable mate for young Ludo, Lord Mellings, the heir of the Earl of Pomfret.

Otherwise, the book contains the usual plethora of literary allusions, tea parties, boating parties, and so on. The preoccupations that I complained about last time are still all there, too—including yet another mention of Mrs. Fewling’s lack of proper undergarments when she was still Margot Phelps—although not repeated as often. However, there is a scene where Lydia Merton remembers her husband’s old infatuation (with someone very much like Mrs. Brandon but not her, I can’t remember) and then two pages later, her husband thinks about it, and as if that weren’t enough, it’s mentioned again later in the book.

So, no improvement here and less interest, because so much of the book is about characters we don’t know and don’t get to know. However, there’s only one book left to go. (In fact, the cover of my book says this one is the last one, which if it were, would be quite a disappointment as the last in the series.)

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Close Quarters

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Review 2230: #ThirkellBar! Close Quarters

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Although it begins somewhere else, Close Quarters is mostly concerned with Margot Macfayden. Readers may remember that in Jutland Cottage, Margot was the daughter of impoverished and ailing Admiral and Mrs. Phelps. She worked hard, day in and out, maintaining their house and keeping the goats and chickens without much of a thought for herself until Rose Fairweather took her in hand. At the same time, others pitched in to alleviate her condition by visiting her parents so she could get away sometimes. Nevertheless, the wealthy, older Mr. Macfayden found her crying in the henhouse one day and proposed.

At the beginning of Close Quarters, Mr. Macfayden dies after only five years of marriage, and aside from her natural grief, Margot finds herself again at a crossroads. Her parents are now cared for, but she thinks perhaps she should live with them again. However, she doesn’t want to.

She knows the Luftons would like to reclaim the house she’s been leasing, so she starts looking for a house, but she can’t find anything suitable. No one but the readers know that Canon Fewling (Tubby to his friends) suffered a great disappointment when he learned she was engaged.

Although I found the ending of this book more touching than the last few, there were several occasions when Thirkell repeated conversations that she has not only had in other books but that had already appeared in this one, as if she couldn’t remember what she had written. The story of Mr. Wickham’s reluctant proposal to Margot is repeated three or four times, for example, while a snobby conversation about common mispronunciations occurs more than once. There is a stupid recurring joke about the Parkinsons’ last name that I don’t understand but suspect is more snobbery, and several different people opine that Mrs. Parkinson wears the pants in the family. Also, Margot’s lack of undergarments when Rose took her in hand is mentioned again.

Maybe I’m getting tired of Thirkell’s little conversational tidbits, but they seem also to occur more often. I liked the central theme of this book but disliked a lot of the chatter. And that’s disappointing, because often the chatter is amusing. Anyway, only two more books to go.

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Review 2198: #ThirkellBar! Never Too Late

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Purely by error, I read most of the next book in the series before this one (apparently my stack got rearranged), which spoiled a key surprise of this book. So I will not spoil it for you.

Much of this book deals with young Edith Graham, who can’t decide what to do with herself. As, in fact, did the last book and as does the next one. It’s unusual for Thirkell to spend so much time with one character, although she certainly revisits characters time and again. To a certain extent, though, she also did this with Clarissa Graham, who was also a little spoiled. Edith is clearly discontented, especially when she feels she is not getting enough male attention.

But the novel also deals with the problems of George Halliday and his mother. George has been working hard to keep his father’s farm going and to keep his patience with his father’s advice. But now Mr. Halliday is failing in mind and body. George is too busy with the farm to help his mother care for his father, and both of them are exhausted. So, Agnes Graham, working with friends, takes a hand in the situation.

Aside from George’s problems there are newcomers to meet—the Carters, cousins of Everard Carter, the headmaster of Southbridge School—and two very understated romances of the middle-aged variety. So, I found Never Too Late to be as delightful as usual.

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Enter Sir Robert

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Review 2181: #ThirkellBar! Enter Sir Robert

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Enter Sir Robert is the last of the Thirkell Barsetshire books that I read before, so I’ll let my previous review stand as a good plot synopsis and use this post to point out things I noticed this time around.

The ending of this novel made me laugh out loud. I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll just say that Sir Robert Graham has been referred to in most of the books of the series but has not once appeared. In this novel, he is retiring, and his wife, Lady Agnes, arranges for him to become a church warden and talks about the things he is planning to do. And finally he appears.

Edith, Lady Agnes’s youngest daughter, is the focus of this novel, and although there is no overt romance in this one, because at 17 she’s a bit too young, she meets two delightful young men in their 30’s. (I thought the novel said she was 18, but as she is still 18 for at least the next two books, I’m assuming she is 17 now.) George Halliday is in the difficult situation of running his father’s farm when he knows that his father, who is going downhill in health, would rather run it himself. John Cross is a bank manager leasing a house from the Hallidays.

Toward the beginning of the novel there is an unpleasant little diatribe against foreigners, particularly immigrants, that will strike some chords familiar today, but that’s just a small part of the novel.

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What Did It Mean?

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Review 2165: #ThirkellBar! What Did It Mean?

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The focus of What Did It Mean? is on Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. The novel deals principally with Lydia Merton, who has been asked to chair the committee for the Northbridge coronation pageant. This gives Thirkell the opportunity to poke fun at village committee meetings, during which very little seems to get done.

Lydia also gets acquainted with the Earl and Lady Pomfret and takes an interest in their oldest son, Lord Mellings, who at 16 is too tall for his strength, sensitive, and shy. Lydia arranges for him to meet the actress Jessica Dean and her husband Aubrey Clover, the playwright, and they enlist him in a part for their short play for the coronation, which promises to do much for his confidence.

For a while when reading this book, I thought Thirkell was starting to phone it in or that she needed a better editor. For example, there is a scene in which Lydia telephones to the Clovers to ask them to participate in the pageant. Then immediately following that, she takes Lord Mellings to the Deans to ask the Clovers the same question. Similarly, she reminds us several times of the little romance that took place between Noel Merton and Mrs. Arbuthnot when Lydia became so sick. There are also too many meetings described and no apparent romance until quite late in the novel.

However, the novel picked up as it went on, and the romance, once it emerged, was understated and touching. I finally ended up liking this one almost as well as the others.

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Review 2129: #ThirkellBar! Happy Returns

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Cover for Happy Returns

When I originally reviewed Happy Returns, I remarked that I thought it would be easier to keep track of its many characters if you had read the series from the beginning. That certainly proved to be the case when I revisited the novel this time. I provided an adequate summary in my original review, so I’ll use this post to write about my observations second time around.

I didn’t mention that much of the point of view of this novel is from Eric Swan, whom we met way back when he was a school friend of Tony Morland’s and used to infuriate Philip Winter, then his schoolmaster, by looking at him through his glasses. (I believe this was in Summer Half.) Swan is now working for Philip, and at thirty, has not found the woman for him. However, he is immediately struck by Grace Grantly.

Much of the novel concerns whether the engagement of Clarissa Graham and Charles Belton will actually end in marriage, but I was also interested in the growing friendship between the older Lady Lufton and her very nice tenant, Mr. Macfayden. Lady Lufton was exceedingly irritating in the preceding book because of her helplessness after her husband’s death, but in this one a few choice words from a friend make her pull herself together. This takes some of the pressure off the burdened young Lord Lufton, her son. He has been attracted to Clarissa, but another instance of rudeness toward Charles breaks the spell. Unfortunately, he also notices Grace Grantly.

I enjoyed this novel in its context within the series much more than I did as a stand-alone. I knew most of the characters already, although I sometimes wish I had drawn up tables for each character when I read the first book and continued with it as I went on.

I haven’t commented on this before, but I also enjoy the references to Trollope’s Palliser and Barsetshire series. I have probably missed some, but I am noticing them more often because lately I’ve been reading the Palliser series.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #21 Happy Returns + #20 The Duke’s Daughter Wrap-Up

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Cover for Happy Returns

Since I know that at least one person who had been reading along was no longer able to find reasonably priced copies of the books, I got a lot more comments on the last book than I expected. I hope that happy situation continues. Anyway, my thanks to the following people who participated in discussing The Duke’s Daughter:

  • Liz Dexter
  • Penelope Gough

The next book is Happy Returns, which I read all the way back in 2015 and don’t remember at all (except that someone is running for parliament). It’ll be interesting to me to see whether I view that book differently now that I am more familiar with the characters. I will be reviewing that book on Tuesday, February 28! Hope you will join me.

And here’s our little emblem.

Review 2111: #ThirkellBar! The Duke’s Daughter

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This entry in the Barsetshire series opens with characters’ realization that Lucy Adams is carrying a child, but then it jumps forward. Around about the same time, Tom Grantly meets the dreadful Geoffrey Harvey and begins to have doubts about his farm work. He has been happy working on Martin Leslie’s farm with Emmy Graham, but he doesn’t think there’s a career in it. So, he takes a job working for Harvey in the Red Tape and Sealing Wax Department. However, Harvey is known for making his underlings’ lives miserable, and within a year, Tom is ready to quit but doesn’t know how to explain to his father that he wants to change his career yet again.

Commander Cecil Waring has returned to the Priory to take up residence in his part of the house after taking in some shrapnel that the Navy doctors couldn’t find. It is floating around in his body and will either emerge or kill him. In the other part of the house, Philip White and his wife Leslie, Cecil’s sister, are having such success with their prep school that they are looking around for a bigger building.

Cecil meets Lady Cora Palliser, the Duke of Omnium’s daughter, and is much struck by her. However, he thinks she’s paying too much attention to Tom.

The new Lord Lufton makes everyone’s acquaintance. He is young, shy, and overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. He is also very kind and is at first attracted by Clarissa Graham until he sees her behaving rudely to Charles Belton.

Fans of the series may be pleased to find that this novel features the reappearance of almost every character who has ever appeared, with the added attraction of no less than four betrothals. Mrs. Morland, the author of a popular series of novels, always says they are all alike. Perhaps the Barsetshire novels are, too, but their charm is in finding out what happens to characters we know and in meeting new ones.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #20 The Duke’s Daughter + #19 County Chronical Wrap-Up

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Again, I had fun revisiting old friends and meeting new ones in County Chronicle. I thank anyone who has had time to send in a comment. They are

The next book is The Duke’s Daughter, which I will be reviewing on Tuesday, January 31. If you get a chance to read the book or have read it or just have something to say, pop in and make a comment. And here’s our little badge.