Women's Classic Literature Enthusiasts discussion

Introduction/ General Comments discussion

This book is really a trilogy, containing the books Lark Rise; Over to Candleford; Candleford Green.

The back cover copy of my edition reads:

"The story of three closely related Oxfordshire communities — a hamlet, the nearby village and a small market town — this immortal trilogy is based on Flora Thompson’s experiences during childhood and youth. It chronicles May Day celebrations and forgotten children’s games, the daily lives of farmworkers and craftsmen, friends and relations — all painted with the gaiety and freshness of observation that makes this a precise and endearing portrayal of country life at the end of the nineteenth century."

There is also a blurb from John Fowles:
"Our literature has no finer remembrancer in this century, no observer so genuinely endearing."

I am really looking forward to this book-- I think it will be a wonderful summer read. The chapters are nice and short, making it a perfect book to read over lunch, while waiting for supper to cook, at bedtime, and wherever there are a few extra minutes in the day. I hope we will all enjoy it.

Each book in the trilogy will have its own discussion thread.

I am not going to post a reading schedule-- we will all proceed at our own pace. Since Lark Rise to Candleford is also a TV show (available on BritBox), I will attempt to work out a schedule to fit the TV episodes in between the chapters of the book. The schedule will be posted on this thread, the Adaptations thread, and the relevant parts in the separate book threads. (It might be overkill, but it will be easily accessible! 😄)

I have not watched the TV show yet, but other comments I have read suggest that the book is much more event-driven, while the TV show fleshes out the characters mentioned in passing in the book. We will have a separate thread to discuss the TV show to avoid confusion in the book discussion.

Lark Rise to Candleford Book/TV Schedule

Lark Rise

📖 I. Poor People's Houses
📖 II. A Hamlet Childhood
📖 III. Men Afield
📖 IV. At the 'Wagon and Horses'
📖 V. Survivals
📖 VI. The Besieged Generation
📖 VII. Callers
📖 VIII. 'The Box'
📖 IX. Country Playtime
📖 X. Daughters of the Hamlet
📖 XI. School
📖 XII. Her Majesty's Inspector
📖 XIII. May Day
📖 XIV. To Church on Sunday
📖 XV. Harvest Home

Over to Candleford

📖 XVI. As They Were
📖 XVII. A Hamlet Home
📖 XVIII. 'Once Upon a Time'
📖 XIX. 'A Bit of a Tell'
📖 XX. Mrs Herring
📖 XXI. Over to Candleford
📖 XXII. Kind Friends and Relations
📖 XXIII. Sink or Swim
📖 XXIV. Laura Looks On
📖 XXV. Summer Holiday
📖 XXVI. Uncle Tom's Queer Fish
📖 XXVII. Candleford Green
📖 XXVIII. Growing Pains
📖 XXIX. Exit Laura

Candleford Green

📖 XXX. From One Small World to Another
📖 XXXI. On Her Majesty's Service
📖 XXXII. The Green
📖 XXXIII. Penny Reading
📖 XXXIV. Neighbours
📖 XXXV. At the Post Office
📖 XXXVI. 'Such is Life!'
📖 XXXVII. 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!'
📖 XXXVIII. Letter-Carrier
📖 XXXIX. Change in the Village

I still need to finish up The Trail of the Serpent before I start this. So maybe next week before I get to start.

From the Introduction by HJ Massingham:

"...[Thompson's] art is in fact universalized by its very particularity, its very confinement to small spaces and the people Laura knew. It all seems a placid water-color of the English school, delicately and reticently painted in and charmed by the character of Laura herself. But it is not. What Flora Thompson depicts is the utter ruin of a close knit organic society with a richly interwoven and traditional culture that had defied every change, every aggression, except the one that established the modern world... In the shell of her concealed art we hear the thunder of an ocean of change, a change tragic indeed, since nothing has taken and nothing can take the place of what has gone... The supreme value of Flora Thompson's presentation is that she makes us see the passing of this England, not as a milestone along the road of inevitable progress, but as the attempted murder of something timeless in and quintessential to the spirit of man. A design for living has become unravelled, and there can be no substitute, because, however imperfect the pattern, it was part of the essential constitution of human nature. The fatal flaw of the modern theory of progress is that it is untrue to historical reality. The frustrations and convulsions of our own time are the effect of aiming this mortal blow at the core of man's integral nature, which can be perverted, but not destroyed."

Charlene wrote: "I still need to finish up The Trail of the Serpent before I start this. So maybe next week before I get to start."

I'm looking forward to having you join the discussion. 🙂

Suki wrote: "From the Introduction by HJ Massingham:

"...[Thompson's] art is in fact universalized by its very particularity, its very confinement to small spaces and the people Laura knew. It all seems a plac..."

I love this. Thanks for sharing it.

I’m probably a week behind, too, but looking forward to this discussion.

I don't think this has been posted, but the BBC has a bit about Flora Thompson.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...

A couple more articles about Flora Thompson. They may contain spoilers.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

I still plan to read these books. There is just too much going on this month.

Marilyn wrote: "I still plan to read these books. There is just too much going on this month."

I am slowly getting through the second book and will need to decide if I should pause and read our August book first or continue on. I guess I have two more days to decide.

This is the first time in a long time that I could not read a book because it was just too boring. Maybe it is the times but I can no longer plow through a book that drags on. I dislike feeling this way and missing what the discussions are about. Maybe the tv series makes it come more to life.