cluny brown

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp  (Little, Brown, 1944)

My second novel by this very witty and entertaining writer.  Cluny Brown, a plumber’s niece who doesn’t “know her place” in post-war British society, is put into domestic service with some charming landed gentry in one or another of the shires.  Their son is harboring an intellectual refugee from Nazi Germany on the family estate, and visits periodically to woo the impossibly beautiful and universally desired Elizabeth Cream (Sharp is good with names).  Cluny narrowly avoids a marriage with the respectable but deadly dull (well, not really) village chemist, before realizing she is meant for much greater things, namely a marriage to the witty and charming European refugee and a glamorous life in the United States. 

Sharp has what is referred to as a gimlet eye, through which she observes all her characters with wise and benevolent sympathy.  The combination is like perfectly tart lemonade and delightful.  My reading of the book was a bit spoiled by watching the Ernst Lubitsch film (1946) based on the novel,  which turns all of these mostly subtle characters into brazen caricatures, and is much less witty and effervescent as a result.