The only book I’ve read by Stella Gibbons is the creepily hilarious Cold Comfort Farm, so when I came across some of her other books I bought them and began with The Bachelor.
It’s a novel set in a country house just outside of London during WWII, or “the Nazi War,” as it is always referred to here. The house, Sunglades, is inhabited by Constance Fielding, her brother Kenneth, and their cousin Frances (“Frankie’) Burton. A third Fielding sibling, Joan, lives with her husband in London. The occupants of Sunglades are all unmarrried, in their 40s (Kenneth), 50s (Constance), and 60s (Frankie). Because their house is large and comfortable and a safe distance (23 miles) from London, it becomes a much-desired refuge for evacuees from the blitz, and the novel features four in particular: Betty Marten, a beautiful and jolly woman, a friend of the family’s (and once a particular friend of Kenneth’s–her refusal to marry him has thwarted his romantic life); Betty’s 27-year-old son, Richard, a tall and sensible intellectual and semi-invalid (lung problems); Vartouthi, an immigrant from a tiny made-up European country somewhere between Italy and Turkey and now occupied by Italians; and the elder Mr. Fielding, a gay roué of 78 whose involvement with night clubs and fast living has estranged him from his family for many years. Alicia Arkwright, a well-bred young woman and a neighbor of the Fieldings is also involved.
The plot, which spins around three or four romances amongst these characters, is funny and engaging (although over-extended at nearly 400 tight pages). The characters are all cleverly conceived and portrayed, some sympathetic, some endearingly ghastly. Miss Fielding is particularly entertaining–she finds fault with everyone and everything with a blithe hostility she thinks is humanitarian. And Vartouthi, the young foreigner in their midst, hired as maid-of-all-work, ends up running the household and stealing (almost) everyone’s heart. She receives two marriage proposals in the book, and accepts the second, from Kenneth, much to Miss Fielding’s chagrin. She (Vartouthi) is a unique and delightful character, refreshingly honest and free-spirited.
Half-way through I felt that things slowed down and that the book was much too long, but as I continued reading I liked it more and more and was sorry when it (finally) ended.
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