Last week's T-Shirt of the Week.

I was out sick last Friday, so today I've got a double-dose of t-shirt-i-ness.

I recently read Cold Comfort Farm for the first time.  I remember seeing the trailer for the Beckinsale movie way back when, but I never did see the movie, so all I really knew about the story was that it involved "something nasty in the woodshed".

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that the book is (very basically) about a Wodehouse character living in a Bronte world?  Or, more simply, that it's a giggle-fest?

I would have read it much sooner.

Flora, the heroine, is adorably awful.  In this bit, she and a friend are talking about her new life as an orphan:

'Well... what then, darling?  Now, Flora, don't be feeble.  You know perfectly well that you will be miserable if you haven't got a job, when all your friends have.  Besides, a hundred pounds a year won't even keep you in stockings and fans.  What will you live on?'

'My relatives,' replied Flora.

Mrs Smiling gave her a shocked glance of inquiry, for, though civilized in her tastes, she was a strong-minded and moral woman.

'Yes, Mary,' repeated Flora firmly, 'I am only nineteen, but I have already observed that whereas there still lingers some absurd prejudice against living on one's friends, no limits are set, either by society or by one's own consciences, to the amount one may impose upon one's relatives.'

I love her.

[Later:  I've just realized that there's a typo in the second shirt.  Grrr.]

Comments

[Gwenda]

I ADORE Cold Comfort Farm. I don't know why more people haven't read it -- the introduction alone is priceless.

[Leila]

I adored it so much -- and was just so shocked that I hadn't read it before. It was just so perfectly right up my alley.

[Fuse #8]

I fear that if I were Flora post I would probably end up shacking up with Seth. Especially if Seth were played by Rufus Sewell. Oh, Rufus.

[Fuse #8]

I fear that if I were Flora Poste I would probably end up shacking up with Seth. Especially if Seth were played by Rufus Sewell. Oh, Rufus.

[Leila]

Rufus plays Seth?? Good god.

I'd better bump it right to the top of my Netflix queue.

[TadMack]

I'm so glad you've discovered both book and movie -- I find that I have to see read it once a year or so just to snicker at it all over again.

I think I need a shirt that says "Robert Poste's child."

[Leila]

THAT RULES.

I'll have to make that one, too.

[stacy]

I LOVE the movie, though I still haven't read the book and have been meaning to. This reminds me to go put it on my hold queue at the library. :)

Now all my favorite parts from the movie are going through my head.

[stacy]

Oh, and the movie is definitely a giggle-fest, too.

[c.c.]

When I read the book (and howled over Flora's Laurencian pastich)I thought of that bit in The Daughter of Time where Inspector Grant is being really snarky about all the books his friends have gotten him; oh, alright, it's too good to paraphrase ... I'll go get it and quote directly.

"The Sweat and the Furrow was Silas Weekley being earthly and spade-conscious all over seven hundred pages. The situation, to judge from the first paragraph, had not materially changed since Silas's last book: mother lying-in with her eleventh upstairs, father laid-out after his ninth downstairs, eldest son lying to the Government in the cow-shed, eldest daughter lying with her lover the hayloft, everyone else lying low in the barn. The rain dripped form the thatch, and the manure steamed in the midden. Silas never omitted the manure. It was not Silas's fault that its steam provided the only uprising element in the picture. If Silas could have discovered a brand of steam that steamed downwards, Silas would have introduced it."

There's no such thing as too much parody when it comes to D.H. Lawrence. (Sorry this is such a long comment, but since is mostly Josephine Tey and not me I don't feel too bad.)

[Gail]

"I saw something in the woodshed."

My recollection is that I found the movie somewhat disappointing. But I saw it quite a while ago.

[Kitty]

I was actually terrified to see the movie because I loved the book so much, but I wound up adoring the movie. It's VERY well cast, with standouts like Stephen Fry as the demented Lawrentian and, of course, Rufus Sewell as Seth. No one can smolder like Rufus Sewell. And Ian McKellen dreaming about going around England "in one o' they Fordvans" spreading his weird religion... terrific. Yeah, bump it to the top of the cue. And now I'm going to have to go read the book again.

[jenn]

uh-oh - i think maybe when i get my tax money i might have to order that one. i adore the book and definitely move the movie up on the queue. it's totally worth it!

[bookbk]

Oh I do so love that book. I first found it when I was just a wee thing and hadn't even read D. H. Lawrence yet, and loved it even so.

"THERE'LL BE NO BUTTER IN HELL!"

Indeed.

[norseland]

Do add this shirt to your etsy shop! I have 2 friends who would adore it. :)

[lili]

i wasn't crazy about the film - felt that they left in all the silliness and took out all the archness and pastiche. But I haven't seen it for ages, so I could be wrong. I also missed the bizarre set-in-the-future thing.

I read the book about once a year though. Love. It. Love Adam Lambsbreath. Want to marry Rueben.

[Kara]

One of my favorite books ever! Do watch the movie -- it doesn't suck and they didn't ruin it, and the costuming is yummy. And Stephen Fry as Mister Mybug is hilarious. Also, I want this shirt :)

[Dizzy]

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