33 pages • 1 hour read
Stella GibbonsCold Comfort Farm
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Unsolved Mysteries
Among the many elements of the loam and lovechild genre that Cold Comfort Farm parodies is an ominous air of mystery. Gibbons sprinkles a fair number of bizarre mysteries throughout her story, but none of them are resolved by the end of the book.
Early on, Adam discovers that one of his beloved cows has lost her wooden leg. The rest of the family reproaches him for the cow’s missing limb, but the reader never learns exactly what happened. Did the wooden leg just drop off? Why is the animal walking around as if she absent-mindedly lost her cowbell instead of one of her limbs? Why does she have a wooden leg in the first place? In a later chapter, another cow loses her foot, presumably also made of wood, and the author never reveals neither the meaning nor the circumstances surrounding this bizarre injury.
When Judith first writes to Flora to invite her to stay, Judith hints darkly at something Amos did to Flora’s father and that amends must be made. Apparently, this wrong involves money because Judith refuses to take payment from Flora and says that Robert Poste’s child must have her rights. Though they are key elements that drive the early events of the plot, neither of these mysteries is explained to the reader. In the final chapter, Flora asks Aunt Ada about these issues, seeking resolution herself, but, like the reader, she is left wanting. Flora receives a partial whispered answer that is never shared with the reader, and then, Ada flies off to Paris. Similarly, what Aunt Ada saw in the woodshed as a young child is never revealed, and to heighten the suspense of the unsolved mystery, Flora is on the point of asking her just as the old lady makes her grand exit by airplane.
Like Flora, the reader can only speculate about these puzzling events. By withholding this information from both the protagonist of her novel and the audience, Gibbons seems to be mocking the atmosphere of foreboding that loam and lovechild books generate to keep the reader enthralled. Instead, Gibbons and Flora both seem much more interested in down-to-earth reality than flights of mysterious fancy.
Tidiness
In Flora’s world, tidiness is a concept that can be applied to both objects and people. Tidiness symbolizes the triumph of common sense over irrational psychological obsessions. From her first correspondence with Judith, Flora is able to imagine her Starkadder relatives as a group of people in dire need of a mental and emotional tidy. Though the Starkadder family reveals their untidiness psychologically and emotionally, Flora achieves her goal of tidiness by organizing physical objects and spaces. On the morning after her arrival, Flora notices that her bedroom curtains are dusty and need to be cleaned. Her quest for a laundress leads her to Meriam as the maid is recovering from yet another birthing. Flora gives her a lecture on contraception and makes a telling comment about nature being untidy sometimes, linking the physical untidiness of the curtains with the emotional untidiness of Meriam’s vulnerability and ignorance.
Flora continues her campaign for physical tidiness when she presents Adam with a sponge to clean dishes instead of the stick he’s been using for this purpose. The old man treats the gift as an art object rather than a kitchen utensil, but the gesture seems to have the effect of lifting his mood. Flora’s gesture was meant to enhance Adam’s effectiveness as a dishwasher, but her gift actually tidies his mental state, demonstrating another link between Flora’s efforts to tidy the farm that actually has an impact on her relative’s internal world.
Flora also arranges a physical transformation for Elfine that affects Elfine’s emotional wellbeing. Flora immediately notes that the color her young cousin wears doesn’t suit her and finds clothing that will set off her beauty to advantage. As well, Flora arranges for a dress fitting during which Elfine is able to obtain a gown that improves her chances of a successful and happy marriage. While Flora is orchestrating this physical makeover, she is also indoctrinating Elfine with a personal philosophy of tidiness.
The person most in need of an inward and outward tidying is Aunt Ada. She neglects her appearance while she plays the role of the madwoman in the attic, and when Flora intervenes, she approaches Ada armed with a fashion magazine. The matriarch’s internal transformation is symbolized by the fashionable leather flying suit she wears at the end of the story.
Flora’s complete triumph in tidying the family and the farm is revealed during Elfine’s wedding. The farmhouse has been scrubbed from top to bottom in anticipation of the guests who will arrive. The family members also scrub themselves before arriving in church, revealing their most stable selves at the end of the novel and demonstrating Flora’s positive influence on them all.
Living Life “by the Book”
Flora’s emphasis on tidiness is inspired by the books she reads in order to guide her own actions. She is an avid reader of the fictional Abbe Fausse-Maigre. “Abbe” is a clerical title that refers to members of the French Catholic clergy, and the words “fausse-maigre” are used by the French to describe a woman who is fashion-model thin. In the world of Gibbons’s novel, the Abbe has compiled a book of aphorisms, called the Pensees, which offer common-sense guidance for a happier life. He has also written The Higher Common Sense, which features the same pragmatic philosophy. For Flora, these books function as her guiding principles. They are a touchstone of common sense that grounds her in times of trouble. Flora arms herself with Fausse-Maigre’s words before taking on the Starkadders: “She had felt that she would find it easier to meet the Starkadders in a proper and civilized frame of mind if she had her copy of the Pensees […] close at hand” (37).
Fausse-Maigre’s books are mentioned at several pivotal points in the story. When Flora is facing her most serious problem of how to deal with Ada, she reads the Abbe’s work in search of guidance, and she lands upon the ideal strategy with which she can tidy up Aunt Ada. Later, Flora acts as Fausse-Maigre’s apostle by giving Elfine a copy of The Higher Common Sense as a wedding gift.
Gibbons may be mocking her own protagonist by emphasizing the role the Abbe plays in Flora’s life. Flora is only 20 and sees the world in very black and white terms. The black and white printed pages of the Abbe’s tomes offer Flora easy solutions to complicated problems. Flora is so confident in Fausse-Maigre’s teachings that she believes common sense must be everyone’s guiding principles. At least as far as the Starkadders are concerned, she is right. The family is in dire need of a dose of pragmatism, and Flora gives it to them by the book.
