With the scarce wrapper

Gibbons, Stella ~ Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm and other stories

Longmans, Green & Co., London : 1940

The First UK printing published by Longmans, Green & Co., London in 1940. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. 8vo., publisher's bright blue cloth, lettered in white to upper cover and spine; together in the unclipped (8/- net to front flap) blue printed wrapper featuring a cow and Christmas tree to the upper panel; The boards clean and bright; a little pushed at the spine tips; light spotting to fore-edge and prelims, end-papers with some mild offsetting; free from inscriptions. The WRAPPER is in Very Good++ condition with the front panel remaining bright; some spotting and shelf-wear/darkening, more-so to the lower panel; rubbed and creased to edges, with some nicks, small losses and short closed tears ; spine a touch faded; a few slightly longer closed tears (maximum 3cm in length to the upper panel) with some historic tape repairs to the verso. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. The first publication in book form of sixteen short stories which originally appeared in magazines. The stories include 'Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm', the author's sequel to 'Cold Comfort Farm', the work for which she is perhaps best known today. Stella Gibbons (1902–1989) established her reputation with her debut novel, 'Cold Comfort Farm' (1932), the story of a recently-orphaned socialite who travels to the country in order to stay with her relatives the Starkadders - a gloomy, wicked family beset with problems. Such was the work's popularity that its success continued to dominate the remainder of her life, and in time she grew to be almost resentful of the fame which it achieved, never surpassed by any of her subsequent (and extensive) contributions to literature and poetry. Gibbons had first become familiar with the "loam and lovechild" rural novels of the 1920s, while working for the women's magazine 'The Lady'. She found the style 'overblown' and 'ridiculous', and wrote her own novel in an attempt to parody the "the stock-in-trade of earthy regionalists such as Thomas Hardy, Mary Webb, Sheila Kaye-Smith and D. H. Lawrence" (The Feminist Companion to Literature in English). In 1933 she was awarded the Prix Étranger, the foreign novel category of the prestigious French literary prize, the Prix Femina, and in 1950 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 'Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm' was the author's attempt, eight years later, to produce a prequel, which returns to the Starkadders alongside a series of other tales, perhaps in an attempt to get away from her reputation as a 'one hit wonder'. Some, such as 'The Little Christmas Tree', are of course true to the theme portrayed on the wrapper, but many of the others are more broad in scope, such as 'To Love and To Cherish' (on the theme of marriage), 'The Murder Mark' (a detective story), 'Poor, Poor Black Sheep' (in reference to generational change) and 'Mr Amberly's Brother' (on dreams and how to achieve them). In many ways, the stories are interconnected in theme, predominantly told from the perspective of everyday women living in a period of great change between the 1920s and 40s. Despite her attempts, the book was nonetheless marketed for those readers who sought a greater insight into the lives of the characters first introduced in 'Cold Comfort', with the publishers choosing to emulate a very similar dustwrapper design, and even today collectors are likely to choose this title based on its more famous counterpart. Scarce indeed with the wrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++
JACKET: Very Good++