Cheerfulness Breaks in [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Angela Mackail Thirkell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

Following the social event of the summer, the marriage of Rose Birkett (the county's scatterbrain heart-breaker), Fall brings WWII. The transition to war introduces unexpected elements into the Barsetshire milieu. Despite the newly somber atmosphere, evacuee children (see Nurse's "lust for power over babies"), nouveau riche migrs (Mr. Gissings' suspiciously shaped head), and the Mixo-Lydians (and their embroideries) afford opportunities for snatching humor from the jaws of bleakness. The Bissells, lower-middle-class heads of a billeted non-U school, share, with the gentry, a mutual bewilderment of values. Mrs. Morland muses on Mrs. Bissell's business-like acceptance of "the sinister implications of Adelina Cottage" shared by Miss Hampton and Miss Bent. The Keith family takes center stage as Lydia cares for the estate and her ailing mother while her friends pursue nursing and other war work. The young men pursue the young ladies and wartime accelerates the usual romantic coupling for a total of five, a record even for Thirkell.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

British author ANGELA THIRKELL, granddaughter of pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, was born in London in 1890. She began writing novels in 1930 to support herself and her sons. She produced a new book almost every year for the rest of her life. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 442 pages
• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books; Lrg edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075051339X
• ISBN-13: 978-0750513395
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,548,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Her Best, February 9, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheerfulness Breaks in (Paperback)

This novel by Angela Thirkell shows what happens when a huge nation lumbers into war, and deep inside its borders an insular county wakes up and starts smelling the coffee when a frightened government starts exporting its endangered school children from the nation's capital and forces them to live among their betters in Barsetshire. Thirkell devotes at least one chapter "The Christmas Treat" to the spectacle of charitable countrywomen trying to provide fun and gifts for a pack of ungrateful kids who don't respond in human terms but adopt the scary faces of the kids in VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED while overstuffing their greedy fat faces with ice cream, courgettes, Christmas crackers and other British treats. They are creepy as anything out of a Roald Dahl book.

The real pleasure in the book is watching big, butch Lydia Keith start falling for the sophisticated, Noel Coward-like Noel Merton, a man with more of the ways of a woman than she. Poor Lydia, a gross lump of a girl when in high school, now is more ladylike, and Noel finds himself attracted to her for her valiant courage in helping out her Mom and Dad, both ill and old, instead of going with her heart and taking up war work like her friends the infantile Geraldine Birkett and the stern Amazon Octavia Crawley. As the book progresses, you find yourself rooting for Noel and Lydia to get together. The other couples aren't very memorable, and you will get tired of the Bissells right away. What's worse, Angela Thirkell's never-ending hatred of foreigners like the Mixo Lydians, or her condescension toward members of the lower class who were cute? What's good about her books is the comedy in them, and the gentle romance that sometimes unites disparate county families. CHEERFULNESS BREAKS IN is one of her best.

4.0 out of 5 stars For Those Who Like This Sort of Thing..., February 2, 2010

By 

Laurie Aron (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheerfulness Breaks in (Paperback)

For those who like this sort of thing, it's just the sort of thing they would like. I just happen to be one of those people! Thirkell is reactionary, pro-aristocracy, and writes about the tragedy of the gently fading county gentry in Britain, and how awful it is that they can't maintain their great houses and get servants anymore. I'm not with her politically, but she tells charming tales, mostly about young people falling in love and everybody surviving the War and post-War years. I read "High Rising" first, which is cackle aloud hilarious, assuming the rest would be. They're not, but they're very pleasant.