Miss Bunting [Hardcover]

Angela Thirkell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 1974

The carefully observed separation of the old and the new social strata is upset when representatives of each come together in the sphere of Miss Bunting- the governess who has molded most of the country's upper class. Under Miss Bunting's tutelage, Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Fielding, renews an old school acquaintance with the daughter of Hogglestock's successful, albeit not genteel, iron master. "We must move with the times," says the unflappable governess when Lady Fielding questions the suitability of this association. With characteristics aplomb, Miss Bunting takes girls and situation both firmly in hand and sets all things to right.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the '30s to the '60s, Thirkell wrote a novel a year, most of which were set in an updated version of Trollope's Barsetshire. This installment, originally published in 1945 is a mild and rather obvious comedy of manners set during one summer late in WWII, when traditional order is being brought to an end by the rise of industrial wealth and the damages inflicted by six years of war. The story revolves around a wide group of the upper class--primarily landowners and clergymen--who have dominated this small town, and how they will respond to arrival of a coarse but dynamic industrial tycoon. Miss Bunting is an elderly ex-governess who has been hired by one family to instruct and care for their 17-year-old daughter, Anne. This gentle comedy radiates out to encompass fictitious, "Mixo-Lydian" politics; the even more complicated goings-on of the C. of E.; and the entirely inscrutable underpinnings of British class structure. There are numerous characters, some dashing in and out of the narrative with such speed that the only thing they contribute is the memory of a vaguely humorous name. Some will find the book dated, but for Thirkell's many readers in this country, it will be a welcome addition to the growing library of her work.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

First published in 1945 and 1935, respectively, these are two more of the nearly 40 novels Thirkell wrote about the fictional British county of Barsetshire over a period of two decades. If Growing Up and Headmistress, earlier releases in the series (Classic Returns, LJ 4/15/96), met with a warm reception, then these volumes should be purchased as well.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; New impression edition (March 28, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241023483
• ISBN-13: 978-0241023488
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Governess of upper middle class knows all, July 21, 1998

By 

K. A. Fish "K.A. Fish - avid learner" (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Miss Bunting (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series) (Paperback)

Miss Bunting has raised most of the people who count in Barsetshire, the place Anthony Trollope created and Mrs. Thirkell took up and has written about in Miss Bunting and the other Thirkell novels. A great place to read about the manners, customs and changes that took place from WW 1 through WW 2. Humor and fun!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Domestic comedy in the shadow of WWII, July 25, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Miss Bunting (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series) (Paperback)

Originally published in 1945, Thirkell's 'Miss Bunting' is a delighful British comedy of manners set in Barsetshire, a stretch of countryside well known to fans of Thirkell's more than 30 books.

It's wartime and luxuries such as stockings, milk, tea and anything made of steel are nostalgic memories. Miss Bunting is the quintessential elderly, unflappable governess hired to tutor delicate, naive Anne Fielding who soon makes the somewhat unsuitable acquaintance of Heather Adams, daughter of the wealthy but hardly genteel ironworks owner.

Anne's circle includes Jane Gresham, whose husband is missing in action in the East, and who has come with her young son to live with her father, Admiral Palliser. Robin Dale, son of the Church rector, has also come home, minus a foot lost in the fighting. He fills his time teaching small boys and caring for his scholarly, absent-minded father.

Despite the upheavels of war, Old Town and New Town have maintained their social separation - until crass but efficient Mr. Adams bowls over the barriers, conferring favors wherever he goes, wanted or not.

While the elder denizens are nonplussed by the man, they are unable to articulate their prejudice and Anne's acquaintance proceeds. Meanwhile, Jane finds herself intrigued by the man's energy.

Although largely plotless, Thirkell's novel draws the reader in with crisp, wry characterizations and turns of phrase. Miss Bunting is delighfully reactionary; the arbiter of British taste for generations of upperclass girls, the observer, who, when required, can set things in their proper place with a look or a word.

Thirkell's social comedies, with their gentle bite, should gain a new generation of anglophile readers.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Insufferable, September 1, 2005

By 

Johanna (Surf City, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Bunting (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series) (Paperback)

This is one of the worst of Mrs. Thirkell's books for snobbishness. What I find even more annoying than her attitude to the rising middle classes and foreigners, is her contempt for educated women. She saves the worst of her barbs and nastiest portrayals for them. Female physicians (Dr Morgan) or scholars (Mrs. Tebbins) are always pathetic creatures. An admirable female scholar (Miss Sparling) is self-abasing and submissive to "real" (male) scholars. Thirkell's father was an Oxford don and he obviously thought Oxford was no place for Angela. She must have absorbed his contempt for the women who did brave his scorn to break those barriers. I suspect a good part of her attitude is actually jealousy for opportunities she was denied. She scorns the "cocoa parties" she was never able to share.