Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series In Order: Final Wrap-Up!

Yes, after more than two years of reading a book a month, I finally finished reading all of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels in order. That’s 29 of them! A few brave folks at least kept up with me by reading and or by commenting on one or more of my reviews.

• Brona of Brona’s Books
• Silvia Cachia
• Davida Chazan
• Christine of All the Vintage Ladies
• Liz Dexter of Adventures in Reading
• Penelope Gough
• Gypsi
• Helen of She Reads Novels
• The Readable Word
• Renee
• Anne Roy
• Sue
• Mary Taylor-Lee
• Simon Thomas of Stuck in a Book
• Yvonne of A Darn Good Read

I hope I didn’t forget anyone.

Having finished this project (yay!), I thought I’d wrap up by making a few points about the project in general:

• Was the project worth it? In a way. Before I started it, I had been reading the books arbitrarily, when I came across them, and I think I had read eight or nine of them before. However, attacking them in this way, I would have vague ideas that I had seen characters before but could seldom remember much about them or their relationships with other characters. Reading the books in order helped with this a lot. Some characters who recurred in almost every book became very familiar to me and I could remember others easily. However, I wished I had made a spreadsheet for myself from day one to note relationships and what I knew of each character, it got that complicated, especially toward the end when Thirkell seemed to introduce characters out of the blue and for only one book.
• Were the books written before and during the war really the best ones? That’s the common understanding, but I think they kept up their quality longer than that. In answer to this question, I would say that the last four or five books weren’t quite up there with the rest.
• What is the effect of reading one a month? Reading one a month does have the problem that you get a little tired of Thirkell’s tropes. She has character types that reappear and she has conversations that keep repeating. Also, she does remind you of things that happened to the characters, but towards the end, she brings these things up more than once a book. I think if you were reading one book a year, as you would if you read them as they were released, this wouldn’t bother you as much as if you are reading one a month. In fact, the reminders of what happened to the characters in previous books would be helpful.
• Did the last book being finished by someone else matter? Maybe not. The only difference I could detect were a few conversations, especially at the birthday party, that didn’t seem as clever as usual. Otherwise, I really couldn’t see much difference. However, I have no idea how finished this novel was before Thirkell died. If anything, I would say that there were fewer things repeated in the same book, a problem I had been running into for the last three or four books.
• Were there things I didn’t like about the books? Yes, there were quite a lot of comments that we now consider politically incorrect, especially toward the end of the series. At first, I just put them down to the times, but after a while, they seemed to get worse. There were some racist expressions, despite there being no actual nonwhite characters, and a lot of classist attitudes.
• What is valuable about this series? Even though it is set among privileged characters, it is a chronicle of the changes to society that were caused by the war and its aftermath.
• Who were my favorite characters? Lady Emily, Lucy Marling, Miss Merriman, Wicks, Lord and Lady Pomfret (Gillie and Sally Foster), Lord Stoke, Gradka, whom I at first found irritating, but afterwards made me laugh as soon as she appeared.

Anyway, I’m glad that I finished this project and am glad to be finished with it!

Review 2260: #ThirkellBar! Three Score and Ten

Three Score and Ten is the last novel of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire series, finished by a friend after her death. Could I tell the difference? Maybe.

As I’ve commented before, Thirkell’s later books don’t really have plots, but this book works toward three events—Mrs. Morland’s 70th birthday, a romance for Lord Mellings, and another romance for Sylvia Gould, whom I don’t even remember meeting before.

As usual with the later works, the novel consists of a series of tea parties and dinners, with the Barsetshire Agricultural Show also taking place. Mrs. Morland entertains her grandson Robin because his siblings have the measles, and he is exactly as I remember his father, Tony, as a boy, including behaving several years younger than his age of ten or eleven.

The birthday party gives its author the opportunity to bring in almost everyone who has ever appeared in the series. Several characters who aren’t invited appear in an indignant meeting called because of the intentions of Lord Averfordbury to tear down Wiple Terrace, home of Miss Bent and Miss Hampton and several Southbridge school teachers, and put up a factory.

Could I tell that not all of the novel was written by Thirkell? Not so much, although maybe the conversations at the birthday party are not as clever. Twenty pages, by the way, are devoted to that party, which is about 18 more than were taken for any of the many weddings that appeared in the series (although admittedly most were only mentioned) and about 15 too many.

One more issue that has little to do with the original novel. I think I’ve had occasion to comment about the earlier Moyer Bell editions (all of the post-war novels) that they had a lot of typos. I haven’t mentioned that in a while because they got better, but this book had lots of them, including ones that show the text couldn’t have even been subjected to a spell checker.

Related Posts

Love At All Ages

Close Quarters

A Double Affair

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #29 Three Score and Ten + #28 Love at All Ages Wrap-Up

Thanks to everyone who is keeping up at least with comments for Love at All Ages. One more to go!

• Liz Dexter of Adventures in Reading
• Renee

I see now why some of the lists of the Barsetshire series include Three Score and Ten, and some do not. It’s because Three Score and Ten was finished posthumously by a friend. It should be interesting to see what difference there is. I will be posting my review of this novel on Tuesday, October 31.

Review 2244: #ThirkellBar! Love at All Ages

If Love at All Ages can be said to have a plot, it’s the wedding of the vicar Mr. Oriel and Lady Gwendolyn, the sister of the Duke of Towers (not to be confused with the Earl of Pomfret Towers). If these names do not sound familiar, it’s because as far as I can remember, we have not met these characters before, or anyone else in that family, and we don’t really seem to get to know them now. However, other familiar characters help with or appear at the wedding.

The back of the novel also mentions the christening of the first child of Lady William Harcourt (previously Edith Graham, who monopolized at least three of the previous novels), but by the time we get done with the wedding, I’d forgotten it.

The title hints that the book includes another love affair, and since Lady Gwendolyn and her intended are well into middle age, the implication is that it involves younger people. This is just a hint that there may be a suitable mate for young Ludo, Lord Mellings, the heir of the Earl of Pomfret.

Otherwise, the book contains the usual plethora of literary allusions, tea parties, boating parties, and so on. The preoccupations that I complained about last time are still all there, too—including yet another mention of Mrs. Fewling’s lack of proper undergarments when she was still Margot Phelps—although not repeated as often. However, there is a scene where Lydia Merton remembers her husband’s old infatuation (with someone very much like Mrs. Brandon but not her, I can’t remember) and then two pages later, her husband thinks about it, and as if that weren’t enough, it’s mentioned again later in the book.

So, no improvement here and less interest, because so much of the book is about characters we don’t know and don’t get to know. However, there’s only one book left to go. (In fact, the cover of my book says this one is the last one, which if it were, would be quite a disappointment as the last in the series.)

Related Posts

Close Quarters

A Double Affair

Never Too Late

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #28 Love at All Ages + #27 Close Quarters Wrap-Up

Thanks so much to the people who are plodding along with me to the finish. I have to admit that the last couple of books were not as sparkling as the rest of the series, but now we are almost at the end. So, thanks for your comments about Close Quarters.

• Liz Dexter of Adventures in Reading
• Renee
• Sue (aka Historical Fiction Is Fiction)

I notice that Goodreads describes the next book, Love at All Ages, as the last one! However, all of the sources I looked at before beginning this project also listed one more. So, I’ll be posting my review of Love at All Ages on Friday, September 29, with one more to go after that.

Review 2230: #ThirkellBar! Close Quarters

Although it begins somewhere else, Close Quarters is mostly concerned with Margot Macfayden. Readers may remember that in Jutland Cottage, Margot was the daughter of impoverished and ailing Admiral and Mrs. Phelps. She worked hard, day in and out, maintaining their house and keeping the goats and chickens without much of a thought for herself until Rose Fairweather took her in hand. At the same time, others pitched in to alleviate her condition by visiting her parents so she could get away sometimes. Nevertheless, the wealthy, older Mr. Macfayden found her crying in the henhouse one day and proposed.

At the beginning of Close Quarters, Mr. Macfayden dies after only five years of marriage, and aside from her natural grief, Margot finds herself again at a crossroads. Her parents are now cared for, but she thinks perhaps she should live with them again. However, she doesn’t want to.

She knows the Luftons would like to reclaim the house she’s been leasing, so she starts looking for a house, but she can’t find anything suitable. No one but the readers know that Canon Fewling (Tubby to his friends) suffered a great disappointment when he learned she was engaged.

Although I found the ending of this book more touching than the last few, there were several occasions when Thirkell repeated conversations that she has not only had in other books but that had already appeared in this one, as if she couldn’t remember what she had written. The story of Mr. Wickham’s reluctant proposal to Margot is repeated three or four times, for example, while a snobby conversation about common mispronunciations occurs more than once. There is a stupid recurring joke about the Parkinsons’ last name that I don’t understand but suspect is more snobbery, and several different people opine that Mrs. Parkinson wears the pants in the family. Also, Margot’s lack of undergarments when Rose took her in hand is mentioned again.

Maybe I’m getting tired of Thirkell’s little conversational tidbits, but they seem also to occur more often. I liked the central theme of this book but disliked a lot of the chatter. And that’s disappointing, because often the chatter is amusing. Anyway, only two more books to go.

Related Posts

A Double Affair

Never Too Late

Jutland Cottage

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #27 Close Quarters + #26 A Double Affair Wrap-Up

We’re counting down to the end here with only three books to go. My thanks to the loyal followers who have continued to comment even if they haven’t been able to read the books.

• Liz Dexter
• Penelope Gough
• Renee

In A Double Affair, I believe I caught Thirkell in a continuity error for the first time. We’ll see how she finishes off the series.

The next book is Close Quarters, and I’ll be posting my review on Thursday, August 31.

And here’s our badge.

Review 2213: #ThirkellBar! A Double Affair

I have to start out with a spoiler for the book before this one, so if you haven’t read Never Too Late and plan to, skip now to the second paragraph. A Double Affair begins with the wedding of Miss Merriman, called Merry by her friends, to Mr. Choyce. Merry has appeared in many of the novels as the devoted secretary/companion to both Lord Pomfret and Lady Emily Leslie, and she deserves a happy ending. (Readers may recall that early in the series she had an unrequited love.) The wedding is described in much more detail than any of the others—if they are described at all—so Thirkell must have thought so, too.

Then we briefly return to the subject of Edith Graham, still eighteen after three books. And here, I think Thirkell has made a continuity error, for Edith is returning from a trip to America after having returned two books ago. I noticed this particularly because I read the beginning of this book out of order, so in my mind she had just returned and she was returning again. So, at the end of Never Too Late, I looked for an indication that she was going abroad again, but there was none—just her plan to go to agricultural school.

Thirkell gets over this, sort of, by saying she abandoned her studies to go to America with Uncle David and Aunt Rose, but never once is there a reference to two trips to America. Thirkell even has her say that she thinks her temperamental problems were caused by this trip, but she had those same problems two books ago when she returned the first time.

In any case, I’m a little tired of Edith and her temper. At the beginning of the book, she still has three admirers—George Halliday, the farmer; John Crosse, the banker and Lord Crosse’s son; and Lord Mellings, the young heir of Lord Pomfret. However, she seems to lose her temper if some man isn’t paying attention to her at all times.

This is a good time to look at the problems of George Halliday. His father died in the last book, and now his mother is feeling lonely. He is working hard and is sometimes irked because when he gets home, his mother wants attention, whereas he wants to work on the books or just relax. Finally, she goes for a visit to her daughter Sylvia at Rushwater, where Sylvia and Martin feel much the same. But Mrs. Halliday has a surprise for everyone.

This novel will finally dispose of the affections of George, John, and Edith, but in what combination?

Although I enjoyed keeping up with these characters, this is the first time I’ve felt that Thirkell lost track of her plotting a bit. Also, I don’t want to spoil any romantic surprises, but I’ll just say that she cheats a bit in this one.

Related Posts

Never Too Late

Enter Sir Robert

What Did It Mean?

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #26 A Double Affair + #25 Never Too Late Wrap-Up

We’re nearing the end of the series, here. There are only four more books to go. I enjoyed the surprise at the end of Never Too Late, even though it was understated. Thanks for anyone who joined me by commenting, and I appreciate the efforts of people to find the books.

• Liz Dexter of Adventures in reading

Our next book is A Double Affair, and I’ll be posting my review on Friday, July 28. I hope someone can read along with me.

And here’s our badge.

Review 2198: #ThirkellBar! Never Too Late

Purely by error, I read most of the next book in the series before this one (apparently my stack got rearranged), which spoiled a key surprise of this book. So I will not spoil it for you.

Much of this book deals with young Edith Graham, who can’t decide what to do with herself. As, in fact, did the last book and as does the next one. It’s unusual for Thirkell to spend so much time with one character, although she certainly revisits characters time and again. To a certain extent, though, she also did this with Clarissa Graham, who was also a little spoiled. Edith is clearly discontented, especially when she feels she is not getting enough male attention.

But the novel also deals with the problems of George Halliday and his mother. George has been working hard to keep his father’s farm going and to keep his patience with his father’s advice. But now Mr. Halliday is failing in mind and body. George is too busy with the farm to help his mother care for his father, and both of them are exhausted. So, Agnes Graham, working with friends, takes a hand in the situation.

Aside from George’s problems there are newcomers to meet—the Carters, cousins of Everard Carter, the headmaster of Southbridge School—and two very understated romances of the middle-aged variety. So, I found Never Too Late to be as delightful as usual.

Related Posts

Enter Sir Robert

What Did It Mean?

Jutland Cottage