I started out enjoying the prose in this book, but language alone can't carry a novel. It's hard to believe this is the same authoress who wrote such action-packed children's stories. Sharp didn't seem to know where she was going in this book. The title character is interesting at first, and then when she goes into service (because she "doesn't know her place" and her guardian/uncle doesn't know what to do with her) she steps smartly into the background and doesn't seem to be the main character at all. Instead, we are subjected to a very slow, rather dull social novel set in a country house where the son and heir feels guilty for feeling like it belongs to him...? and can't decide whether he loves the girl he proposed to or not. His mother is (of course, trope) obsessed with her garden and his father doesn't seem to do much but write long, boring letters to people who can't remember who he is because they haven't seen him since they moved to the hinterlands of the Empire. Yawn.The action (well, I say "action") clatters and creeps along until the final 20 pages, when Cluny steps back into the limelight (well, I say "limelight") and the novel looks like it could be going somewhere at last. It is--going away. Just when it could be turning into a good read, it ends with the words "She opened her heart to the United States." The End.Yawn.I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Prose itself can't carry a novel. But it's not just that. I remember trying to watch the film based on this book (Ernst Lubitsch, ca. 1946) twice, and not being able to sit through it both times. Now I know why.
I checked this book out of the library, blew the dust off of the book jacket, and opened it to the cover page. I smiled to read the notice from the library that ”A fine of two cents a day will be charged on each book which is not returned according to the rules of the library.” It set the mood for the nostalgia and innocence that was to come. I was charmed within the first few pages of this novel, and the smile pretty much stayed on my face the whole time I was reading it. I enjoyed the wide-eyed, off-beat Cluny Brown and her yearning for something different than what she had. I found all of the supporting characters to be equally as engaging, and I loved the gentle humor that each provided. Even though this was not a mystery, I definitely would consider it a “cozy” read. This was the first book I can remember having read by this author, and I liked her style of writing. I will seek out more of her books for adults.
What do You think about Cluny Brown (1982)?
It's interesting to see how refreshing this kind of book can be without it really breaking through the mould of comfortable 20th century light comedy romance. Cluny almost reminds me of Little My of the Moomintrolls. Like Martha in Sharp's The Eye of Love, she's a young female character without any of the sentiments or qualms she's expected to have, serenely going about her business, who is implausibly rewarded with what she needs for her future development. It was nice to see Cluny's class written about in this vein as the norm, without heavyhanded accents and earnest social realism.There's a more purely Downton Abbey type secondary storyline. Again, it's interesting to have a comedy of this type acknowledge that the war is coming and this kind of way of life is all but over.
—Leonie
Exactly the right book for me to be reading right now, when I need cheering up. Wrtten in 1944, when the war had been dragging on for 5 years, it must have provided comfort, humor and solace to a war weary Britain. Cluny Brown, a young woman who refuses to 'know her place" finds happiness in an unconventional way."To know one's place was to Arnold Porritt (Cluny's uncle) the basis of all civilized, all rational life; keep to your class and you couldn't go wrong. A good plumber, backed by his Union, could look a Duke in the eye; and a good dustman, backed by *his* Union, could look Mr Porritt in the eye. Dukes, of course, had no Union, and it was Mr Porritt's impression that they were lying pretty low."Genius!
—Gabi Coatsworth
I had read and loved several of the Rescuers books as a child so when I discovered that Margery Sharp had written stories for adults I was intrigued. Well... I really wanted to like this book. It just didn't grab me. The premise was interesting but I never felt connected to the characters. In fact, I disliked most of them. The ending was so unlikely (although I was glad for Cluny) that it made me groan with disbelief. and lucky me, I accidentally ordered this book twice so now I have TWO copies of it.
—Laura
