Lark Rise to Candleford

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lark Rise to Candleford was an intriguing journey. I had mixed feelings about it all the way and there were several times when Sparkling Squirrel and I nearly abandoned ship. But we kept going, and the reading got better the further we got. In the end, I wished the story went on longer, so I could follow Laura further into her newly independent life.

This book is hard to define – could it have pioneered the ‘fictionalised memoir’ long before it became a well known genre? It’s basically non-fiction, written in episodic, report-like sections, focusing on the village and its inhabitants. Flora Thompson changes her name to Laura in the book, but we don’t know what else is fictionalised.

What I craved was character, and I didn’t appreciate that the village (or hamlet as Thompson calls it) was actually the main character. The book starts off reading like an anthropological observation of village life, with lengthy descriptions of pig-killing, housework and fieldwork, and styles of dress.

I was struggling to place Thompson in amongst these rather dry, detached observations. She only ever mentions herself and her brother vaguely as ‘the children in the end house.’ Here are my thoughts on Thompson part-way in:

My impression of Thompson so far (100 pages in) is she's vaguely cranky, moralising, interested in criticising the present and idealising the past. People were poor, but they were happier back then. No one got sick because they lived outside and were hardy and hard-working. The men were happy with their half-pint. Everyone sang as they worked. There was a real sense of community. Blah, blah, blah.

She was writing as a mature woman; she was in her early 60s when the first book, Lark Rise, was published in 1939, and nearly 70 when the three books were reissued into the current combined volume, Lark Rise to Candleford, in 1945.

I think this backdrop of the modern world encroaching, a second world war beginning, and the author herself aging, all have an effect on the tone and presentation of the story. (For instance, the crankiness.)

It all raises the question, why is Thompson writing this book? She tells us so little about herself, I don’t think the ‘memoir’ label is quite accurate. Laura/Flora is nearly as detached as a fly on the wall, through most of the book.

But then she pops into the narrative occasionally with unexpected passion. At times, the narrative becomes almost like a personal journal, with a lovely episode when Laura and her brother walk to Candleford alone for the first time.

There were more of these personal stories later in the book, which is why I enjoyed the end more than the beginning. But this constant change in perspective makes the book have a muddled feel to it, like the purpose isn’t quite clear, even to the author herself.

For her March group-reading project, Sparkling Squirrel added several thought-provoking questions to our discussion:

1) How would the book be different if Flora Thompson chose to write it in first person rather than (a very detached) third?
2) What do you think the point is?
3) How would you turn this into a tv series?
4) Any reactions to language and tone and structure?

As to the first question, I think this book would definitely work better for me if it were in first person, and if Thompson weren't so hesitant about saying anything about herself or her family. It might be just a matter of taste, but I do think that the story and message would be more powerful if it were more direct, personal and involved.

The disjointedness and repetitive, rambling style made me suspect that the book wasn’t heavily edited. Actually, I discovered what I think is a misplaced page, perhaps a manuscript page that got out of order and made it into the published edition in the wrong place.

It’s one page (about 260 words) at the end of a chapter that just DOESN’T FIT WHATSOEVER with what’s before and after. The funny thing is, the rest of the book is so disorganised that I’d imagine most readers wouldn’t notice.

If you read it, let me know if you find the page I mean.

This is a book ripe for discussion, because it’s interestingly flawed, but also enjoyable and memorable (and has an excellent TV series to go with it).

Lark Rise, discussion in progress

Blogging friend Sparkling Squirrel asked me to nominate a book for March as part of her year-long STIR project.

I chose Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson -- a volume of three books originally published separately: Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941) and Candleford Green (1943).

When pressed for a reason, I said, 'I picked Lark Rise because I saw some episodes of the BBC dramatization and really liked them, because I have it on my bookshelf already, and because it's British and probably somewhat quaint and old-timey, small-villagey and I thought you might like it!'

I'm not sure how much I'm enjoying the book so far, though I think it will make for a good discussion. We've exchanged some first impressions, and we have a longer conversation planned for next week.

Sparkling Squirrel started reading before I did, and posted this:

I've started Lark Rise and have thus far found it to be everything that Marieke expected. It is not, however, updated Jane Austen or Jane Eyre (which I perhaps was expecting just because Marieke first mentioned Lark Rise in conjunction with I Capture the Castle, which is a retelling of Jane Austen and Jane Eyre), it is not Thomas Hardy or Anthony Trollope illuminating the drama in Victorian village life, or even a Laura Ingalls Wilder moved to England (a later expectation after I realized that the books were a fictionalized memoir of growing up in a place long gone by the time of publication).

I started reading and found myself struggling to stay awake.

This is the point where I recalled what my mom said after she finished reading it last summer -- she said the TV series didn't really stick that close to the book. Should I have taken that as a hint?

Here are a few of our initial email exchanges:

Me: I have to admit that I'm bored to tears so far... I hope it picks up a bit soon.

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SS: Spoiler alert! It does not pick up.

I think the matter of expectations would be an interesting blog conversation-- I have enjoyed what I've read but it has not been at all what I expected, and I think that's the case for you, too.

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Me: I did have certain expectations, I suppose, after having seen one season of the BBC miniseries -- which ran like a serial of loosely connected episodes with recurring characters. I expected there to be a story. With characters, events, and dialogue. With a flow to it. I'm not finding that at all.

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SS: Over to Candleford starts off slightly more character-based, but then I realized I was a few chapters in AND IT WAS JUST A RECAP OF LIFE IN LARK RISE, nobody had gone to Candleford yet and while I believe that somebody will make it out of the hamlet, I thought that something would happen for the first two-thirds of Lark Rise.

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Me: No one has yet made it out of the hamlet! OMG. I don't think I'll be able to make myself read that far!

Note: I have resumed reading -- with newly adjusted expectations -- and am now enjoying it more than I did before. Now I'm approaching it as a more-or-less nonfiction account of village life in the 1880s-90s. It seems to read much easier now that I'm not looking so much for the 'story'.