Lark Rise to Candleford
A recent happy discovery has been Flora Thompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford, which is made up of three books. The first describes Thompson's childhood in her small Oxfordshire hamlet of Lark Rise in the 1880s, whilst the second and third include elements of the wider world in the form of the village of Candleford Green and the town of Candleford. I’ve about half way through the third book but am enjoying the trilogy immensely.
The books are described as semi-autobiographical, with Flora’s experiences being communicated in the third person through the child Laura. I am not sure why she chose to do this as the books still felt like personal stories, and I think would have been as effective as a memoir.
Even though Laura obviously feels cramped in the hamlet and doesn't really fit in, Thompson still writes with a sense of nostalgia. The local dialect is carefully transcribed and colourful sayings pepper the pages. For example, “a temperamental person was said to be 'one o' them as is either up on the roof or down the well'.” Small details of everyday life are imparted, such as the bathing habits of the women in Lark Rise - one afternoon a week they strip to the waist and bathe down as far as possible, then stand in a basin and bathe up as far as possible. Some of the rural inhabitants reminded me of Pratchett's Ramtop mountain communities, such as the young Candleford Green dressmakers Prudence and Ruth who decide to call themselves the more modern names of Pearl and Ruby. "So, to their faces, they were 'Miss Pearl' and 'Miss Ruby', while behind their backs, as often as not, it would be 'that Ruby Pratt, as she calls herself,' or 'Pearl as ought to be Prudence'".
The late nineteenth century was a time of fast change for the area. Men started wearing suits rather than smock frocks. Women were starting to have smaller families. The first bicycles - dangerous things! - were appearing on the roads. Having recently watched North and South, which was written in 1855, this does feel like a world apart from the industrial north and indeed the industrial revolution as a whole. There is a guaranteed demand for labour on the nearby farm, people generally have plenty of food to eat - though struggle to afford clothes and shoes - and Thompson saw most classes as being content with their lot. The author is also painfully aware that over the horizon lies World War One, where many of the boys born in this period, including her younger brother, will lose their lives in a way that no one could have imagined during this hopeful time. In this way it feels as though the period was a golden era, though Thompson also depicts the drawbacks to the society, such as the poverty of elderly people before pensions.
Thompson also lived long enough to see how the Victorian era was popularly depicted, and takes the time to slightly snippily point out that although families were large, obviously all ten children did not live in a small cottage all at once and young ladies did sometimes walk around unaccompanied. She also paints a picture of everyday life where people did not pay much attention to the church or the monarchy (except for the Queen’s jubilee) and did not fuss much over social misdemeanours such as babies born out of wedlock.
All in all, they’re a fascinating glimpse into English countryside life at a time of rapid social and economic change.
The books are described as semi-autobiographical, with Flora’s experiences being communicated in the third person through the child Laura. I am not sure why she chose to do this as the books still felt like personal stories, and I think would have been as effective as a memoir.
Even though Laura obviously feels cramped in the hamlet and doesn't really fit in, Thompson still writes with a sense of nostalgia. The local dialect is carefully transcribed and colourful sayings pepper the pages. For example, “a temperamental person was said to be 'one o' them as is either up on the roof or down the well'.” Small details of everyday life are imparted, such as the bathing habits of the women in Lark Rise - one afternoon a week they strip to the waist and bathe down as far as possible, then stand in a basin and bathe up as far as possible. Some of the rural inhabitants reminded me of Pratchett's Ramtop mountain communities, such as the young Candleford Green dressmakers Prudence and Ruth who decide to call themselves the more modern names of Pearl and Ruby. "So, to their faces, they were 'Miss Pearl' and 'Miss Ruby', while behind their backs, as often as not, it would be 'that Ruby Pratt, as she calls herself,' or 'Pearl as ought to be Prudence'".
The late nineteenth century was a time of fast change for the area. Men started wearing suits rather than smock frocks. Women were starting to have smaller families. The first bicycles - dangerous things! - were appearing on the roads. Having recently watched North and South, which was written in 1855, this does feel like a world apart from the industrial north and indeed the industrial revolution as a whole. There is a guaranteed demand for labour on the nearby farm, people generally have plenty of food to eat - though struggle to afford clothes and shoes - and Thompson saw most classes as being content with their lot. The author is also painfully aware that over the horizon lies World War One, where many of the boys born in this period, including her younger brother, will lose their lives in a way that no one could have imagined during this hopeful time. In this way it feels as though the period was a golden era, though Thompson also depicts the drawbacks to the society, such as the poverty of elderly people before pensions.
Thompson also lived long enough to see how the Victorian era was popularly depicted, and takes the time to slightly snippily point out that although families were large, obviously all ten children did not live in a small cottage all at once and young ladies did sometimes walk around unaccompanied. She also paints a picture of everyday life where people did not pay much attention to the church or the monarchy (except for the Queen’s jubilee) and did not fuss much over social misdemeanours such as babies born out of wedlock.
All in all, they’re a fascinating glimpse into English countryside life at a time of rapid social and economic change.