#stella gibbons

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

Emma’s Entanglements

On this date, December 23 in 1815, John Murray first published Emma by Jane Austen (anonymously) in London, although the title page is dated 1816. Murray offered her 450 pounds for the copyright to the novel, plus the copyrights to Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, which she refused. Instead, she published 2,000 copies of the novel at her own expense and retained the copyright, paying Murray a 10% commission on sales of the edition. 

The story revolves around Emma Woodhouse, a young woman who fancies herself a matchmaker and is determined to oversee the romantic lives of those around her, often with humorous and unintended consequences. 

The novel explores themes of social class, relationships, and the complexities of human behavior, showcasing Austen's keen observations of character and society. Emma is notable for its use of free indirect speech, a narrative style that allows readers to get inside a character's thoughts while maintaining a third-person perspective. 

Often praised for its wit and character development, Emma is considered one of Austen's most accomplished works and has inspired numerous adaptations and reinterpretations in various media.

The images shown here come from Jane Austen’s Emma, with a preface by English author and poet Stella Gibbons (1902-1989) and illustrations in photogravure by the German American artist and designer Fritz Kredel (1900-1973), printed for the Limited Editions Club at the Thistle Press in New York in 1964 and limited to an edition of 1500 signed by the artist.

-View more of our Milestone Monday posts here.

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[cupofteajones]

Northanger Abbey Readalikes: The Great Jane Austen Read Along

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m thrilled to be part of The Austen Connection’s The Great Jane Austen Read Along as the Read-Along librarian, giving you great book recommendations and readalikes that perfectly match with the Austen novels you will read (or reread) during this read-along! I have a lot of great books to talk about, so let’s get started! Continue reading Northanger Abbey…

[mr-craig]

My full February reading wrap-up is up now. Reviews of Agatha Christie, Henrik Ibsen, Ursula K. Le Guin*, and Stella Gibbons — plus some film reviews, and an exhaustive list of all the music I listened to during the month.

*If you've already watched my Farthest Shore review, you can safely skip that segment. It's the exact same thing.

[ma-pi-ma]

I fiori e la solitudine e la natura

non ci deludono mai, pensò; non

chiedono nulla e ci confortano sempre.

.

Stella Gibbons

[everydayesterday]

currently reading: Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons

"Very probably the funniest book ever written" (The Sunday Times, London), the novel was awarded the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize in 1933.

[mysunfreckle]

Ms. Gibbons I want to talk

230 pages of witty caricatures and then this?? In throwaway lines??

[cantsayidont]

Some movies, considered chronologically:

THE FLAMINGO KID (1984): Nostalgia-burdened period piece, set in 1963, about working-class kid Jeffrey (Matt Dillon), who gets a summer job parking cars at an exclusive beach club called El Flamingo, starts dating a rich girl (Carole R. Davis), and becomes fascinated by her father (Richard Crenna), a self-made sports car dealer and local card sharp who thinks college is sucker's game. This alienates Jeffrey's own father (Hector Elizondo), a stalwart plumber who doesn't want to see Jeffrey squander his chances of bettering himself. The story is thus a sort of YA prototype of Oliver Stone's later WALL STREET — a Reagan-era morality play about a young man caught between two father figures, one representing the Lure of Easy Money and the other a paragon of Honest Hard Work — badly undermined by its absurdly idealized longing for the alleged innocence of the Kennedy era (underlined by an obnoxious oldies soundtrack). It offers a meaty role for Crenna, but as a drama, it has less substance than FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. Davis's character is such a nonentity that you keep forgetting she's there, and the way she ends up functioning as a proxy for Jeffrey's obsession with her dad is awkward. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Nope. VERDICT: A simple-minded story blinded by its rose-colored glasses.

THE JOY LUCK CLUB (1993): Sudsy but affecting episodic adaptation of Amy Tan's novel about four middle-aged Chinese women and their strained relationships with their Chinese-American daughters, starring Ming-Na Wen and nearly every other Chinese actress working in the U.S. at the time. The way the script segues between the characters' respective stories is clunky, and it often teeters on the brink of schmaltz, but there are moments of real dramatic power amongst the more superficial tearjerker moments, and you'd have to have a stonier heart than I to not sob at the bittersweet ending. Strong acting helps, with Tsai Chin particularly good as Auntie Lindo. CONTAINS LESBIANS? It seems like it should, but alas. VERDICT: Heavy-handed at times, but undeniably moving.

COLD COMFORT FARM (1996): Before she became an action star, Kate Beckinsale starred in this hilarious adaptation of Stella Gibbons' 1932 satiric novel about glib orphan Flora Poste, who makes it her project to fix all the problems of the titular farm and its eccentric denizens — distant cousins who feel obligated to Flora (whom they will only address as "Robert Poste's child") because of some unspecified wrong they once did her late father. Among the inmates of Cold Comfort are Cousin Judith (Eileen Atkins), a hysterically morose creature straight out of a gothic novel; Cousin Amos (Ian McKellen), a fire-and-brimstone preacher who warns his brethren, "There'll be no butter in Hell!"; Amos and Judith's oversexed son Seth (Rufus Sewell), a local stud who dreams of being in the talkies; and of course Aunt Ada Doom (Sheila Burrell), who rules the family with an iron fist and won't let anyone forget that she once saw something nasty in the woodshed. A delightfully silly spoof of a particular category of once-popular English literature, as the farm's assorted grim melodramas prove no match for the implacable (if somewhat snobbish) modern sensibilities of its plucky heroine. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Nope. VERDICT: Great fun throughout, although Stephen Fry irritates as a boorish "Laurentian person" who keeps hitting on Flora despite her obvious disinterest.

BREAKDOWN (1997): Competent but underwhelming Jonathan Mostow thriller starring Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan as Jeff and Amy Taylor, a couple of Yuppies whose fancy Jeep breaks down on the highway on a trip from Massachusetts to California. A passing trucker (J.T. Walsh) gives Amy a ride into the nearest town to find them a tow truck, but when Jeff gets their Jeep running again and follows her into town, he finds that Amy has disappeared, and no one, including the trucker, will admit to having seen her. It has a great premise, and Russell is credible enough in the lead, but it's pretty ordinary, and, once you know what's going on (which is revealed a little over a half-hour in), pretty superficial — there's no psychological depth, and I kept waiting for some other story twist that never came. CONTAINS LESBIANS? It barely contains women (Amy is absent for 80 percent of the running time). VERDICT: Not bad, but nothing special, and you'll forget it 10 minutes after it ends.

MY TWO HUSBANDS (2024): Okay Lifetime thriller about a young woman named Eliza (Isabelle Almoyan), still reeling from the recent murder of her mother (Joanie Geiger), who becomes deeply suspicious of her father's young new wife, a flight attendant named Brooke (Kabby Borders) who's no older than Eliza — and, as the title alludes, is secretly married to another man (Britton Webb, who looks like a lesser Baldwin brother) and up to no good. Despite the cheesy title (which is really also a spoiler) and awkward marketing (which misleadingly suggests a comedy-drama with Brooke rather than Eliza as the main character), it has a surprisingly decent, reasonably credible script, hamstrung by very weak performances. The story is still interesting enough to make it a not-bad little thriller, although it would have been better with a stronger cast and less somnabulistic direction. CONTAINS LESBIANS: It sometimes seems like Eliza's friend Star (Kristen Grace Gonzalez) might be her girlfriend, but the script is noncommittal on this point. VERDICT: A B+ script burdened with D+ acting and C- direction.

[minipliny]

Enbury Heath, by Stella Gibbons, aka Big Mood

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On this day, October 30, 1811, Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) Sense and Sensibility was published anonymously as written “by a Lady.” Austen's brother negotiated the printing with publisher Thomas Egerton who agreed to publish the book on commission at Austen’s financial risk. With presumed great relief, Sense and Sensibility received favorable reviews and the first printing of 750 copies sold out in 1813. A second printing was run later that year, and the novel has been in continuous publication ever since.  

In honor of Sense and Sensibility’s publication anniversary, we’re looking at both of the Special Collections copies! The first was published in 1856 by Richard Bentley (1794-1871). Bently purchased the copyrights to Austen’s work after her death and began publishing her novels as part of his Standard Novel Series in 1833. He hired illustrator Ferdinand Pickering (c. 1811-1882) to create an engraved frontispiece as illustration for each novel. This was the first time Austen’s work was released in collected editions and the first time her novels were illustrated.  

Sense and Sensibility has since been illustrated many times over, shedding a contemporary light on Austen’s characters, including our second holding published by the Limited Editions Club. Limited Editions Club printed 1,500 copies of Sense and Sensibility in 1957 for its members. It includes a contemporary introduction by novelist Stella Gibbons and distinct pen and ink illustrations by Caldecott Medal honoree Helen Sewell. The edition was designed by Joseph Blumenthal and printed by him at the Spiral Press in New York. Our copy is from the collection of long-standing LEC member Austin Fredric Lutter of Waukesha, Wisconsin.   

View other Milestone Monday posts here.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[dartumbles]

Review: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons My rating: 4 of 5 stars Need a laugh? Here’s a fun book. I didn’t get it at first. When I realized it was supposed to be funny, I grinned for most of the book. It is British humor, my favorite. I had been reading the Maisie Dobbs series, so I expected a serious mystery or something. This review isn’t working. Here’s the blurb from GoodReads: When sensible,…

[addictivecontradiction]

Cold Comfort Farm, 1995

[bookjotter6865]

Winding Up the Week #394

An end of week recap “Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.” – Herman Hesse I thank you for your cheerful forbearance while I gallivanted off to York to meet my half-sister and her wife for the first time ever. Our get-together went wonderfully (thank you so much to those who wished me well), and I return to you with these varied collectanea of literary goings-on. As ever,…

[dowsingfordivinity]

Mary and Stella

I’ve always loved Cold Comfort Farm. It’s one of those books I keep more than one copy of in case I lend it to someone and it doesn’t come back. But I’ve also always been aware that it was a parody. The spoof introduction and dedication to someone who is obviously a caricature of Thomas Hardy makes that clear. Continue reading Mary and Stella

[silas-lehnsherr]

There’ll be no better in hell.

“They’ll be no butter in hell.”

— -Stella Gibbons

[emeraldfolk]

"Her hair hung about her face, a nest of lifeless black snakes."

—Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm

[mb-scatafalcostuff]

"The Desert Sessions"

1. Josh Homme and Billy Gibbons in Joshua Tree, California

2. Rancho de la Luna Recording Studio (Joshua Tree, California)

3. Matt Sweeney, Libby Grace, Stella Mozgawa, Billy Gibbons, Carla Azar, and Josh Homme

(📷 1, 2 & 3 by Arnaud Pyvka)

4. Dave Catching

(📷 by Andreas Neumann)