Lark Rise To Candleford A Trilogy Deals on Flora Thompson

Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy

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Editorial Reviews

Flora Thompson (1876-1947) wrote what may be the quintessential distillation of English country life at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1945, the three books - Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), and Candleford Green (1943), were published together in one elegant volume, and this new omnibus Nonpareil edition, complete with charming wood engravings, should be a cause for real rejoicing.

This is the story of three closely-related Oxfordshire communities -- a hamlet, a village, and a town -- and the memorable cast of characters who people them. Based on Thompson's own experiences as a child and young woman, it is keenly observed and beautifully narrated, quiet and evocative.

The books have inspired two plays that ran in London, and the trilogy has been adapted into a multi-part, long-running television drama series by the BBC. The first series of ten episodes is scheduled to be syndicated on various PBS stations throughout the Unites States.

Customer Reviews

Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy

Reviewed by A. Non, 2010-02-05

This is very dry reading. It is not written as a story - but as a description of life, the area, customs, and culture of a time that was in transition.

Lark Rise to Candleford:a Trilogy

Reviewed by Norma Barnes, 2010-01-09

I found this to be a wonderfully written and informative book---I could hardly put it down !! I was surprised- I expected a very dull book- -
It made the DVD much more interesting--I'm now waiting for Series 2 ..

Beware. This is not the TV show

Reviewed by Linda L. Nielsen, 2009-09-23

I should have read the reviews more carefully. I thought I was getting the book that the PBS series of the same name was taken from but this was not the case. This book has no plot. It is simply a rather long detailed description of life in a part of England during the time the PBS series is set in. Some of the people mentioned in the book are the same as in the TV show but that is all. If you have seen and enjoyed the BBC PBS series as I have you would be disappointed in this book as I was.

A Perceptive and Empathetic Account of English Rural Life by a Precursor and Kindred Spirit of Miss Read

Reviewed by min-bee, 2009-09-18

This book provides an easily readable, well-written account of English rural life in the late 1800s, before this culture was forever changed by industrialization. The author was a young girl whose simple adventures are described, and she does have an eye for the details of country life that provides a charming portrait of that life. Oxford University Press was the original publisher of this trilogy, and the quality of the book justified the publisher's faith. The author observes that although people didn't have as many material goods as today, and although they worked very hard, they seemed happier than their descendents. For example, she describes the system of assistance in the community among its different classes and members when there was no welfare state.
Perhaps because I discovered this book through an article in "Victoria" magazine in the 1990s--before the BBC made a television series out of it--I did not miss the absence of a storyline or plot. This is a beautiful book when it is taken on its own terms. If you enjoy Miss Read's novels of English village life, you will probably appreciate this book's loving depiction of country life at an earlier time. I think the inspiration of Miss Read and Flora Thompson is the same.

Late-19th c. rural England

Reviewed by LH422, 2009-04-24

Written in the 1940s, this semi-fictional account of hte Oxfordshire villages Lark Rise and Candleford looks back at the 1880s, a time of transition in the ENglish countryside. Work, social relationships, home life, schooling- all of these things changed in the last years of the 19th c. THompson examines these changes through the story of Laura, a girl who comes of age in the 1880s and 90s. But truly, in this work Laura's story takes a back seat to description. Thompson is clearly using this book to capture a lost world, and the book includes whole chapters describing the countryside and the traditions of its people. The writing is almost anthropological. While the description is interesting, and it is a very easy read, I found myself longing for more plot, more discussion of what happened to Laura. I also found that the book seemed to romanticize what must have been, by all accounts, grinding poverty. That said, the descriptions THompson offers are engaging and vibrant, and the book is a quick, and dare I say, relaxing, read.