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Publication
Virago (2014), Edition: Reissue, 220 pages
Description
In August Folly, the village of Worsted is staging Hippolytus. Inevitably, the most absurd romances bloom. Boorish young Richard Tebbins, just down from Oxford, falls in love with Mrs. Dean, mother of nine, whose oldest son loves Richard's sister, but she loves another. And round and round it goes. Amidst a series of comic catastrophes, everyone manages to redeem themselves. Witty, snobbish, sweet, and evocative, Mrs. Thirkell's Barsetshire novels provide a bemused scrutiny of British manners in the most delightfully entertaining doses.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TadAD
I can see Thirkell's books becoming a little addiction if they are all like this.
It wasn't a book full of profound insights or deep thoughts—it was simply a witty, amusing and, above all, comfortable story. We see British middle class and minor gentry fumbling along through romances, jealousies,
I can't even vaguely say why, but it evoked high school days with the slightly potty families of friends and summer holidays from university, all with a pleasant chuckle of fond memories. While it puts me in mind of Austen's books in tone, it is much lighter in weight...a touch of something like E. F. Benson in them, perhaps.
If you think you would like a relaxing, send up portrait of rural England in the 1930s, I recommend this.
It wasn't a book full of profound insights or deep thoughts—it was simply a witty, amusing and, above all, comfortable story. We see British middle class and minor gentry fumbling along through romances, jealousies,
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behaving badly and making amends. By the end of the story, I knew, and was attached to, all of them.I can't even vaguely say why, but it evoked high school days with the slightly potty families of friends and summer holidays from university, all with a pleasant chuckle of fond memories. While it puts me in mind of Austen's books in tone, it is much lighter in weight...a touch of something like E. F. Benson in them, perhaps.
If you think you would like a relaxing, send up portrait of rural England in the 1930s, I recommend this.
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LibraryThing member GeraniumCat
In August Folly Angela Thirkell just about achieves perfection. She writes that cosy middle-class world in which I know I'm most comfortable; her characters are attractive but flawed, and the way in which their foibles are visited – often inadvertently - on others is familiar from the worlds of
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Pym and Austen. I admit she doesn't challenge but, for me, her books are pleasure from first page to last. Her animals are wonderful, too, with Gunther the cat and Modestine the donkey having conversations after the humans have gone to bed. With 30 books in all, I am deliriously happy. Show Less
LibraryThing member AMQS
I just adore Angela Thirkell's books. Ms. Thirkell is like a 1930s Jane Austen, and her books are set in Barsetshire, the fictional county created by Anthony Trollope in the 1850s. These books are fun, fun, and I listen to them in any order I can, as the characters are only loosely related and the
August Folly centers around two families -- the Tebben family, who live at Lamb's Piece in the village of Worsted, and the large Dean family, who take the Dower House for the summer to be near their relations the Palmers, who, atop the social order of the village, live in the Manor House. The Deans' arrival coincides with the homecoming of the Tebben children -- Richard, who has slouched his way to an unremarkable third at Oxford, and Margaret, returned from being an au pair in Grenoble. The enjoyable summer stretched out before the village is commandeered by Mrs. Palmer, who marshals the entire village into a performance of Euripides' Hippolytus in the barn she had converted into an open-air stage.
This is romance and social satire at its best, with a large cast of characters, hilarious interactions and little plot. Richard Tebben develops a swooning infatuation with Mrs. Dean, a woman twice his age and the mother of nine children. His sister Margaret and Lawrence Dean fall in love with each other, though Lawrence gets in his own way with his clumsy advances. Helen Dean is very attached to her brother, and first takes her jealousy out on Richard, then resolves to be nice to him, which pains the Oxford tutor Charles Fanshawe, a middle-aged friend of the Dean family who is in love with Helen. Other wonderful characters include the Tebbens' snippy housekeeper and dreadful cook; more Dean children Robin, Susan, Betty, and Jessica; the annoying curate Mr. Moxon (written to match Jane Austen's Mr. Elton or Mr. Collins); and the Tebben family donkey Modestine and sherry-drinking cat Gunnar. Richard is mortally embarrassed by Modestine until he realizes he can offer young Jessica Dean rides on Modestine (to try to impress Mrs. Dean), and in a fateful encounter, uses Modestine to save Jessica from a bull (and also impress Mrs. Dean). Throw in some rum omelettes, Greek tragedy rehearsals, youthful hijinks, heart murmurs, and crossword puzzles, and you have a light, fun, thoroughly enjoyable read.
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passage of time in Barsetshire is not confounded by reading out of order.August Folly centers around two families -- the Tebben family, who live at Lamb's Piece in the village of Worsted, and the large Dean family, who take the Dower House for the summer to be near their relations the Palmers, who, atop the social order of the village, live in the Manor House. The Deans' arrival coincides with the homecoming of the Tebben children -- Richard, who has slouched his way to an unremarkable third at Oxford, and Margaret, returned from being an au pair in Grenoble. The enjoyable summer stretched out before the village is commandeered by Mrs. Palmer, who marshals the entire village into a performance of Euripides' Hippolytus in the barn she had converted into an open-air stage.
This is romance and social satire at its best, with a large cast of characters, hilarious interactions and little plot. Richard Tebben develops a swooning infatuation with Mrs. Dean, a woman twice his age and the mother of nine children. His sister Margaret and Lawrence Dean fall in love with each other, though Lawrence gets in his own way with his clumsy advances. Helen Dean is very attached to her brother, and first takes her jealousy out on Richard, then resolves to be nice to him, which pains the Oxford tutor Charles Fanshawe, a middle-aged friend of the Dean family who is in love with Helen. Other wonderful characters include the Tebbens' snippy housekeeper and dreadful cook; more Dean children Robin, Susan, Betty, and Jessica; the annoying curate Mr. Moxon (written to match Jane Austen's Mr. Elton or Mr. Collins); and the Tebben family donkey Modestine and sherry-drinking cat Gunnar. Richard is mortally embarrassed by Modestine until he realizes he can offer young Jessica Dean rides on Modestine (to try to impress Mrs. Dean), and in a fateful encounter, uses Modestine to save Jessica from a bull (and also impress Mrs. Dean). Throw in some rum omelettes, Greek tragedy rehearsals, youthful hijinks, heart murmurs, and crossword puzzles, and you have a light, fun, thoroughly enjoyable read.
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LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
Perfectly enjoyable trifle of an English countryside soap centering on amateur theatricals and inevitable love and marriage.
LibraryThing member thorold
Great fun: nothing too demanding, but a pleasant summer holiday with amusing middle-class people falling in love, engaging in amateur dramatics, and dealing with the complications of bad cooking, unreliable transport, and animals with minds of their own. Modestine/Neddy the donkey steals the show,
That said, what Thirkell really does very well is to write about children in a way that makes them interesting and amusing to adult readers without being cute or twee. Of course, when you've read two or three of her books, you realise that this is a bit of a trick: the same basic characters tend to reappear each time with different names and in slightly different contexts, but that's a permissible shortcut in this sort of light fiction.
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as one might expect, but he would have been much better off without the two whimsical scenes where he is made to talk to the cat. Talking animals are almost always a mistake in books intended for readers over the age of five.That said, what Thirkell really does very well is to write about children in a way that makes them interesting and amusing to adult readers without being cute or twee. Of course, when you've read two or three of her books, you realise that this is a bit of a trick: the same basic characters tend to reappear each time with different names and in slightly different contexts, but that's a permissible shortcut in this sort of light fiction.
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LibraryThing member lauralkeet
Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels are set in an early 20th-century reimagining of Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire, populated with the gentry, their servants, and various rural folk. August Folly is the fourth book in the series introducing new characters while making casual references to people
Angela Thirkell writes a brilliant comedy of manners, and I have come to depend on her books as light, fun reads.
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from earlier books to give a sense of community. The book representative of the series with its romantic storyline unfolding in the midst of traditions common to rural life, in this case, a play being staged during the summer holiday. The play brings out the worst in village gossip and politics, but also provides a gathering place for young people that naturally leads to summer love. Richard Tebben has just returned home after finishing his studies at Oxford and is unsure of his next steps in life. He inexplicably falls for Rachel Dean, the mother of several children around Richard's age. Richard's sister Margaret is thrust into close contact with Rachel's son Laurence, due to their respective roles in the play. Laurence's sister Helen has caught Mr Fanshaw's eye, but when she begins spending time with Richard he doubts his own prospects. Everything is set up nicely for a series of misunderstandings, but there is never any doubt that things will work out in the end. Angela Thirkell writes a brilliant comedy of manners, and I have come to depend on her books as light, fun reads.
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LibraryThing member TanyaRead
Not one of the better ones.
LibraryThing member starbox
Light entertainment in a 1930s English village, as overbearing Mrs Palmer organises a Greek play, ably assisted by two sets of young people who have come home for the holidays. In a charming world of yesteryear, a world of servants, incipient love affairs and misunderstandings, the story itself is
BUT the humour throughout is so cleverly observed and frequently so LOL funny, that it just adds another dimension. I loved the Tebbens- highly academic but strapped for cash - and the depressing culinary attempts of the wife:
"I am sorry there are no potatoes, but Mrs Phipps didn't put them on in time, and knowing that you wanted to come with me and meet Richard at the station, I didn't like to wait for them to be finished. We could have them in if you like and just eat the outside part that is cooked, and have the rest properly boiled and use them up ith the salad tonight."
And the mortification of their critical student son at being picked up in an aging governess cart pulled by truculent donkey Modestine - another of his mother's money saving ideas.
Entertaining read.
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frothy and implausible.BUT the humour throughout is so cleverly observed and frequently so LOL funny, that it just adds another dimension. I loved the Tebbens- highly academic but strapped for cash - and the depressing culinary attempts of the wife:
"I am sorry there are no potatoes, but Mrs Phipps didn't put them on in time, and knowing that you wanted to come with me and meet Richard at the station, I didn't like to wait for them to be finished. We could have them in if you like and just eat the outside part that is cooked, and have the rest properly boiled and use them up ith the salad tonight."
And the mortification of their critical student son at being picked up in an aging governess cart pulled by truculent donkey Modestine - another of his mother's money saving ideas.
Entertaining read.
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LibraryThing member pgchuis
Set around the performance of a Greek play, in which the whole village is involved, I initially struggled to keep the many characters (including the nine Dean children) straight in my head. I did manage to overcome this, thanks to the well-drawn personalities; I think Thirkell is especially good at
I skipped the conversations between the cat and the donkey...
A sweet ending.
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young people, and her depiction of Richard and his feelings for his parents was excellent. I also appreciated the references to "Morland" from the earlier instalments.I skipped the conversations between the cat and the donkey...
A sweet ending.
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LibraryThing member Herenya
Angela Thirkell’s fourth Barestshire book, August Folly, is about a summer of dinners, donkey rides, rehearsals, train journeys, cricket, secret worries, siblings and romance.
When Richard Tebbin comes down from Oxford, he’s moody and awkward and rather self-absorbed - gloomy about his exam
This is not a situation I’d consider delightful or charming. And yet I was captivated. Thirkell astutely portrays family dynamics, with their various tensions, and many of the characters have complexities or contradictions. There are several scenes where characters show unexpected depth, strength or growth.
Not all the surprises were pleasant. There are some odd, unnecessary but fortunately very brief, references to prejudiced attitudes, and also teenagers who think pricking a donkey with a pin is an acceptable way of making him go. Ugh. And sometimes Thirkell doesn’t seem to have a very positive view of women going to university… But I appreciated the family dynamics so much, so I’m very glad I didn’t skip this one.
August Folly takes place in the same part of the country as last Thirkell I read, Before Lunch, but is set some years earlier. Some characters from Before Lunch make brief appearances here (and vice versa). It was also interesting to read the two books in comparative quick succession because they both look at with cross-generational romances from very different perspectives and with different outcomes.
“Let’s pace up and down the terrace like people in books,” said Helen, slipping her arm through Mr Fanshawe’s.
“How is everything?” asked Mr Fanshawe.
“Rotten.”
“Inside or out?”
“In.”
“Then what about turning yourself inside out and getting some expert advice?”
“May I, Charles? I’m simply loathing myself.”
“Well?”
(The rest of this scene - the reason for Helen’s unhappiness, and the way Mr Fanshawe listens - is one of the ones that surprised me.)
When Richard Tebbin comes down from Oxford, he’s moody and awkward and rather self-absorbed - gloomy about his exam
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results and his future prospects, embarrassed by his parents, frustrated by his mother’s economies and impractical domestic arrangements, and annoyed about being roped into Mrs Palmer’s play. And then he meets the Deans, who are staying with the Palmers, and is promptly besotted with Mrs Dean, whose eldest children are older than him.This is not a situation I’d consider delightful or charming. And yet I was captivated. Thirkell astutely portrays family dynamics, with their various tensions, and many of the characters have complexities or contradictions. There are several scenes where characters show unexpected depth, strength or growth.
Not all the surprises were pleasant. There are some odd, unnecessary but fortunately very brief, references to prejudiced attitudes, and also teenagers who think pricking a donkey with a pin is an acceptable way of making him go. Ugh. And sometimes Thirkell doesn’t seem to have a very positive view of women going to university… But I appreciated the family dynamics so much, so I’m very glad I didn’t skip this one.
August Folly takes place in the same part of the country as last Thirkell I read, Before Lunch, but is set some years earlier. Some characters from Before Lunch make brief appearances here (and vice versa). It was also interesting to read the two books in comparative quick succession because they both look at with cross-generational romances from very different perspectives and with different outcomes.
“Let’s pace up and down the terrace like people in books,” said Helen, slipping her arm through Mr Fanshawe’s.
“How is everything?” asked Mr Fanshawe.
“Rotten.”
“Inside or out?”
“In.”
“Then what about turning yourself inside out and getting some expert advice?”
“May I, Charles? I’m simply loathing myself.”
“Well?”
(The rest of this scene - the reason for Helen’s unhappiness, and the way Mr Fanshawe listens - is one of the ones that surprised me.)
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
The story of a summer in the village of Worsted, on the outskirts of Winter Overcotes and not far from Winter Underclose... Primarily the story of the family Tebbens -- father (scholarly and downtrodden), mother (scholarly but domestically a disaster), son (college-aged, ashamed of his family), and
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daughter (generally overlooked by the rest of the family). Show Less
LibraryThing member goet0095
This is one of the first Angela Thirkell books I read, and I really enjoyed it. All of her books are about normal everyday people, but she finds humor in everything. She is a very charming writer!
LibraryThing member cameling
Not the best in the Barsetshire series, I didn't think, and at times I thought it dragged a little. But it still had good patches of humor and as always Thirkell does a fine job introducing us to interesting characters.
LibraryThing member otterley
Set in the countryside between the wars, an amateur production of Euripides provides the loosest of frameworks for a charming comedy about love, relationships and country society. Thirkell is excellent in her light touch depiction of the agonies of relationships - the parents and children who love
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each other while driving each other insane; the pains and pleasures of first love, whether suitable or a wildly unsuitable crush; the acute embarrassments of social snobbery in world of very subtle gradations of class and education. Her acuteness of touch makes the lightness of the comedy particularly enjoyable Show Less
LibraryThing member mmyoung
In August Folly, the fourth of Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels, the reader finds hirself once again the world of the English gentry in the years between the two World Wars. It is tempting to categorize this as light-weight book with two main functions: to entertain and the second to sketch in more
Those functions may have been the conscious intentions of the author however August Follyleaves the modern day reader with a carefully sketched picture of the realities of provincial life among the English gentry in the 1930s. In particular the reader is given an insight in the nuanced complications of economic inequalities among people of similar class status. The England in which this story has set has already begun to undergo the changes that would lead to, if such a thing c ould exist, a partial upheaval in the class system.
Many of the characters in this book seemed trapped in the contradictions between the economic/class system that was and the economic/class system that is to come. The families around whom this book revolves all belong to the gentry (they are, in the terminology of the time, ladies and gentlemen.) The sons attend university and clearly studying at Oxford or Cambridge are their only options for acquiring tertiary education. However, unlike previous generations of young men of their class, this cohort is more conscious of the limitations of such education in providing them with the skills required to get jobs (and make money) in the world of business. Whereas earlier generations of the gentry had been content (and able) for the most part to live off dividends and perhaps the income from their land the current generation was finding it more and more difficult to do the same.
The story itself revolves around one summer in the country life of three families living in the Barset countryside:[1] the Palmers, the Deans and the Tebbens. As is not uncommon in books of this type characters meet, interact, and misunderstand each other. Their actions and interactions take place against the attempt on the part of Mrs. Palmer to stage Euripides’s Hippolytus. Usually in romance/soap operas there would be a clear echo between the themes of the play being staged and the drama enacted among those rehearsing the play and yet, in this case, there is not. The modern reader may be struck with the extent to which the English at the time had such a shared culture that one could be fairly sure that any other ‘educated’ person would have read the same plays and know the same poetry. Aside from that sense of “shared culture” the overwhelming echo from play to book is that the characters about whom Thirkell is writing live as constrained lives as those in the play. There were but a narrow number of people that any individual could pair up with and there was but a narrow range of jobs any individual could enter be they upper, middle or working class.
Unlike many other novelists who include a number of characters who all belong to the gentry Thirkell does not rely on subtle clues to indicate to the readers the differences in financial statuses of the different families. Of the Palmers we learn little save that they have no children and they are quite comfortably situated. The Deans are clearly well heeled. There are nine children in the family and at no time is there any indication that choices are made for financial reasons. Mr. Dean works and is evidently successful although one doubts that the lifestyle of the family arises only from his wages. They own more than one car. They employ more than one chauffeur. They eat caviar and spend money without consideration. The Tebbens, on the other hand, are clearly struggling to maintain the what they consider the necessities of life. Mr. Tebben holds a position as a civil servant (or which we learn precious few details) and his wife writes economic text books. They cannot afford a car but they have a (not particularly good) cook. They hire household servants but worry about the cost of tea. Though they belong to the same class as the Deans and the Palmers the economic realities of their lives are so dissimilar that a modern reader, less schooled in the nuances of class, will wonder why they consider themselves part of the same social set.
If August Folly had been set in London the counterpoint of the old ways dying set against the formation of the next generation might have become lost in the midst of its own playing out. It is says much for why Thirkell was considered a popular and accessible (but fundamentally lightweight) author by her contemporaries that it is possible to read and enjoy her books without even noticing the underlying themes and tensions yet if one considers them carefully if the thematic material was removed there would be little left to read.
This is a story a people who are at best only minor actors upon the stage of their county and their country. They react rather than act and thus are at the mercy of the fates as to the direction of their own lives. Because they are born to a class that is accepted as “the leaders” they see themselves as having some degree of control over their lives and yet, as one looks back over the occurrences of the book, one realizes that Thirkell has presented to the audience characters with as little final control over their lives as had the characters in the Greek play they were staging.
[1] For those unfamiliar with the work of Thirkell – one of the major conceits of the greater number of her novels is that they take place in the same corner of England as Trollope explored in many of his novels. Not only do Thirkell’s readers encounter place names familiar from many of Trollope’s books the reader is also explicitly informed that Thirkell’s characters inhabit Trollope’s created England by having the narrator or characters identify other characters as descendants of individuals in Trollope’s books.
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completely the existing characters that make up the cast of the Bartsetshire novels and to add a few more members to that cast.Those functions may have been the conscious intentions of the author however August Follyleaves the modern day reader with a carefully sketched picture of the realities of provincial life among the English gentry in the 1930s. In particular the reader is given an insight in the nuanced complications of economic inequalities among people of similar class status. The England in which this story has set has already begun to undergo the changes that would lead to, if such a thing c ould exist, a partial upheaval in the class system.
Many of the characters in this book seemed trapped in the contradictions between the economic/class system that was and the economic/class system that is to come. The families around whom this book revolves all belong to the gentry (they are, in the terminology of the time, ladies and gentlemen.) The sons attend university and clearly studying at Oxford or Cambridge are their only options for acquiring tertiary education. However, unlike previous generations of young men of their class, this cohort is more conscious of the limitations of such education in providing them with the skills required to get jobs (and make money) in the world of business. Whereas earlier generations of the gentry had been content (and able) for the most part to live off dividends and perhaps the income from their land the current generation was finding it more and more difficult to do the same.
The story itself revolves around one summer in the country life of three families living in the Barset countryside:[1] the Palmers, the Deans and the Tebbens. As is not uncommon in books of this type characters meet, interact, and misunderstand each other. Their actions and interactions take place against the attempt on the part of Mrs. Palmer to stage Euripides’s Hippolytus. Usually in romance/soap operas there would be a clear echo between the themes of the play being staged and the drama enacted among those rehearsing the play and yet, in this case, there is not. The modern reader may be struck with the extent to which the English at the time had such a shared culture that one could be fairly sure that any other ‘educated’ person would have read the same plays and know the same poetry. Aside from that sense of “shared culture” the overwhelming echo from play to book is that the characters about whom Thirkell is writing live as constrained lives as those in the play. There were but a narrow number of people that any individual could pair up with and there was but a narrow range of jobs any individual could enter be they upper, middle or working class.
Unlike many other novelists who include a number of characters who all belong to the gentry Thirkell does not rely on subtle clues to indicate to the readers the differences in financial statuses of the different families. Of the Palmers we learn little save that they have no children and they are quite comfortably situated. The Deans are clearly well heeled. There are nine children in the family and at no time is there any indication that choices are made for financial reasons. Mr. Dean works and is evidently successful although one doubts that the lifestyle of the family arises only from his wages. They own more than one car. They employ more than one chauffeur. They eat caviar and spend money without consideration. The Tebbens, on the other hand, are clearly struggling to maintain the what they consider the necessities of life. Mr. Tebben holds a position as a civil servant (or which we learn precious few details) and his wife writes economic text books. They cannot afford a car but they have a (not particularly good) cook. They hire household servants but worry about the cost of tea. Though they belong to the same class as the Deans and the Palmers the economic realities of their lives are so dissimilar that a modern reader, less schooled in the nuances of class, will wonder why they consider themselves part of the same social set.
If August Folly had been set in London the counterpoint of the old ways dying set against the formation of the next generation might have become lost in the midst of its own playing out. It is says much for why Thirkell was considered a popular and accessible (but fundamentally lightweight) author by her contemporaries that it is possible to read and enjoy her books without even noticing the underlying themes and tensions yet if one considers them carefully if the thematic material was removed there would be little left to read.
This is a story a people who are at best only minor actors upon the stage of their county and their country. They react rather than act and thus are at the mercy of the fates as to the direction of their own lives. Because they are born to a class that is accepted as “the leaders” they see themselves as having some degree of control over their lives and yet, as one looks back over the occurrences of the book, one realizes that Thirkell has presented to the audience characters with as little final control over their lives as had the characters in the Greek play they were staging.
[1] For those unfamiliar with the work of Thirkell – one of the major conceits of the greater number of her novels is that they take place in the same corner of England as Trollope explored in many of his novels. Not only do Thirkell’s readers encounter place names familiar from many of Trollope’s books the reader is also explicitly informed that Thirkell’s characters inhabit Trollope’s created England by having the narrator or characters identify other characters as descendants of individuals in Trollope’s books.
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LibraryThing member Liabee
This story of love lost and found takes place in an English country village in the years between donkey carts and motor cars.
LibraryThing member murderbydeath
I hate to do this to an Angela Thirkell book, because I've truly enjoyed every other book of hers I've read so far, but I can't keep on.
I don't like Richard, who, as of page 63, is the main character. He's sulky and immature and even worse, he's starting to moon over a woman his mother's age who
Angela Thirkell was a prolific author so there was bound to be one I didn't love, and I'll not let this one damp my enthusiasm.
I don't like Richard, who, as of page 63, is the main character. He's sulky and immature and even worse, he's starting to moon over a woman his mother's age who
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is happily married and has 9 children. I have no doubt whatsoever that subsequent events will mature him and his romantic interests will soon be redirected into more appropriate avenues, with much hilarity ensuing in the process. But I can't make myself go through the painful bits to get to the funny bits.Angela Thirkell was a prolific author so there was bound to be one I didn't love, and I'll not let this one damp my enthusiasm.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1936
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