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The Demon in the House (The Barsetshire Novels) Kindle Edition
Laura Morland loves her son, Tony, unconditionally . . . even when he’s talking everyone’s ear off, accidentally breaking a window, shelling peas in the bathtub, or desperately trying to convince her to buy him a bicycle—the thought of which terrifies her. And of course Laura cherishes their time together when Tony’s home on break, while secretly counting the minutes until he goes back to school . . .
This twentieth-century tale set in Anthony Trollope’s beloved Barsetshire is a lighthearted and sharp-witted look at the life of the upper class in prewar England, and a funny portrait of the fraught relationship between a long-suffering mother and a demanding, rambunctious, and occasionally infuriating twelve-year-old boy.
Praise for Angela Thirkell and the Barsetshire novels
“Thirkell writes in a charmingly easy and intimate style.” —The New York Times
“[Thirkell’s] writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, dislike of fuss, and low-key irony. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books.” —The New Yorker
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOpen Road Media
- Publication dateJanuary 23, 2024
- File size6884 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B0CRJX37WN
- Publisher : Open Road Media (January 23, 2024)
- Publication date : January 23, 2024
- Language : English
- File size : 6884 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 177 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #270,785 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #352 in Humorous Literary Fiction
- #1,682 in General Humorous Fiction
- #1,704 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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Several sections of the story evoke with breath-taking clarity the mostly unruly but sometimes sublime passions of childhood--especially chapter 5, which is titled Paradise Pool because Tony discovers a particularly lovely view of the lake where a group of grown-ups and children have gathered to picnic and swim. The youngsters are full of high spirits, playing, squabbling loudly, and running off with each other’s toys, but then Tony and his mostly silent friend Donk climb down to muck around in a stream that’s below the level of the main body of water, and from that lower angle the lake looms like a magic pool suspended in midair, a vision that awes and moves them both and temporarily silences the almost pathologically loquacious Tony--it’s a lovely piece of writing.
Thirkell apparently didn’t think much of her own books. Like Tony’s mother she wrote because she needed to earn a living and didn’t expect or want her well educated friends to read her novels, but but for “fluff” her stories are witty and socially aware. Because they were written during the time when they're set, in this case the 1930’s, the stories also offer interesting and often unexpected (to me) insights about the daily life and attitudes of the era, including a few eyebrow-raising off-hand comments by characters that are offensive today.
Virago is re-releasing many of Thirkell’s novels, but so far not not this one, which means that most or all of the available copies are the Moyer Bell editions which do have some editing errors.
His doting widowed mother, Laura, was the focus of the first Barestshire novel, High Rising, which I thoroughly enjoyed. These novels need to be read in order, to follow what is going on in the neighborhood. I made a mistake and read this as the second novel instead of the third, and there were a few times that I knew I was missing information.
The Barsetshire novels are gentle and pleasant to read, and, while I've only read the two, this series is becoming a favorite.
Top reviews from other countries
Near the beginning of the book when he tries to convince his mother just how much he really needs a bicycle, and needs a full-size one *right now* reminds me very much of my employing similar pleas and arguments with my own parents some 60+ years ago.
The whole book is a good laugh from start to finish and Angela Thirkell obviously had experience of young male relations that she based young Tony on.
A truly relaxing yet invigorating read. I loved it!