Cluny Brown

Cluny Brown is an orphan, happy enough to be living with her widowed uncle, a plumber, looking after him and answering his calls. She also happens to fancy a spot of tea at the Ritz and, well, any number of other things that are, shall we say, above her station. This is still England in 1938, after all. And so, hoping to put her in her place once and for all, her uncle packs Cluny off to a Devonshire great house where she is to become a parlor maid.

Cluny Brown does not lack for spirit and her lighthearted hijinx are often amusing. Margery Smith wrote this novel in 1944 and the era suffuses that pages in a way that even the best historical fiction is not able to capture. (In this way, it is similar to The Ladies Paradise or Suite Française.) In fact, it is notable that the characters speak often of the coming war, yet with a somewhat vague sense of what this will mean. Of course, when Cluny Brown was published, the victors had not yet been victorious.

Ultimately, I felt the book was so-so. I may have liked it better had it not been for the ending, which I never foresaw (so points to the author for that bit, at least), and which I didn't quite understand. What bothered me most was that I felt it was entirely out-of-character. That said, there was enough of "jolly old England" between the covers that I couldn't feel too cheated by the characters when the setting itself was so refreshing.