What: For three decades (1930s, '40s, and '50s), Angela Thirkell wrote one novel every year. In the fictional county of Barsetshire, the characters under Thirkell's purview grow up, grow older, fall in love, get political, stay provincial, mostly survive one war, and try to recover from the resulting peace. All the stories are told with a gently satiric tone that is affectionate even as it mocks the more absurd instances of snobbish gentility. Summer Half is the first Thirkell book I read, and I happened to stumble right smack into the middle of a golden period for the characters. It's summer; teachers, students, and headmasters (and their relations) are enjoying the holiday; and the second world war is not yet on the horizon.
Comparable to: Same vein as Austen, Dickens, Gaskell, and Thackeray. But one hundred years later.
Representative quote: "To his unhappy situation he saw no outlet which honor could allow, and hoped vaguely that on his Russian visit he might somehow turn into someone else, or even get sent to Siberia by mistake."
You might not like it if: It's too quiet. You want the war!
How to get it: Thirkell's books tend to go in and out of print. It looks like Summer Half is out of print now, but try your library.
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