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The Provincial Lady
The Provincial Lady should lead a charmed, upper-middle class life in her Devonshire village, but with a husband reluctant to do anything but doze behind The Times, mischievous children, and trying servants, it's a challenge keeping up appearances on an inadequate income, particularly in front of the infuriating and haughty Lady Boxe. Delightfully witty, The Provincial Lady was the Bridget Jones of the 1930s, documenting the chaotic peculiarities of everyday life with wonderful wit and humor. This abridged edition takes the best extracts from her first two "diaries."
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2018
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About the author
E.M. Delafield
156 books149 followersEdmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (9 June 1890 – 2 December 1943), commonly known as E. M. Delafield, was a prolific English author who is best-known for her largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady, which took the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s, and its sequels in which the Provincial Lady buys a flat in London and travels to America. Other sequels of note are her experiences looking for war-work during the Phoney War in 1939, and her experiences as a tourist in the Soviet Union.
Daughter of the novelist Mrs. Henry De La Pasture.
Daughter of the novelist Mrs. Henry De La Pasture.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 12, 2018
An incredibily amusing account of upper-middle class life in 1930. The Provincial lady appears to have it all - yet struggles with social engagements, keeping her staff happy and growing bulbs in the attic. She worries about keeping up appearences, with such characters as the formidable Lady B, Our Vicar's Wife and the man-eating Pamela Pringle. I really enjoyed the relationship with Robert, he was very entertaining as he gave mostly one line replies as curtail his wife's latest plans.
October 3, 2021
The turning point with diaries is normally about a third of the way in, where after some light humour and scene-setting, it has to go somewhere to avoid becoming stale. Unfortunately I found this to be quite repetitive and the last half was a real trudge.
The start was quite promising, humour coming from understatement and minor skirmishes with disliked characters, such as Lady Boxe or the vicar's wife. Even allowing for the fact this almost a century old I didn't find many of the entries to be that funny and there were a lot of repeated jokes - the narrator spends a lot of money and her husband comments on it, another dress doesn't look that good on her, the cook makes poor food and her servant is a bit simple. Normally these smaller entries provide the comic relief between the main narrative arcs, but there wasn't much of a story.
The second half continues in the same vein, both stylistically and in content, and I admit I speed-read most of this. The literary stuff was very dull, and her style of adding a rhetorical question as a 'query' was trying rather than amusing. Perhaps upper-middle class women of the time saw something of themselves in the narrator, who is at least fairly self-deprecating, however I was thoroughly uninterested in the latter half of this abridged version.
The start was quite promising, humour coming from understatement and minor skirmishes with disliked characters, such as Lady Boxe or the vicar's wife. Even allowing for the fact this almost a century old I didn't find many of the entries to be that funny and there were a lot of repeated jokes - the narrator spends a lot of money and her husband comments on it, another dress doesn't look that good on her, the cook makes poor food and her servant is a bit simple. Normally these smaller entries provide the comic relief between the main narrative arcs, but there wasn't much of a story.
The second half continues in the same vein, both stylistically and in content, and I admit I speed-read most of this. The literary stuff was very dull, and her style of adding a rhetorical question as a 'query' was trying rather than amusing. Perhaps upper-middle class women of the time saw something of themselves in the narrator, who is at least fairly self-deprecating, however I was thoroughly uninterested in the latter half of this abridged version.
September 4, 2018
I certainly agree about the main protagonist in the book being referred to as 'the Bridget Jones of the 1930s.'
This book is an abridged version of E M Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady and The Provincial Lady Goes Further. For an abridged version, I enjoyed both of the books and am already looking forward to reading the unabridged versions of Delafield's excellent series.
The two books are in a diary format and are about a lady who is based on herself, her book husband Robert and their two children Robin and Vicky, who are based on her own children, Lionel and Rosamund.
The book has never been out of print and it is not hard to see why it is still in print 88 years later. In my opinion an excellent book but in this series, could have easily dropped the second title and could have produced the whole of the first novel.
This book is an abridged version of E M Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady and The Provincial Lady Goes Further. For an abridged version, I enjoyed both of the books and am already looking forward to reading the unabridged versions of Delafield's excellent series.
The two books are in a diary format and are about a lady who is based on herself, her book husband Robert and their two children Robin and Vicky, who are based on her own children, Lionel and Rosamund.
The book has never been out of print and it is not hard to see why it is still in print 88 years later. In my opinion an excellent book but in this series, could have easily dropped the second title and could have produced the whole of the first novel.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews