Lark Rise to Candleford (The trilogy) "Lark Rise", "Over to Candleford", "Candleford Green".

by Flora Thompson

Flora Thompson's immortal trilogy, containing "Lark Rise", "Over To Candleford" and "Candleford Green", is a heartwarming portrayal of country life at the close of the 19th century. This story of three closely related Oxfordshire communities - a hamlet, the nearby village and a small market town - is based on the author's experiences during childhood and youth. It chronicles May Day celebrations and forgotten children's games, the daily lives of farmworkers and craftsmen, friends and relations - all painted with a gaiety and freshness of observation that make this trilogy an evocative and sensitive memorial to Victorian rural England.

Genres: Classics

444 pages, Paperback

Published January 6, 2018

About the author

Flora Jane Thompson (5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet famous for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, Lark Rise to Candleford.

Flora benefited from good access to books when the public library opened in Winton, in 1907. Not long after, in 1911, she won an essay competition in The Ladies Companion for a 300-word essay about Jane Austen.[6] She later wrote extensively, publishing short stories and magazine and newspaper articles. She was a keen self-taught naturalist and many of her nature articles were anthologised in 1986.

Her most famous works are the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, which she sent as essays to Oxford University Press in 1938 and which were published soon after. She wrote a sequel Heatherley which was published posthumously. The books are a fictionalised, if autobiographical, social history of rural English life in the late 19th and early 20th century and are now considered minor classics.

Reviews

[Katie W.]

DNF. Maybe someday I will finish, now that I know there is no plot and can change my expectations. I just found it too boring to continue.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was disappointed with this book. I was expecting more of a novel, while this book just describes the author's life growing up. So the lack of a storyline was boring to me at first.

But once I got past my false expectations(haha), I actually started to really like it! I found myself so relaxed while reading this book. The author makes you feel like you just stepped back to a more peaceful time. It also made me remember bits and pieces of the TV series, which I absolutely loved. So even though it wasn't a favorite and it wasn't what I was expecting, I still enjoyed it!

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. There was no plot or story line. It was like a memory book of ideas of the past. It was interesting to learn more about life during that time but it wasn’t a story to enjoy. It took four months for me to read it because I could only manage a bit at a time. I kept wishing it would have more of a plot about Laura, but it bounced around her life so much that it wasn’t satisfying. I enjoyed the TV series by this title and had hoped for a good story about Laura.

[Sylvie Vanhoozer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir about how things were in a small Oxfordshire village in one decade: the 1880's.

"It would have been pleasant to have lived all her days in comparative ease and security among the people she knew and understood. To have watched the seasons open and fade int he scenes she loved and belonged to by birth. But have we any of us a free choice of our path in life, or are we driven on by destiny or by the demon within us into a path already marked out? Who can tell?" 214

[Kristin Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and gentle trilogy of a quiet country upbringing. I definitely preferred Lark Rise and Over to Candleford, but very glad I read all three in succession.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

More enjoyable than I expected it to be! So much description, very little dialogue.