Best Selling Books by Stella Gibbons

Dr. Orison Swett Marden (1848–1924) was an American inspirational author who wrote about achieving success in life and founded SUCCESS magazine in 1897. His writings discuss common-sense principles and virtues that make for a well-rounded, successful life. Many of his ideas are based on New Thought philosophy. Marden wrote in an energetic and readable style that used simple, yet lucid vocabulary. He favored the "bold headline" approach and presented his ideas with brevity, directness and clarity. It was perhaps owing to his business background that he could pack so much "punch" into a mere few words. He also carried a distinctive American tone and syntax that modern readers may easily relate to. Among the many subjects to be found in his writings, perhaps his strongest were in business, salesmanship and the art of balanced living. Other interests include literature, history, philosophy, biography, fine art, education, psychology, and physical health. Like Samuel Smiles, he expounded upon many of the virtues that make up success, such as self-reliance, perseverance, and hard work. His writings breathe a spirit of "lofty austerity" and focus on themes of adversity and triumph, defeat and victory, failure and success.” Marden often kept his writings simple, concrete, and grounded in reality. Indeed, he advises young writers to "Live, Then Write" and to "Keep Close to Life." Yet along with this simplicity, his writings also displayed a remarkable talent for rhetorical flight. Marden made frequent use of metaphors and similes in conveying ethical principles and moral lessons. Objects or scenes observable in nature such as rocks, marbles, streams, trees, snows, and tempests imparted a sublime, poetic depth to his writing: The frost, the snows, the tempests, the lightnings, are the rough teachers that bring the tiny acorn to the sturdy oak...Obstacles, hardships are the chisel and mallet which shape the strong life into beauty.

When the sukebind is in bud, orphaned Flora Poste, expensively, athletically and lengthily educated, descends on her relatives at Cold Comfort Farm. There are plenty of them - Judith, alone in her grief; Amos, called by God; Seth, smouldering with sex; Elfine, who needs a little polish; and, of course, Aunt Ada Doom, who saw ''something nasty in the woodshed''. And Flora feels it incumbent on herself to bring order into chaos. ''Delicious... Cold Comfort Farm has the sunniness of a P. G. Wodehouse and the comic aplomb of Evelyn Waugh''s Scoop.'' Independent ''Very probably the funniest book ever written... a brilliant novel along classic lines.'' Julie Burchill, Sunday Times

A sly and satirical fairytale by the author of Cold Comfort Farm Unavailable for decades, Stella Gibbons''s Nightingale Wood is a delightfully modern romance ripe for rediscovery by the many fans of Cold Comfort Farm. Poor, lovely Viola has been left penniless and alone after her late husband''s demise, and is forced to live with his family in their joyu00adless home. Its occupants are nearly insufferable: Mr. Withers is a tyrannical old miser; Mrs. Withers dismisses her as a common shop girl; and Viola''s sisters-in-law, Madge and Tina, are too preoccupied with their own troubles to give her much thought. Only the prospect of the upcoming charity ball can lift her spirits-especially as Victor Spring, the local prince charming, will be there. But Victor''s intentions towards the young widow are, in short, not quite honorable.

Available for the first time since its original publication more than fifty years ago, Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is a charming collection whose hilarious title story features Christmas dinner with the Starkadders before Flora''s arrival. With Adam playing Santa while draped in Mrs. Starkadders''s shawls, the family shares their traditional "Christmas pudding"-a mélange containing random objects of doom foretelling the coming year: a coffin nail for death, a bad sixpence for financial ruin, and a menthol cone to indicate that the lucky recipient will go "blind wi'' headache." These lively tales will delight anyone who loves Stella Gibbons and her signature wit.

In St Alberics, Hertfordshire, stands a newly built family home: Sunglades. Its seven rooms house Kenneth and Constance Fielding, middle-aged bachelor and spinster, along with Kenneth''s old flame, an industrious Balkan exile, a young economist and the Fieldings'' raffish father. Together they attempt to create a rural idyll.

La casa de huéspedes de La Torre se encuentra ubicada en un frondoso bosque de hayas en pleno Buckinghamshire. La regentan dos extraordinarias mujeres de muy marcada personalidad: la balsámica y lloriqueante señorita Padsoe, que vive atribulada por los desprecios del servicio, y la más joven y práctica señorita Baker, londinense hasta la médula y aficionada a las tostadas y al té bien cargado. Sin embargo, su amistad es mera apariencia pues ambas se odian con todas sus fuerzas. En la vecindad se alza la fastuosa mansión de los Shelling, en la que viven George y su hermana Bell, y en la que se organizan alocadas fiestas dedicadas a los Cerebritos, a los Automovilistas y al Amor Libre. En la casa de los Shelling trabaja como dama de compañía la bella señorita Catton. Entre George y ella surgirá el amor. Stella Gibbons vuelve a regalarnos, apenas un año después de haber publicado "La hija de Robert Poste", una comedia romántica de humor desatado, llena de equívocos, escenas memorables, con personajes irrepetibles y situaciones que harían las delicias del mismísimo Wodehouse.