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Margery Sharp (1905–1991)

Author of The Rescuers

52+ Works 5,817 Members 164 Reviews 12 Favorited

About the Author

Series

Works by Margery Sharp

The Rescuers (1959) 1,099 copies
Miss Bianca (1962) 452 copies
Cluny Brown (1944) 372 copies
The Rescuers [1977 film] (1977) — Original Story — 317 copies
The Turret (1963) 301 copies
Miss Bianca in the Orient (1970) 232 copies
Britannia Mews (1946) 227 copies
The Nutmeg Tree (1937) 206 copies
The Foolish Gentlewoman (1948) 173 copies
Something Light (1960) 160 copies
The Gypsy in the Parlour (1953) 120 copies
The Eye of Love (1957) 109 copies
The Flowering Thorn (1934) 89 copies
Rhododendron Pie (1930) 77 copies
Martha in Paris (1962) 74 copies
The Innocents (1971) 71 copies
Bernard the Brave (1976) 69 copies
The Stone of Chastity (1940) 68 copies
Bernard into Battle (1978) 61 copies
Harlequin House (1939) 55 copies
Four Gardens (1935) 51 copies
The Sun in Scorpio (1965) 47 copies
Martha, Eric and George (1964) 43 copies
In Pious Memory (1967) 28 copies
Fanfare for Tin Trumpets (1932) 28 copies
Lise Lillywhite (1951) 27 copies
Rosa (1969) 23 copies
The Faithful Servants (1975) 22 copies
Summer Visits (1977) 21 copies
Three Companion Pieces (1941) 10 copies
Melisande (1960) 9 copies
The Tigress on the Hearth (1955) 9 copies
Sophy Cassmajor (1934) 6 copies
Lost at the Fair (1965) 5 copies
The Magical Cockatoo (1974) 2 copies
Muserejsen 1 copy

Associated Works

The Rescuers Down Under [1990 film] (1990) — Writer — 241 copies
Walt Disney: The Rescuers (1989) — Original Story — 135 copies
Walt Disney's the Rescuers : A Little Golden Book (1971) — Original story — 111 copies
14 Suspense Stories to Play Russian Roulette By (1945) — Contributor — 55 copies
The Third Omnibus of Crime (1935) — Contributor — 44 copies
65 Great Murder Mysteries (1983) — Contributor — 41 copies
Walt Disney's The Rescuers: A Golden Tell-A-Tale Book (1977) — Original Story — 14 copies
In the Dead of Night (1961) — Contributor — 11 copies
The Best Short Short Stories from Collier's (1948) — Contributor — 3 copies
Mens vi taler om djævelen .... : 19 gys (1977) — Contributor — 2 copies
Forbidden Street [1949 film] (2012) — Writer — 2 copies
Alfred Hitchcock's Fireside Book of Suspense — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

20th century (94) adventure (108) animals (95) animation (32) British (99) British fiction (33) children (79) children's (180) children's books (28) children's fiction (77) children's literature (59) Disney (128) DVD (30) ebook (68) England (60) fantasy (136) fiction (679) first edition (39) Furrowed Middlebrow (29) general fiction (28) hardcover (43) historical fiction (34) humor (94) juvenile (28) juvenile fiction (38) kids (39) Kindle (48) literature (43) mice (140) Miss Bianca (31) mystery (38) novel (108) own (36) picture book (27) read (89) rescuers (105) romance (27) to-read (114) unread (33) women (29)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

In the late 1930s, the family of working-class Londoner Cluny Brown decide that she needs to learn to "know her place" and send her off to be trained as a domestic servant at the country pile of the Carmel baronets in Devon. Shenanigans ensue.

Much of Cluny Brown is the kind of light, witty comedy you find many women authors producing in interwar Britain, with our namesake character's naive honesty highlighting many of the absurdities and assumptions of the class system. Some of the characters act in ways that I didn't find entirely convincing—there's a bit of that Wodehousian tendency towards abrupt engagements and so on—but I could roll with it as part of the style of the period. Since Margery Sharp wrote this in the late 40s, however, there's a little bit of melancholy foreshadowing of the war to come which provides an acid that leavens some of the giddier elements.

Where the book worked less well for me was the ending. I can see why Cluny didn't end up with the chemist, because Sharp did her work to show how there was a fundamental incompatibility with their characters. But Cluny being paired off right at the end with Adam Belinski in what we're told is a true love match just didn't convince me at all, and felt dated in a way that many other parts of the book avoided. Yes, I can see that throughout, Sharp is positioning both of them as outsiders in many ways—but you need something beyond thematic similarity to make a couple convincing. Moreover, Belinski is shown throughout the novel to be a relentless womaniser who comes this close to sexually assaulting Betty. Despite what the epilogue says, I think that if Cluny Brown does have a happily-ever-after, it won't be with him.
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
siriaeve | 16 other reviews | Nov 19, 2023 |
One of my FAVORITES when I was young - have to go back ad read it again!
 
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schoenbc70 | 18 other reviews | Sep 2, 2023 |
 
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Eurekas | 1 other review | May 25, 2023 |
 
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Eurekas | 1 other review | May 25, 2023 |

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Awards

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Associated Authors

Ken Anderson Screenwriter
Fred Lucky Screenwriter
Burny Mattinson Screenwriter
Ted Berman Screenwriter
Erik Blegvad Illustrator
Ron Miller Producer
Eva Gabor Actor
Joe Flynn Actor
Garth Williams Illustrator, Cover artist
Wibke Kuhn Übersetzer, Translator
Malin Stehn Translator
Davina Porter Narrator
J. Schraver Translator
Ignacio Rived Translator
Bruna Mora Translator
Lester G. Hornby Cover artist
Ellen Fjelstrup Translator
Poul Erlinger Cover artist
Irene Brin Translator
Karin von Schab Translator
Elizabeth Crawford Introduction
Leslie Morrill Illustrator
Anna Zinkeisen Illustrator

Statistics

Works
52
Also by
12
Members
5,817
Popularity
#4,234
Rating
3.9
Reviews
164
ISBNs
225
Languages
9
Favorited
12

Charts & Graphs