Miss Buncle's Book

This is most definitely not a book for everyone, but if you like affectionate takes on English eccentrics, it's hard to get better.

Miss Buncle, confronted with dwindling dividends, resolves that writing a book is the best way of shoring up her finances. Wholly without imagination, however, she resorts to thinly disguised portraits of her own village. Thus does the sleepy Silverstream become "Copperfield", and when its denizens find out, chaos breaks loose.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It's light as a souffle, but Stevenson's frothy prose up to the task. English farce is a kind of subgenre, one I'm quite partial too, but it can be tricky to pull off. If you make the book too lightweight, there's no momentum to keep a reader show more going. But if you weigh it down with serious characterisation or narrative, the inherent absurdity becomes too much.

Stevenson navigates the territory most ably. The book has a fairly cracking pace, and the wide cast provides a welcome contrast, ranging from unpleasant and silly to sensible and nice - and every permutation in between.

Whilst gently mocking, the book's tone never slips into bitterness, and nor does Stevenson deprive the reader of the ending we want. The dialogue is light and very play-like, and the prose itself - amused, slightly removed, flowery in just the right places - is a vital contributor to the book's humour.

But there's an extra treat to Mrs Buncle's book: in a postmodern twist very progressive for 1934, the book-within-a-book structure becomes its own delightful puzzle box.

The parallels (and differences) - between the characters of Silverstream and Copperfield, and their fates, lends a very pleasing, mischievous complexity to an otherwise straight forward novel. In addition there's a lovely recursive element, where a disruptive element in the book-within is mirrored by the production of the book itself in the actual novel. I probably haven't explained that very well. Suffice to say it's well done, Stevenson doesn't harp on it, and it's quite clever.

I can't really picture a way this book could have accomplished what it wanted to any better - hence a well-deserved 5 stars. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but it's about as good as it gets within the genre. show less

English spinster Barbara Buncle decides to write a book in this delightfully humorous novel from the 1930s, and the result is village drama unlike anything she could ever have imagined. With her dividend payments drying up, and no discernible job skills, Miss Buncle debates between raising hens and writing stories as a means of supplementing her income. Deciding upon stories, she creates a faithful portrait of the residents of Silverstream, with only their names changed, and then writes about what she thinks these neighbors of her should do next. When the book is published under the pseudonym 'John Smith,' it soon becomes a controversy in the village, as people begin to recognize themselves in the ostensibly fictional characters. Some show more end up doing exactly what Miss Buncle predicted, while others start a witch hunt to discover the true identity of 'John Smith.' Miss Buncle herself, in the meantime, undergoes a transformation, and finds love in her own way...

Long on my radar, Miss Buncle's Book is a title I have been meaning to read, and I am glad I finally did. I found it completely charming, and finished it in a single day, once I finally got started with it. Miss Buncle is an interesting character, precisely because she seems such a blank slate at the beginning of the book, and then grows more interesting as she grows more confident. It was really quite interesting to see the changes wrought by Miss Buncle's book on the villagers around her, as they see themselves through another's eye. The good ones like Colonel Weatherhead seem inspired to seek happiness, the deeply flawed but not irredeemable ones like Mr. Bulmer improve and change themselves, and the truly villainous ones like Mrs. Greensleeves get their just deserts. The sub-plot involving Miss King and Miss Pretty, in which they are clearly lesbians, was quite interesting as well. Miss Buncle's remains oblivious to the fact, and Stevenson never comes right out and says what's what, but Miss King's outsized reaction to Miss Buncle's book, her sensitivity to public opinion regarding her relationship with Miss Pretty, is a clear indication of what's going on under the surface. I found this entire book immensely entertaining, and definitely intend to track down the sequels. Recommended to anyone looking for charming English village fiction, with a little bit of romance, and a whole heap of drama! show less

A favorite read of the year! Miss Buncle’s Book is cozy, funny and clever. It follows Barbara Buncle, an outwardly ordinary and unassuming character who is hiding a big secret: she is the author of a novel written under the pen name John Smith. The characters of the novel are explicitly based on the people in her own town. Barbara arranges the lives of their novel counterparts for the better, giving them happier connections and storylines than their real life versions. But not all of the townspeople’s incisively accurate descriptions are flattering. As a result, many of the townspeople get together to figure out what to do about that pesky scoundrel John Smith, unaware that he is actually Barbara Buncle.

The tone of Miss Buncle’s show more Book is like a cozier, more slice of life P.G. Wodehouse. I feel like it embodies the saying “don’t mistake kindness for weakness,” because, while it’s gentle and feel-good, it has a kick to it that makes you realize it’s more than it appears to be. It’s totally a book to read to escape the stress of real life.

My favorite part of this book was how good D.E. Stevenson is at writing characters. She knows how to write people that feel real, down to the most minute details! Her two standout characters for me were Sally, and Mrs. Featherstone Hogg. I loved Sally’s entrance into Barbara’s life. Sally is so full of pep and cheer! She’s the perfect counterpart to Barbara. I only wish we could’ve seen them together more often in the story, because they are truly a dream team. But it’s Mrs. Featherstone Hogg that truly makes this book work. She is SO fun to hate! Probably one of my favorite book villains, I couldn’t stop laughing at her increasingly ridiculous antics as she vies to gain control.

It looks like there are four books in this series, and I can’t wait to read them all! show less

Written in the 1930’s when neighborhood gossip was the social media, Miss Buncle’s Book tells the story of the village of Silverstream after spinster Barbara Buncle writes a novel about the town and its residents. Though, she uses a pen name and different names for the village and its residents, her neighbors are able to see themselves in her work, and for the most part they don’t like what they see. This is a witty, old-fashioned story about human nature.

Reviews of this book described it as “cozy” so I was hoping for something in the vein of Alexander McCall Smith or Miss Read. It wasn’t cozy in that way – it didn’t make me want to stop and smell flowers or enjoy a sunset the way their works do, but Miss Buncle’s show more Book was a good story told simply. I enjoyed reading about the clothing and manners of the time, though am glad I don’t live in a village like Silverstream where my every action is a source of gossip and judgment. I am glad I met Miss Buncle and do plan to read this story’s sequel. Recommended for fans of Jane Austen and Persophone Classics. show less

Oh, this is lovely. And so possible... Miss Buncle writes about her neighbors, who (mostly) don't appreciate it at all. She complains, several times, that she has no imagination and can only write about real people. And the people are beautifully real - nice solid characters, with their quirks certainly but not made up only of quirks. I was amused at the comment near the end, about her second book, that it was a woman writing about a woman writing a book... And of course it was in a book written by a woman. One more echo. Fun, and I'll be looking for more by this author. It's not _quite_ a four-star book for me, but it's distinctly better than a 3.5 star so it gets four.

When Barbara Buncle published her first novel under the assumed name of John Smith, it set off quite a storm in her village. Claiming she could only write about what she knew, Barbara used her keen powers of observation to develop characters based on village inhabitants, and then put them in situations ranging from probable to well-deserved. The book went viral, in an early 20th century sort of way, becoming the principal topic of conversation and, in some cases, consternation or outrage as people see themselves in the story.

Barbara is surprised by her novel's success and the resulting financial dividends, and also by the outrage. But she remains anonymous, continuing to collect anecdotes for a sequel. No one suspects she's the author; show more in fact, Barbara is such a peripheral figure in village life that she is practically invisible. Then, little by little, Barbara's book infiltrates real life, as villagers are inspired to act in ways either supporting or preventing outcomes described in the novel.

This "book-within-a-book" approach makes for delightful reading, and perhaps most delightful is the way the experience transforms Miss Buncle herself. Because the story is told from her perspective, it takes a little longer to realize what is happening, but when this piece of the puzzle is fully developed, everything snaps into place in a most satisfying way. By the time I turned the last page of this book, I was grinning from ear to ear. show less

I love the cover of [Miss Buncle's Book]. The book itself is a gentle and charming read, with some good snark and a winning, always overlooked, heroine in Miss Buncle.

In an attempt to make some much-needed money, Miss Buncle has written a book about her pre-WWII village of Silverstream, with the names of it and its inhabitants changed. She claims no imagination, and believes she has merely described people as she sees them. Turns out she's keenly insightful, and that her village is full of characters that are entertaining to read about. She does do a bit of wish fulfillment in the last third of the book, in which she has characters fall in love, travel to exotic places, and so on. The book is published under the pseudonym "John Smith". show more When villagers begin to recognize themselves - warts and all - in the book, a hue and cry goes up to find the real identity of the dastardly author. No one thinks of the mousy Miss Buncle; it would be too absurd.

The effect of the reader knowing Miss Buncle intimately, and seeing how she is viewed and treated, helps remind us of the short-sighted assumptions we often make about others. She is honest and innocent and altogether worthy of attention, but gets dismissed automatically by nearly everyone because of her modest manner and somewhat frumpy appearance. The head of her publisher, Mr. Abbott, sees the genius of the book but at first doesn't know what to make of her. Gradually he comes to appreciate her and prod her to write a second book. The success of the first gives her some confidence, and she has a good bit of fun being present while villagers like the peremptory and ostentatious Ms. Featherstone Hogg complain about their portrayal in the book and plot to harm its author. Miss Buncle also sees the last part of the book, with its projection of the villagers' behavior into a created future, begin to have an effect on their actions toward one another.

There is romance, there are villagers to cheer for, like the cheerful and wrongly accused Sarah, happily married to the village's stolid and reliable Dr. Walker, and villagers to hiss and boo at, like the gold-digging Miss Greensleeves. It reminded me in tone of [Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day] and [Diary of a Provincial Lady]. If you enjoy these kinds of "comfort" books, you'll want to give this one a try. I'll be looking for more by the Scot author [D.E. Stevenson], including the sequel to this one. show less