The Lark by E. Nesbit ~ 1922. This edition: Dean Street Press, 2017. Introduction by Charlotte Moore. Softcover. ISBN: 978-1-911579-45-8. 251 pages.
Looking for a lighthearted frivol, a confection of a novel? Look no further than this small charmer by Edith Nesbit, best known for her deliciously satirical children’s books (Five Children and It, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Railway Children, and so on) but also a writer of adult novels, which this one is.
This isn’t a sombre bit of literary fiction, but a fairy tale for grownups, with just enough dashes of cold reality to keep it somewhat grounded in the real world, though most of the plot is driven by the most unlikely set of happy coincidences I’ve yet to come across in a very long history of light-fiction reading.
It’s just what is advertised by the title. It is, in fact, a complete lark.
Two orphaned teenage cousins, Jane and Lucy, happily tucked away in boarding school by their guardian and looking forward to their soon-to-be-attained coming of ages when they will come into what they have been told are substantial inheritances, receive a happy shock when they are informed that their guardian has withdrawn them from the school and asked them to report to a mysterious address in the countryside beyond the fringes of London.
Confidently expecting this to be their introduction to the adult world, presided over by their mysterious patron, they are bewildered at being decanted at the door of a small country cottage instead of the mansion they were expecting.
A perfectly timed letter gives an explanation. Jane and Lucy’s guardian apologizes profusely, but he has squandered their fortunes on unsound financial speculations, and has gone utterly bankrupt. He’s leaving the country before his creditors can catch up to him, but he’s tried to cushion the blow somewhat by arranging for a lump sum of £500 to be put to the cousins’ account, and the afore-mentioned cottage as a residence.
Jane and Lucy soon realize that their rapidly-diminishing nest egg isn’t enough to cover their longer-term needs, and they look about for ways to augment it. The stage is set for all manner of lucky happenings, with helpful young (and not so young) men cropping up like daisies in the spring.
It’a all very amusing, and the lightness is well set off by the running thread of reality, for this book was written not long after the ending of the Great War, and is set in 1919, and the plight of many of the returned soldiers coming home to not much in the way of a future becomes a key element in the extended plot.
Occasionally (okay, very often) I (figuratively) rolled my eyes at the sillier bits, but I happily kept reading, because the story is as engaging as it is unrealistic, and the realistic bits were shoehorned in with acceptable success.
My rating: Let’s say a nice, solid 7.5/10. A definite keeper.
Leaves & Pages 
I had never heard of this book before, although, of course, I know and love E. Nesbit’s children’s books (“The Railway Children”, in particular, being one of my 10 “Desert Island books”). I shall, therefore, definitely be on the lookout for this one.
It’s one of the “lost novels” by this writer, for sure. Out of print for decades – maybe even since the 1920s? – until it caught the imagination of certain readers of “hidden gems” and was chosen for republication by the stellar Dean Street Press. If you do e-books, I believe it is also part of an E.Nesbit collection available for a very modest fee through (I think) Amazon. And it may well be on Project Gutenberg, though I haven’t looked. (But the “paper” copy is my personal choice every time!)
I enjoyed The Lark too – I liked the way it ended (no spoilers) particularly.
It was a romp of a story. The author was having a lot fun with it, one can tell. Things like “Jane” and “Rochester” – ha! 🙂
I never heard of this one either – which surprises me! I thought I knew E. Nesbit’s books pretty well – so thank you!
There is quite a little pile of mostly unknown novels by E.Nesbit. I know some are available through Project Gutenberg, and as e-books, but it’s grand to see at least this one available in print. What a grand time to be a reader of vintage fiction – we are becoming mainstream enough for certain discriminating publishers to find in us a ready market for these sorts of delightful things!
This certainly made me smile as well. There are some true gems in the dialogue, as good as Wodehouse or Thirkell — I need to read it again to copy them out. The end was a bit hasty but overall it’s well worth rediscovering.
By the way, the complete Nesbit, and many other authors, can be found at Delphi Classics (delphiclassics.com). I’ve been eyeing them for a while but have not taken the plunge.
[…] also want to begin The Lark by E. Nesbit, mostly due to this review by the lovely blog Leaves and Pages. It seems like exactly my kind of soft […]
This came onto my radar recently, too, and I have it downloaded and ready to go…
Honestly her children’s fantasies are much better than her adult books but this is the best of them, I think. I loved their gardening business!
[…] Leaves & Pages – who calls it ‘a fairy tale for adults’. What a lovely idea. […]