The Cost of Living: A Witty and Bold Tale of Women’s Lives in Mid-Century London. Introduced by Jane Fallon - Couverture souple

Farrell, Kathleen

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1405988762 ISBN 13 : 9781405988766

Editeur : Penguin, 2026

Synopsis

Rediscover the brilliance of The Cost of Living in the Mermaid Collection - classic books by popular pioneering female authors republished to delight new generations of readers.

A witty and characterful novel about the aftermath of a party thrown by singletons Marianne, a freelance typist in her mid-thirties and twenty-six year old Alexandra, a freelance portrait painter, who live in the same apartment building and have decided it's time to meet some men . . .

With a foreword by Jane Fallon

‘You’re always so cynical. It doesn’t do. It makes men feel inferior.’
‘Quite a few of them are . . .’

Idealistic Alexandra is throwing a party to meet a more glamorous crowd. Marianne, more sardonic, worries it’ll be the usual sort.

The party is in Alexandra’s attic flat. Marianne will contribute a few bottles of red optimistically labelled Bordeaux. Can it be judged a success? There’s Donald the bus conductor with high-brow dreams, nervous bespectacled Bernhardt and Marius the ghostwriter. Not to mention a brace of Peters. It’s left to sexy, young Pisa and riotous, middle-aged Mummy (neither invited) to steal the show.

Yet, after the party both Marianne and Alexandra find themselves caught in unexpected – sometimes far from romantic – relationships. Meeting people, it turns out, has the most peculiar consequences.

Is that really the cost of living?

Praise for Kathleen Farrell:
‘Genuine wit, an acute feminine intelligence and a natural distinction of style’ Spectator

‘A distinctive voice, and she provided her readers with subtle pleasures’ Guardian

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Kathleen Farrell was born in 1912 into a well-off London family. During the Second World War she served as assistant to the secretary-general of the Labour Party, and after the war’s end, she founded a literary agency. In 1942 she wrote a ghost story with autobiographical elements, but it was in the 1950s that she embarked on a series of novels entertainingly skewering contemporary life and mores. Physically tiny, Farrell nevertheless was determined and outgoing, having a wide circle of literary friends, acquaintances and even one enemy (she belonged to ‘The Lady Novelists' Anti-Elizabeth League’, whose members were united in their disdain for fellow novelist Elizabeth Taylor). She died in 1999.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1405988762
• ISBN 13: 9781405988766
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Allemagne