The Country Life (novel) "The Country Life" won a 1998 Somerset Maugham Award, and was selected as one of the Notable Books for Adults of 2000 by the American Library Association. The Country Life (novel) The Country Life is a comedic novel by Rachel Cusk, first published in 1997, which draws on Stella Gibbons' "Cold Comfort Farm" and Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre". It won a 1998 Somerset Maugham Award. The novel is a comedy that draws on both "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë. Stella Benson, the first-person narrator, abruptly abandons her life in London to take a
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle against Jaggery, Charlotte has changed by the end of the novel into an authentic version of herself, not merely reflecting what society expected of her. Avi felt the ending where Charlotte rejects her family was a choice for freedom and an essential element of the overall story. He also identified Jaggery as a protagonist in the story and felt the book served as an implicit criticism of capitalism. However, by the end of the novel the only non-working class person alive, Charlotte, also becomes the Captain thus suggesting a preservation of the class system even while gender roles have been