High Rising is rather a delightful nothing. I perhaps should like Thirkell more than I do, seeing as how she sits somewhere between my favourite novelist Barbara Pym and one of my more obscure pleasures, E.F. Benson, author of the Mapp and Lucia series. Thirkell is much kinder to her characters than Benson is (although not without a sense of cosmic justice), and her character examinations are less sharp than Pym's - not lacking in sharpness, mind you.

High Rising is the first in a series of almost 30 novels, which Thirkell wrote over the course of her lifetime, chronicling the same county (a century removed) from Trollope's more famous 19th century novels. So perhaps later in life, when I have run out of material, I will return here. Lengthy series in which little happens beyond character analysis are hard to find, and right up my alley. For now, though I will leave it to more interested parties. ( )

This is Angela Thirkell's first book in the Barsetshire series. Quite enjoyable, but not as humorous as [b:Northbridge Rectory|835444|Northbridge Rectory|Angela Thirkell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178768577s/835444.jpg|821058]. ( )

High Rising is a delightful novel. It’s the first of a 30-book series known as the Barsetshire chronicles. These books are social comedy, focussed on matrimony and generally lighthearted and humorous. High Rising’s witty style, its clearly developed and mostly sympathetic characters, its plot surprises, and gentle satire of the conventions of social comedy made it a pleasure to read.

The story is set in the early part of the 20th century in the fictitious rural county of Barset, where main character Laura Morland has a summer cottage in the village of High Rising. Laura is a successful “good bad writer” of mysteries, who is “happily widowed” with no wish to change her station. Laura lives with the youngest of her four sons, Tony, whose all consuming interest in trains and incessant talking make him obnoxious and boring to everyone but himself. He is a great source of humor in the novel. Another writer lives in the adjoining village of Low Rising. George Knox, also widowed, writes successful historical biographies. With George lives Sybil, his twenty-year old daughter, and lots of dogs, puppies, and horses, which Tony loves almost as much as trains. And also part of the Knox household is George’s brand new secretary, Una.

The plot is set in motion when George’s longtime secretary leaves to care for a sister in ill health, and George has to hire someone new. He selects Una Grey from a list of applicants, an attractive young woman very competent in all she sets out to do, be it typing, running the household, nursing the sick, or general management of everyone. It soon becomes clear to all except George that Una plans to marry him, and in general dismay, the servants, his daughter, and his closest friends, Laura among them, set out to prevent such an undesirable match.

Scenes and evolving relationships are developed carefully, characters are well established, and the novel moves at a good pace to its somewhat surprising conclusion. Thirkell’s writing is witty and clear, making for a well-crafted and satisfying story that I can recommend without reservation. ( )

Angela Thirkell is a good writer. I think I'd like to try some more of her books.
That said, it's hard for me to know exactly what to say about "High Rising." It feels like a transition between old-fashioned and modern, and for that reason I'm not sure fans of old-fashioned atmosphere would be totally satisfied, though I personally lean towards liking it a good deal.

Laura Morland, a widow (probably in her 40's) with the last of her 4 sons still at home, writes novels for a living. But this isn't about her writing career. Instead it's about her neighbors and their little dramas and joys and sorrows. It's an ironic book and often funny. Whether it's her quick-witted, self-sacrificing secretary, her scholarly and eccentric neighbor who loves to hear himself talk, or any of the other characters, it's fun to read. It's not a love story, although a couple of engagements do happen...it's just a few months in the life of these friends and neighbors. The things that happen loom large in the moment but are, in reality, fairly small. The kind of book where the ending isn't really a big deal, it's more about just taking each page and enjoying the flow of events. Reminded me somewhat of D.E. Stevenson's Miss Buncle books. ( )

Jane Austen famously said that in writing Emma, she'd set out to create "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." Reading High Rising was like reading a photo negative version of Emma: Angela Thirkell clearly thought she was writing a lovable, heart-of-gold scatterbrain main character in Laura Morland, but I found her absolutely insufferable. No matter how much the other characters insisted that Mrs Morland was lovely and just so kind, her thoughts and actions showed her to be a petty, mean-spirited, and insular snob—and the mouthpiece for some pretty appalling bigotry.

And before someone jumps at me for saying "But it was the 1930s! Standards for what was acceptable were different then!": that is true to an extent, but I can also honestly say that I've read lots of other fiction first published in the Twenties and Thirties that didn't have main characters regularly spout antisemitic, anti-Irish, and anti-Black sentiments with every sign of narrative approval. One of the comic relief/male romantic partners also at one point just randomly comes out with "The marriage customs [...] of the Arunta tribe, a revolting set of Australian aboriginals, are alone enough to justify their extirpation by rum, missionaries, or any other destroying element." Wow! Holy shit! Love a bit of cheerleading for genocide in what's supposed to be a light romantic comedy!

Not that the romance is much to write home about: dull and unconvincing and rote. Thirkell is not an author I care to read any further. ( )