Lark Rise, by Flora Thompson
Lark Rise, by Flora Thompson
It was pure by chance that I picked up this book by Flora Thompson from the local library shelf. But no sooner did I start to read it I was attracted by the literal style of the Victorian writer. Lark Rise was only one part of a trilogy, the other two were Over to Candleford and Candleford Green. It said on Wiki that the trilogy, titled as Lark Rise to Candleford, was a semi-autobiography, contained the writer’s real countryside life experience.
The story was centered at a hamlet in the 1880s, the transient period of old and
new. There was no specific hero or heroine in the book. The writer wrote with more of a prosaic style than a novelistic one, showing the readers the panoramic
life at the hamlet in all seasons. There are some names revealed in the book, but oftentimes only for revealing one or another aspect of the life.
It was certainly a nostalgic masterpiece in my opinion. It evoked inside me the
reminiscent feeling of the past that was bygone forever. In the chapter of Caller, the visitors and the excitement they brought to the village actually reminded me of my own childhood, when materials were meager and excitement was wanting
in my village. So the visitors to the village such as an ice-lolly seller on his
bicycle, and a deep-fried twisted dough stick vender with a bamboo basket in hand could bring us kids lots of avidity. For some avidity changed to enjoyment and satisfaction, for others nothing but some extra disappointment and resentment.
One critic commented this book as “one of the most sensitive memorials of Victorian rural England.” Though I for one hadn’t the experience of being born and
growing up in this country, I certainly agreed with the critic that the book was
a sensitive memorial written by a sensitive hand and mind. It was the sort of works that one couldn’t have been able to write hadn’t he/she experienced himself/herself.
Flora Thompson managed to present the readers on a panoramic scale the rural life of the hamlet near Oxfordshire. The 1880s was a transient period, in which things old were gradually seen replaced by ones new. The industry revolution also
happened during that period, which had impact not only the whole country but also the people of that period. But who could decisively say it was for better for
worse. The writer didn’t exert any comment on this either. But it seems that, like everything else, life has to move on, whether one likes it or not. The change is inevitable. In this sense, Flora Thompson’s writing became an important witness of that specific past. At the very least the existence of the hamlet, the
people residing in it, and their traces of life would have long vanished and been forgotten by now, if not because of her works.
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