unicorndeburgh reviewed Gypsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
Review of 'Gypsy in the Parlour' on 'Goodreads'
I don't recall who recommended this book to me. I do remember that they said the title was offensive, but the book was wonderful. The Goodreads info on the date this was published is wrong -- it's actually copyright 1953, when this kind of open bigotry was more mainstream. It's not just the "gypsy" in the title that's offensive. A lazy, manipulative Welsh woman is called a gypsy at one point. There's a reference to gypsies having camped by the house back when it was empty, and a donkey having invaded the kitchen -- this may be meant as a sort of imagery of a gypsy threat to the safety and stability of the farm and its family, like the threat of the Welsh woman.
Aside from the stink of the bigotry, it is a good book. I always love an unreliable narrator, and a lot of it is told …
I don't recall who recommended this book to me. I do remember that they said the title was offensive, but the book was wonderful. The Goodreads info on the date this was published is wrong -- it's actually copyright 1953, when this kind of open bigotry was more mainstream. It's not just the "gypsy" in the title that's offensive. A lazy, manipulative Welsh woman is called a gypsy at one point. There's a reference to gypsies having camped by the house back when it was empty, and a donkey having invaded the kitchen -- this may be meant as a sort of imagery of a gypsy threat to the safety and stability of the farm and its family, like the threat of the Welsh woman.
Aside from the stink of the bigotry, it is a good book. I always love an unreliable narrator, and a lot of it is told from the point of view of a young girl who is sent to her Devon relatives for the summer for her health. She's unhappy in London with her fashionable parents, and adores the farm with the 3 hearty sisters-in-law, and 4 large, silent brothers. The happy life of the farm is thrown into turmoil when the youngest brother chooses his own bride, and she -- most emphatically! -- does NOT fit in.