It was either someone on Instagram or a YouTube channel which talks about books that told me about D.E. Stevenson and especially Miss Buncle, and I am forever grateful for whomever that was.
I wish I could remember the first one who mentioned it, but I do remember Jenn’s Reading Room talking about the first book in the series, and then I saw at least one other person talking about it.
I am going to credit Jen’s Reading Room with giving me the idea to find a copy of the book and read it, though.
It was almost impossible to find a used copy of this book, which was originally published in 1936, and, at first, I couldn’t find it anywhere in a digital format to borrow it. I do not usually buy books I haven’t read yet, just to be sure I do like it before I put it on my shelf, but when I saw this one was on sale in paperback, I ordered it.
I am not sorry I did that.
Miss Buncle’s Book is about a woman named Barbara Buncle who lives in a small English village and writes a fictionalized version of the people and their lives in a book called Disturber of the Peace. She uses the real-life situations of people she knows because she says she has no imagination to think up stories on her own.
She shops publishers for the book, hoping to make some extra money in hard times and is shocked and unprepared when the book is not only published but becomes a quick bestseller.
When people in her little village get ahold of the book, word quickly begins to spread that many of the characters resemble people in the village, even though the names have been changed.
The humor in this book is top-notch, and the characters are super lovable, even the characters we’re not supposed to like.
The book is also so creatively done because it’s almost as if D.E. Stevenson is writing about herself while writing about Miss Buncle. She writes about the writing process and how people receive her books and how Miss Buncle feels about people reading here book. At one point Miss Buncle is writing a book about writing a book, like D.E. Stevenson was. So we had Stevenson writing a book about Miss Buncle writing a book about her character Elizabeth Wade writing a book. Yes, it’s just as crazy as it sounds, but so well done.
One thing I love about the book is how Stevenson writes her as someone who is pretty much over having to act a certain way and be “proper.”
“’How nice for you — and for her of course,’ exclaimed Barbara. She had lived for so long among these people and had suffered so many afternoon teas that she was able to say the expected thing without thinking about it at all. You simply put a penny in the machine, and the expected thing came out at once, all done up and a neat little packet, and suitably labeled. The machine worked without any effort on Barbara‘s part. It even worked when the real Barbara was absent, and only the shell, dressed in its shabby garments, remained sitting upright upon chair. The real Barbara often flew away like that, and took refuge from the darkness and boredom of Silverstream in the scintillating atmosphere of Copperfield.
I also love how Stevenson writes about authors and how they work.
“Dorcas went away. She was beginning to get used to living in the house with an author. It was not comfortable, she found, and it was distinctly trying to the temper. Dorcas often thought with regret of the good old days when the dividends had come in punctually, and Miss Barbara had been an ordinary, human being; taking her meals at regular hours, going up to bed as the clock struck 11, and coming down for breakfast in the morning when the clock struck nine.
Authors! said Dorcas to herself with scornful, emphasis. authors, indeed! Well, I’ll never read a book again, but what I think of the people who has had to put up with the author. I know that. Preparing meals and beating the gong and going back half an hour later to find nobody’s ever been near them and the mutton fat frozen salad in the dish and the soup stone cold and then ringing bells all hours for coffee and “make it strong!” Dorcas make it strong!” and then writing half the night and lying in bed half the day with people towing up to their bedrooms with trays. Authors, poof!”
Miss Buncle having to deal with reviews that can be bad, while also helping her book sales, is also hilarious. At one point, Mr. Abbott tells her that her reviews are being very helpful to the sale of the book.
“Helpful!” she says. “Some of them said I was immoral and perverted!”
Her publisher is delighted.
“I know it was simply marvelous”, replied Mr. Abbott holding out his cigarette and watching the smoke curl upward with appreciation. “It really was marvelous. In my wildest and most optimistic moments I scarcely dared to hope that they would misread you to that extent.”
The publisher really doesn’t care if people misunderstand Barbara’s book as long as he’s making the sales, of course. But Mr. Abbott becomes an important part of Barbara’s life, and you’ll have to read the book to find out why.
After I finished this book I felt a sense of sadness and loss because I enjoyed opening it each day for a couple of weeks.
I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something light, fun, and don’t mind a little bit of the “old style” of writing from the 1930s.
