Aw, my beloved Cold Comfort Farm got a shout-out in Laura Miller's Salon article about Invisible Libraries, collections of books that only exist within works of fiction. (Books like the guidebook The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which lives inside Douglas Adams's novel of the same name.) Like Ms. Miller, I've always yearned to read the imaginary philosophical tracts written by the (equally imaginary) Abbé Fausse-Maigre, a French cleric whose wise words guide the heroine through her various trials in Cold Comfort Farm. Author Stella Gibbons only features a few direct quotes from the Abbé, but they're clearly words to live by:

"Never arrive at a house at a quarter past three. It is a dreadful hour; too early for tea and too late for luncheon..."

"Condole with the Ugly Duckling's mother. She has fathomed the pit of amazement."

And my favorite:

"Never confront an enemy at the end of a journey, unless it happens to be his journey."

Labels: Stella Gibbons