{"product_id":"happy-returns-paperback","title":"Happy Returns - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAngela Thirkell\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, [and] dislike of fuss. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs 1951 draws to a close, Christmas approaches--but the conservative upper class of Barsetshire have already received the gift they really wanted: Winston Churchill's re-election as prime minister. Nevertheless, their individual struggles carry on. A member of the House of Lords worries that marriage is not in the cards for him due to an insufficient fortune, while another man does manage to get engaged--but frets that his betrothed doesn't truly love him. The widow Lady Lufton misses her husband--as well as the money she's lost to taxes. And an aspiring scholar falls madly in love, but must choose between Oxford and the object of his affections . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[This] characteristically witty, nostalgic . . . novel in the beloved Barsetshire series describes the lingering effects of WWII on the fictional village that Thirkell adapted from its Victorian inventor and chronicler, Anthony Trollope.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAngela Thirkell (1890-1961) was a British author whose ability to produce one book a year, every year, and \u003ci\u003eset \u003c\/i\u003ein that year blurred the lines between novelist and social historian. Like so many of the writers that she admired--Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot--Thirkell shared their X-ray vision: an unmatched ability to assess the hypocrisies, desires, and prejudices of her characters and, better still, play them for laughs. Her biggest literary project, the Barsetshire Chronicles, consists of twenty-nine novels, each acting as another slice of English country life; a utopian vision of bucolic countryside, grand manors, and village f?tes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 364\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.81 x 8 x 5.25 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 14, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42453094006919,"sku":"9781504092838","price":35.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/39e6d3dc0854364fff3f97e15df5bb98.webp?v=1742112203","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/happy-returns-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}