The Provincial Lady in Russia
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Overview
"I wish to heavens you'd go and live on a collective farm in Russia for six months and write a funny book about it."E.M. Delafield's editor said that to her in the mid-1930s. She acceded to his wish and the result is a book about a long visit to Stalinist Russia by an English lady of wit and refinement.
Instead of struggles with Cook and Mademoiselle, the French governess, and chit-chat at literary cocktail parties in Bloomsbury, the Provincial Lady finds herself slogging through the mud of a collective farm, coping with Soviet trains and hotels and almost literally rubbing shoulders with robust citizens at a public beach. As may be expected, she suffers considerably from Culture Shock. The book is amusing and interesting, offering insights not only into the Russia of the time, but into our Provincial Lady as well.
Synopsis
"I wish to heavens you'd go and live on a collective farm in Russia for six months and write a funny book about it."
E.M. Delafield's editor said that to her in the mid-1930s. She acceded to his wish and the result is a book about a long visit to Stalinist Russia by an English lady of wit and refinement.
Instead of struggles with Cook and Mademoiselle, the French governess, and chit-chat at literary cocktail parties in Bloomsbury, the Provincial Lady finds herself slogging through the mud of a collective farm, coping with Soviet trains and hotels and almost literally rubbing shoulders with robust citizens at a public beach. As may be expected, she suffers considerably from Culture Shock. The book is amusing and interesting, offering insights not only into the Russia of the time, but into our Provincial Lady as well.