"Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)" by Flora Thompson

I learned of this book from Educating Alice (see previous review ). While Alice is touring Jane Austin’s England, she receives the recommendation for this book. I also received that recommendation, and am so glad Alice shared it!

Lark Rise to Candleford is the story of England on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. More specifically, it’s the story of one young woman’s memories of growing up in a very small hamlet, when the men still plowed the farms with horses, and the girls all “went into service.”

I cannot properly describe why this book was so fascinating. Perhaps it was the writing, but I didn’t want to finish it. I wanted to savor this world, rural England, which is long gone. I wanted to walk the lanes with the author, and hear her stories in person. Seldom is a book so powerful and so delicious at the same time.