Cluny Brown (novel)

Cluny Brown is a humorous coming of age novel by Margery Sharp, published in August 1944 by Collins in the UK and Little Brown in the US.

Cluny Brown

First edition
Author	Margery Sharp
Published	August 1944 Collins (UK) Little Brown (US)
Pages	270

Plot summary

The story follows the escapades of a plumber's niece, Cluny Brown, who is twenty years old in England in 1938. Cluny has high spirits and a constant desire for expansion of experience that leads the more staid members of her community to question whether she knows her place. As a consequence of one final London based excursion of discovery outside the bounds of what Cluny's mentors consider proper, she is sent off into good service at a charming country residence known as Friars Carmel to be a Tall Parlour Maid. The coincidental simultaneous arrivals of the young son and heir of the house, a mysterious Polish professor, and a beautiful socialite add complexity to this adventurous tale of a young woman following her dreams and finding her personal freedom in the tumultuous early 20th century.

Characters

• Clover 'Cluny' Brown, fearless adventurer and Tall Parlour Maid
• Andrew Frewen, heir to Friars Carmel
• Lady Alice Carmel, mistress of Friars Carmel
• Sir Henry Carmel, baronet of Friars Carmel
• Mr. Wilson, the neighborhood chemist
• Adam Belinski, distinguished Pole of letters
• Elizabeth 'Betty' Cream, London socialite
• Hilda Brewer, house maid
• Mr. Porritt, Cluny's plumber uncle
• Syrette, valet

Adaptations

Films

The story was adapted into a 1946 film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch.

Comic strip

In 1945 Wallace Morgan created a newspaper comic adaptation of Cluny Brown.

Book reviews

• A Work In Progress
• Bibliolathas
• Another look book