Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (1938) by Winifred Watson #SpinsterSeptember

 

❤️ It's September again, and as usual I am going to do #SpinsterSeptember. It is an annual event found, and usually hosted, by Nora @pear.jelly. I have checked her Instagram; her last post was in March, and there were no sign that she will be hosting again this year. Well, in that case, I'm going solo. It is such a good idea to read and explore books about spinsters. My first read is Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - and what a "riot" it has been! I listened to the audiobook, and Frances McDormand did a fantastic job to enlivened this charming story, which was, as the title indicated, actually happening on the span of twenty four hours. I have learned too, that Frances McDormand herself plays Miss Pettigrew in the 2008 film.

❤️ The revolve around Guinevere Pettigrew, a spinster of almost forty years old. She was born and grew up in the 1930s of England, in a prudish family of a vicar. Her mother has brought her up as tightly as in a convent that she never had neither youthful fun nor adult love growing up. Currently she's working as governess - and not good at it either. Worst of all, Miss Pettigrew has been sacked from her last job - where she's become more of a nursemaid than governess - and if she doesn't find any new job soon, she will end up in a work house - penniless as she is now. Hence, when a position is opening, she snatched it up immediately, and with much trepidation, arrived at her destination, the home of a Miss LaFosse. ❤️ It turns out that Miss Delysia LaFosse is a glamorous nightclub singer, with apparently no children to be seen. Miss Pettigrew wonders what kind of children would be her charge, but before she has chance to inquire, Miss LaFosse tasked her to 'handle' her undesired beau. Successful at her first task, Miss Pettigrew soon gets herself entangled in the midst of London's glitzy society. Instead of handling unruly children, Miss Pettigrew finds herself being dressed, made-up, and "whirled around" from one dazzling party to another, witness of love affairs and the ensued drama, all in one day - one eventful day that will turn her life completely. ❤️ This book is a perfectly written comedy, and I love it! What I meant with perfect comedy is that it isn't the raw-slapstick one like Wodehouse's. It lays rather in the witty dialogs, particularly in Miss Pettigrew's part, and the good timing of the dialogs that created an opening for Miss Pettigrew's stage. The exhilarating adventures that Miss Pettigrew succeeded in having, out of the series of those mischances, coupled with her humble views of all that, are what I love most about this novel. In a way, there's a little of 'Cinderella touch' in the story - the poverty-crunched maiden getting a glittering moment of her life. The problem is, whether it will end with "happily-ever-after" kind of moment, or will it be a more heartwarming one? Anyhow, this is the kind of book I would cherish for a long time, and that I might want to re-read every now and then. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐