The other day I quoted from Charlotte Moore's introduction to E. Nesbit's The Lark, and she's spot-on there about the book's energy, humour, and the power of the happy ending. The novel is a joy: a spirit-raising soufflé of a book, lovely and lively, full of farce and fun.
I won't go into much of the plot here other than to say that it's about Jane and Lucilla, cousins who are suddenly removed from their boarding school by their guardian and set up in a cottage on the edge of London where on a very small income they have to get by by their ingenuity and hard work. Fortune favours the brave, however, and events unfold in entirely fitting and satisfying ways!
I loved many things about it: the authorial comment, the humour, the domestic details as mentioned here, and lines such as "you cannot be moderate with lilac". It has something of The Importance of Being Earnest about it, but really it's its own book, light and bright, cheerful, funny and warm.
The Lark is published by Dean Street Press in association with Scott of Furrowed Middlebrow, and both are to be congratulated for bringing this delightful confection to a wider readership.