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| Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Winifred Watson
Publisher: Persephone Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $9.01
You Save: $5.99 (40%)
New (34) Used (7) from $8.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 7097
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 190646202X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9781906462024
ASIN: 190646202X
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
Now a major motion picture starring Frances McDormand (Fargo) and Amy Adams (Enchanted)! “Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humor to be rediscovered?”?Guardian “The sweetest grown-up book in the world.”?Sunday Times “Everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world.”?Daily Mail, in reference to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day A major film to be released in 2008, Miss Pettigrew Lives for Day is a delightful, funny, lighthearted novel. First published in 1938, it was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2000, complete with thirty-five original illustrations, and has sold over 22,000 copies. Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 The literary equivalent of the Lubitsch touch March 24, 2006
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Winfired Watson's little 1938 fantasy has become the bestelling reissue for the terrific Persephone Books imprint in the UK, and its not hard to see why. Basically a Cinderella story set during the 30s, Watson's novel concerns a dowdy governess sent by mistake by her agency to the home of a glamorous and dithering nightclub singer, who comes to rely upon Miss Pettigrew to straighten out her love life. Miss Pettigrew not only rises to the challenge (much to her own surprise), but undergoes a makeover and finds some romance for her own life as well. While undeniably slim (and purposefully so), the novel is just about irresistible: it plays upon the same fantasy as Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, the fantasy of being not only loved but also needed. Curiously, the trappings of glamour in this novel come not from the world of the wealthy and titled (as per usual in British fiction from this era, as in the novels of Waugh and Nancy Mitford) but from a world envisioned in American film: the world of night clubs, self-made men, and cocaine-dabbling gigolos.
 Miss Pettigrew January 17, 2005
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
It's incredibly that untill recently, this book was hardly known about, much less considered an important book. This book is sweet and delightful and funny. The dialouge is memorable, and so are the pictures. I'd love to see this turned into a movie. But i think maybe its the sort of book that shouldv'e been turned into a movie in the 50's...it just wouldn't be right unless it was shot in that wonderfully grainy old film with 1950's conceits and that fat cat dialougue.
Anyways, the book is about this dowdy old lady who going to an interview as a nanny, but she's given the wrong adress and ends up at the house of Delsyia, a sweet aspiring actress with three lovers and who romps about in classic 1920's flapper style. Miss Pettigrew is detirmined to save her from the wicked cociane snorting possesive man and the career-advancing director and have her marry the good guy, and in the mean time, Miss Pettigrew gets a make-over, finds a beau, and has a little jazz and booze fun of her own. Its a really funny subversive little story told in a very touching way.
Possibly the best book ever February 6, 2004
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Okay, the premise sounds a little strange but this is my absolute favorite book. I've never mat anyone who read this book who did not immediately go out and buy it for their best friend or their mother or their daughter. Most Persephone books are wonderful, but this one is far and away the one to start with!
Miss Pettigrew is a dowdy governess who doesn't much like children and is down on her luck. She accidentally gets sent to the flat of a glamorous nightclub singer who is having all sorts of man trouble, which Miss Pettigrew promptly fixes with a combination of her wits and her totally common sense attitude about life.
It's a light and very easy read, definitely loose on the realism. But really, I promise that you will NOT regret it if you buy this book.
Absolutely delightful April 10, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
What a lovely and charming book! I read it in 3 days and was sorry to have it end. Yes, it is light and fluffy, but it is also warm and wise and full of heart. The movie is a bit of a disappointment, as they changed some things I didn't think they needed to change. But...I am thankful for the movie because it brought the book to my attention. Thank you Persephone for finding and reprinting it! I just bought some extra copies to give to my sisters and daughter. It is a keeper, and I look forward to rereading it.
Wonderful & Different May 9, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you enjoyed the film version of Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, or if you have read the original book, this unabridged audio version performed by Frances McDormand will also be of interest. While the film necessarily speeds up or even changes the action in places and conflates some of the characters, it retains the wit and feeling of the story very well... listen for yourself.
In this 5-disc set you get the entire story as written by the author, enlivened by McDormand's deft, clear vocal characterizations. The author's language is often wickedly funny, and McDormand manages to keep each character's voice and manner distinct -- even in "crowded" scenes. I notice that while listening to this audibook as I drive, I stay in a very good mood (even in pesky traffic).
The packaging of the set is sturdy and very attractive, too (matches the new edition of the pb)... in case you are thinking of giving it as a gift. Each disc comes in its own printed sleeve inside the box. Well done!
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