Cluny Brown is a humorous coming of age novel by Margery Sharp

Margery Sharp

Margery Sharp , was an English author. She was a prolific writer in her long career, writing 26 novels for adults, 14 stories for children, 4 plays, 2 mysteries, as well as numerous short stories...

, first published in the United States of America by Little, Brown & Company in August 1944.
The story was adapted into a 1946 film

Cluny Brown

Cluny Brown is a 1946 film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a novel by Margery Sharp. The music score is by Cyril J. Mockridge. The film stars Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones...

 made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...

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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 with a charming country residence know 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 in Cluny Brown

• Clover 'Cluny' Brown, fearless adventurer & 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

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