A critic for The New York Times Book Review recommended Margery Sharp’s Cluny Brown (1944), a comic novel about a plumber’s daughter who refuses to know her place. He suggested it might help you “stiffen your spine in the face of what and whoever wants to stifle your spirit…”

Margery Sharp is not typical NYTBR material, but yes, we’d like to elevate our spirits. Who isn’t gloomy in November? And we are weary of post-election analysis, which we cannot escape anywhere: even the Booker Prize winner, the English writer Samantha Harvey, alluded to it in her acceptance speech.

In the past, I’ve been underwhelmed by Sharp’s novels, and we don’t have a copy of Cluny Brown (though surely we did at one time!), but we found The Foolish Gentlewoman (1948) on a back shelf. I bought it for 50 cents.

It was just what I needed, a brilliant comfort book. I adored this delightful comedy, which is not as light as it seems. A kind of utopia is created by the generous “foolish gentlewoman” of the title, and then threatened by an idealistic decision.

Set in the post-war era at Chipping Lodge, “the oldest house on Chipping Hill, and the least typical,” this gentle comedy is about a near-Utopian household thrown into jeopardy by a grand gesture. The “foolish gentlewoman” is Isabel Massey, a charming, if naïve, 55-year-old woman who inherited the house from her father. Her husband Mark (who, alas, was killed in the war) and her gruff brother-in-law, Simon, urged her to sell it, but she ignored them.

And now the Second World War has ended and she lives at Chipping Lodge happily, with her nephew, Humphrey, and her companion, Jacqueline, both of whom are war veterans. Then her crabby brother-in-law Simon moves in because the roof of his house has collapsed. At first he is a scandalized observer of the casual Chipping Lodge menage, who, by his standards, are foolish if not bohemian. But he grows to appreciate the peace and quiet of the gardens, the terrace, and the sprawling house. He becomes friends with Mrs. Poole, the caretaker, and her daughter.

But Isabel breaks up this Paradise when she invites Tillie Cuff, a poor cousin she hasn’t seen in years. Tillie has turned into an evil harridan, bitter from years as a governess and companion. She disrupts the household and destroys the young people’s happiness. Only Isabel and Simon are strong enough to resist her evil. But Isabel has made a decision to compensate Tillie for a past wrong she did her. This lavish plan is a grand manic gesture. But she hesitates as she tries to find the good in Tillie.

Will Isabel change her mind? It’s a close thing. And then there is a twist. The ending is a surprise. Is it happy? Sharp is too sharp to make things easy for the reader. Let us just say, it is a Sharp ending.