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The Cost of Living

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Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 6- Kathleen Farrell's The Cost of Living with a foreword by Jane Fallon

Idealistic Alexandra is throwing a party to meet a more glamorous crowd. Marianne, more sardonic, worries it'll be the usual sort.

The party is in Alexandra's attic flat. Marianne will contribute a few bottles of red optimistically labelled Bordeaux. Can it be judged a success? There's Donald the bus conductor with high-brow dreams, nervous bespectacled Bernhardt and Marius the ghostwriter. Not to mention a brace of Peters. It's left to sexy, young Pisa and riotous, middle-aged Mummy (neither invited) to steal the show.

Yet, after the party both Marianne and Alexandra find themselves caught in unexpected - sometimes far from romantic - relationships. Meeting people, it turns out, has the most peculiar consequences.

Is that really the cost of living?

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Format

Paperback

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Country

United Kingdom

Date

23 June 2026

Pages

224

ISBN

9781405988766

Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 6- Kathleen Farrell's The Cost of Living with a foreword by Jane Fallon

Idealistic Alexandra is throwing a party to meet a more glamorous crowd. Marianne, more sardonic, worries it'll be the usual sort.

Yet, after the party both Marianne and Alexandra find themselves caught in unexpected - sometimes far from romantic - relationships. Meeting people, it turns out, has the most peculiar consequences.

Is that really the cost of living?

Format

Paperback

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Country

United Kingdom

Date

23 June 2026

Pages

224

ISBN

9781405988766

The Mermaid Collection

The Mermaid Collection celebrates 90 years of Penguin Book's imprint Penguin Michael Joseph, with new editions of eight timeless modern classics from women writers.

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