Fêtes worse than death? — Village festivals in fiction

Description: From cosy murder via simple adultery and pandemonium right through to ritual slaughter, novelists have had fun using the idea of a small community getting together on a big project to drive their plots. What are your favourite stories based on the idea of a village festival, fête, pageant, or whatever?

Rank Title Author Added

Before the Feast

by Saša Stanišić

284 members

10 reviews

3.8

3 Members: thorold, Dilara86, spiphany
Explanations: thorold: The night before the festival in a Brandenburg village

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

19,867 members

178 reviews

3 Members: thorold, Dilara86, ManWithAnAgenda

Lords and Ladies

by Terry Pratchett

9,733 members

125 reviews

2 Members: Dilara86, ManWithAnAgenda

Harvest Home

by Thomas Tryon

1,144 members

37 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

Festival at Farbridge

by J. B. Priestley

61 members

1 review

3.8

Member: thorold

The Virgin in the Garden

by A.S. Byatt

1,752 members

32 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: A Yorkshire community putting on a play in the gardens of a stately home

The Lottery

by Shirley Jackson

1,173 members

43 reviews

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

One Part Woman

by Perumal Murugan

202 members

4 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Dilara86

Harvest

by Jim Crace

1,071 members

71 reviews

3.9

Member: spiphany

Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition

by J. R. R. Tolkien

175 members

2 reviews

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: In which a village holds a feast, a very special cake is baked, and one child gets a key to faery. The first chapter of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" would also fit this list.

Grenzgang: Roman

by Stephan Thome

71 members

4 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Every seven years the residents gather to walk the boundaries of a Hessian village.

The Liquid Land

by Raphaela Edelbauer

53 members

5 reviews

3.9

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: An oddly difficult-to-find Austrian village prepares for a major event.

Class Trip II

by Bebe Faas Rice

12 members

½ 3.5

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

Over Sea, Under Stone

by Susan Cooper

6,594 members

139 reviews

3.8

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

Blandings Castle

by P. G. Wodehouse

1,167 members

22 reviews

4.1

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Nominated for "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend", one of the most nearly perfect Wodehouse short stories.

August Folly

by Angela Thirkell

382 members

23 reviews

3.9

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Most Thirkell novels have some sort of big event three-quarters of the way through: this one centres around amateur theatricals