This is such a beautiful reflection, Melody, on one of my favorite novels. I love this: “One character reflects, ‘Understanding is a creative act in a dimension we do not see.’” Some of my favorite characters in literature are the hidden, quiet ones. I think of Septimus Harding in Trollope’s Barsetshire series. I love that you come to an understanding here with Goudge in her human flaws. It’s such a fascinating conundrum, fallen humans creating transcendent art.
Thank you, Elizabeth! One of my top favorite novels too. Dear Septimus! I'm with you there on the hidden, quiet characters. Molly Gibson and Miss Matty are some of them for me, too. Understanding each other's humanity reminds me that it is all grace--grace to create, and grace to receive, not on our own merits.
Thanks for introducing me to yet another author I'm piqued to read.
For me, your most thought-provoking comments came from your discussion of Goudge's human flaws. It reminded me of my Lenten book, Marilynne Robinson's "Reading Genesis." After recounting the sordid story of Jacob and Rebekah duping Isaac and Esau out of the birthright and paternal blessing, Robinson writes:
"Could history have taken its appropriate course if Jacob had dealt righteously with his father? Did he have that option? What becomes of moral judgment if an unrighteous act works for good, without or despite the actor's intention?" She concludes, "The covenant is not contingent upon human virtue, even human intention. It is sustained by the will of God, which is so strong and steadfast that it can allow space within providence for people to be who they are, for humanity to be what it is."
P.S. Thanks for the GE quote (from some of the most epic paragraphs in English lit).
Beautiful quotation, Brad, thank you for sharing!! This is why we need novelists' perspectives on the Bible. I'm sure Reading Genesis was a lovely Lenten read, and I look forward to reading it soon. "So strong and steadfast." A beautiful idea to hold this Holy Week.
Beautiful. It's been so long since I've read this one, but when I read it I remember how restorative it felt for my soul. I love how you put it here: "an invitation to live in “the sheltering of God’s hand,' where we are hidden yet not unseen." That's it exactly.
Thank you, Dominika. This is one of my "personal spiritual retreat" books, where reading it feels like taking a retreat. The very best for springtime, too, though I'd forgotten it ends at Candlemas.
Thank you, Mark! From what I see in your writing you would find a lot to love in Goudge. The Scent of Water is my favorite of hers thus far, but The Rosemary Tree and The Bird in the Tree (first in a trilogy) have also stood out. Of her children's books, I love, love, love Smoky-House and I Saw Three Ships (a Christmas/Epiphany story).
My first introduction to Elizabeth Goudge and still my favorite, though The Dean’s Watch is oh so close!! This particular novel filled my teenage love for romance while filing my mind with a desire and delight in the greater Romance to be found everywhere in this world. You did an absolutely fabulous job at catching the refreshing magic of the novel, and it encouraged me to start a re-read as soon as I can!!
Thank you, Eowyn! What a wonderful novel to capture your imagination at a young age. Romance everywhere in this world--that exactly captures Goudge's outlook for me!
Thanks for the mention, Melody! This book is definitely one worth reading and rereading. We will be reading again together this year in May.
I would like to suggest that while Goudge is far from faultless, I think that her faults are different than those you mention here. Make no mistake, wherever Goudge mentions child abuse, even a smack from a parent, she is not mentioning it casually. She is showing the authentic treatment of the time she is writing about, and is too good a writer to moralize everything instantly for her reader. No one would read Oliver Twist and think that Dickens was supporting such behavior, or Gaskell and think she is in favor of industrial factories. The same is true of Goudge with children. You can take a look at the preface I recently shared to RLS to read her personal, honest assessment of the too strict treatment of Victorian & Edwardian children.
Again, we see the same thing when she mentions her character using racist comments and in those situations. Usually she is showing what is *not* right in the world, and if you follow the plot closely, you will see that the discriminated party, whether female or of foreign race, is the one who comes out with the most virtue and sense in the end. This is most obvious in Green Dolphin Street, which I wrote about extensively last year. Gentian Hill shows discrimination again the French, which Goudge felt personally as her mother was from Guernsey. In The Castle on the Hill, which we just finished, she includes a Jewish refugee, which was a very current race issue in 1940.
Her weakness tended to be about class. She tends to speak overly glowingly about the goodness of the "lower orders" and the way they served the upper class. While always saying they were actually the superiors, she over sells the beauty of the arrangement.
Good to have some more Goudge discussion on Substack! Her works are very worth turning over in one's mind, and rereading again and again. I think it is these nuances and her truth-telling that makes her work good literature and not just sentimental tales.
Thank you so much, Juli. I really appreciate your insight as a scholar much more knowledgeable about Goudge than I am! I haven't read Gentian Hill or The Castle on the Hill yet but will keep my eyes open for that when I do. One of the ways I interpret Green Dolphin Street is as an exploration of the effect of colonialism on the colonists' own souls. It's notable who in the story accepts and loves the land and its original inhabitants, and who never completely overcomes fear.
I wasn't able to read the preface to A Child's Garden of Verses since it was behind a paywall, but I would love to read that sometime, especially since it might have saved me from making my own errors! It was Towers in the Mist that I had to stop reading because the mentions of frequent canings were too much. How many dozens of pages would I have to wait before seeing some sort of handling of it in the narrative? I will read it all the way through at some point, but it was sorrowful for me, just like Dotty's recollections about her father's treatment of her in the Thrush Green series by Miss Read. Mrs. Croft didn't have enough character development in The Scent of Water to merit such a long harangue about serving the Romani population; there was a hint that she would have treated Paul Randall differently as an expectant father than a Romani father. Since it was at the end of the book, about a character quite far to the side, I didn't see much point to those thoughts being narrated in the novel.
Thank you again. I really appreciate your thoughts. I heartily agree that Goudge's work rises above sentimentalism, and is what gives them lasting appeal.
All good thoughts, and I would say that reading more of her work does help set it in perspective.
For instance, the attitude of Mrs Croft was an actually opinion that happened frequently near the villages where the novel is set, in real time. Goudge was using her dialogue to point out the injustice, which you mentioned, not supporting it. Goudge set The Scent of Water in the countryside around her home in Oxfordshire, where there were wandering Romany people, in the 1960's while she lived there. They camped out in her own fields. She wrote The White Witch as an extended tale about their plight, and I believe she was inspired to write about them because they were the people group who Hitler most hated during the war. (You can read accounts about them being killed first off the bus in the concentration camps.) Goudge set out to first tell about how people viewed them, with their prejudice, and then to let us see that they were the bringers of true light, especially because they were a suffering people. It is not developed in The Scent of Water, but it does quickly show the reader Mrs Croft's uncaring hypocrisy. She who seems so no-nonsense is guilty of extreme prejudice.
I say all of this to encourage you that Goudge is definitely worth reading a bit more! There is a depth here that is not caught by a single or even two readings. Every time I reread her books they unfold another layer like an onion. You see more what she cared about, and knowing the history she lived through helps you understand why. Which is why it is so good to have the time to unpack it in longer form, reading together each month. Hope you can join us sometime! :)
That's so fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to educate me so gently. I will keep my eyes open for that as I read The White Witch, too. As I mentioned in another comment, I have almost all of Goudge's books and plan to read them all. There's something said about Madeleine L'Engle in Sarah Arthur's A Light So Lovely, about how L'Engles works call to each other like a pod of whales calling to each other. The deepest understanding comes when all her works are read in concert with each other. A dozen books into her ouevre, I'm beginning to see that Goudge has a similar intertextual depth and complexity.
The Scent of Water is one of my favourites of EG’s books and this post and comments have given me more insight into its themes. I am looking forward to reading again in May with Judith.
Just a brief comment about some of the points you made. “Working like a n***” was a common phrase when I was young (in the 1960s) and there was a colour that was called n*** brown, that my mother often used when making clothes. To me, and I think many people living in England at that time, it was like saying rose pink, or leaf green – the original meaning of the name or adjective was not something consciously recognised. Just as I do not mindfully contemplate the meaning of my name or those around me when I use their name.
I remember being totally shocked when reading the letters by Joyce Grenfell, written in the 1930s and after. The occasional antisemitism expressed made me aware that we can do a disservice in our reading if we expect the same awareness of what we now consider unacceptable in an author’s writings from another era.
Also, with regards caning of children. That was still carried out in schools until just recently. I myself was not caned, but the boys were (and that was in the 60s and 70s). I had the ruler instead. “Spare the rod, and spoil the child” was a firmly held mantra in child rearing.
Physical punishment of children has long been unacceptable to me, and my awareness of racism etc has made me very uncomfortable when reading books which do not meet these standards. But I also remind myself to try to take into account the mores of when and where a book was written. And how much has changed in just my lifetime.
Thank you, Sandra. I appreciate your thoughts. As a Christian, I have to accept the fact that what we see as cruel or unkind now, was just as cruel and unkind then. I think of the sorrow a Romani reader of The Scent of Water might have had--would she have ever picked up The White Witch after that? As a historian, it's my goal to speak truthfully about these things and provide nuance. In times of injustice, there are always, always people speaking out against it and showing a better way forward.
I was introduced to Goudge's work about 12 years ago and have since purchased I think every book she's written. A Scent of Water has been read twice, and the underlined phrases continue to speak to me.
It is a gift to read your work Melody, especially the list of novelists you mention, including Noel Streatfield. It is not often that I meet a kindred soul in that department. Thank you for the time you pour into these posts.
Thank you, Jody! I am also trying to complete my Goudge library (still need some short story collections) and The Scent of Water is my favorite so far. Love to hear that you know and love Noel Streatfeild too. I haven't read much of her adult work yet besides her fictionalized memoirs, but her children's books are so dear to my heart.
Thank you, Katy! I tried two other novels by Goudge first, and this is the one that clicked for me, where I caught her vision. I hope you enjoy it as well!
Thank you for this lovely, peaceful and insightful meditation. Perfect for reading on a grey morning when the scent of water is in the air. I will be reading E. Goudge's book soon.
Thank you, Henny! I think you and Goudge are a literary match. For me, reading her work is like going on a spiritual retreat. I always feel refreshed and deepened and I hope you find that too.
This is such a beautiful reflection, Melody, on one of my favorite novels. I love this: “One character reflects, ‘Understanding is a creative act in a dimension we do not see.’” Some of my favorite characters in literature are the hidden, quiet ones. I think of Septimus Harding in Trollope’s Barsetshire series. I love that you come to an understanding here with Goudge in her human flaws. It’s such a fascinating conundrum, fallen humans creating transcendent art.
Thank you, Elizabeth! One of my top favorite novels too. Dear Septimus! I'm with you there on the hidden, quiet characters. Molly Gibson and Miss Matty are some of them for me, too. Understanding each other's humanity reminds me that it is all grace--grace to create, and grace to receive, not on our own merits.
Thanks for introducing me to yet another author I'm piqued to read.
For me, your most thought-provoking comments came from your discussion of Goudge's human flaws. It reminded me of my Lenten book, Marilynne Robinson's "Reading Genesis." After recounting the sordid story of Jacob and Rebekah duping Isaac and Esau out of the birthright and paternal blessing, Robinson writes:
"Could history have taken its appropriate course if Jacob had dealt righteously with his father? Did he have that option? What becomes of moral judgment if an unrighteous act works for good, without or despite the actor's intention?" She concludes, "The covenant is not contingent upon human virtue, even human intention. It is sustained by the will of God, which is so strong and steadfast that it can allow space within providence for people to be who they are, for humanity to be what it is."
P.S. Thanks for the GE quote (from some of the most epic paragraphs in English lit).
Beautiful quotation, Brad, thank you for sharing!! This is why we need novelists' perspectives on the Bible. I'm sure Reading Genesis was a lovely Lenten read, and I look forward to reading it soon. "So strong and steadfast." A beautiful idea to hold this Holy Week.
Beautiful. It's been so long since I've read this one, but when I read it I remember how restorative it felt for my soul. I love how you put it here: "an invitation to live in “the sheltering of God’s hand,' where we are hidden yet not unseen." That's it exactly.
Thank you, Dominika. This is one of my "personal spiritual retreat" books, where reading it feels like taking a retreat. The very best for springtime, too, though I'd forgotten it ends at Candlemas.
Thanks for the shoutout, Melody! Really enjoyed this piece on a book and author I've never heard of. Adding this one to my reading list!
Thank you, Mark! From what I see in your writing you would find a lot to love in Goudge. The Scent of Water is my favorite of hers thus far, but The Rosemary Tree and The Bird in the Tree (first in a trilogy) have also stood out. Of her children's books, I love, love, love Smoky-House and I Saw Three Ships (a Christmas/Epiphany story).
My first introduction to Elizabeth Goudge and still my favorite, though The Dean’s Watch is oh so close!! This particular novel filled my teenage love for romance while filing my mind with a desire and delight in the greater Romance to be found everywhere in this world. You did an absolutely fabulous job at catching the refreshing magic of the novel, and it encouraged me to start a re-read as soon as I can!!
Thank you, Eowyn! What a wonderful novel to capture your imagination at a young age. Romance everywhere in this world--that exactly captures Goudge's outlook for me!
Interesting overview and comments. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Craig!
Thanks for the mention, Melody! This book is definitely one worth reading and rereading. We will be reading again together this year in May.
I would like to suggest that while Goudge is far from faultless, I think that her faults are different than those you mention here. Make no mistake, wherever Goudge mentions child abuse, even a smack from a parent, she is not mentioning it casually. She is showing the authentic treatment of the time she is writing about, and is too good a writer to moralize everything instantly for her reader. No one would read Oliver Twist and think that Dickens was supporting such behavior, or Gaskell and think she is in favor of industrial factories. The same is true of Goudge with children. You can take a look at the preface I recently shared to RLS to read her personal, honest assessment of the too strict treatment of Victorian & Edwardian children.
Again, we see the same thing when she mentions her character using racist comments and in those situations. Usually she is showing what is *not* right in the world, and if you follow the plot closely, you will see that the discriminated party, whether female or of foreign race, is the one who comes out with the most virtue and sense in the end. This is most obvious in Green Dolphin Street, which I wrote about extensively last year. Gentian Hill shows discrimination again the French, which Goudge felt personally as her mother was from Guernsey. In The Castle on the Hill, which we just finished, she includes a Jewish refugee, which was a very current race issue in 1940.
Her weakness tended to be about class. She tends to speak overly glowingly about the goodness of the "lower orders" and the way they served the upper class. While always saying they were actually the superiors, she over sells the beauty of the arrangement.
Good to have some more Goudge discussion on Substack! Her works are very worth turning over in one's mind, and rereading again and again. I think it is these nuances and her truth-telling that makes her work good literature and not just sentimental tales.
Thank you so much, Juli. I really appreciate your insight as a scholar much more knowledgeable about Goudge than I am! I haven't read Gentian Hill or The Castle on the Hill yet but will keep my eyes open for that when I do. One of the ways I interpret Green Dolphin Street is as an exploration of the effect of colonialism on the colonists' own souls. It's notable who in the story accepts and loves the land and its original inhabitants, and who never completely overcomes fear.
I wasn't able to read the preface to A Child's Garden of Verses since it was behind a paywall, but I would love to read that sometime, especially since it might have saved me from making my own errors! It was Towers in the Mist that I had to stop reading because the mentions of frequent canings were too much. How many dozens of pages would I have to wait before seeing some sort of handling of it in the narrative? I will read it all the way through at some point, but it was sorrowful for me, just like Dotty's recollections about her father's treatment of her in the Thrush Green series by Miss Read. Mrs. Croft didn't have enough character development in The Scent of Water to merit such a long harangue about serving the Romani population; there was a hint that she would have treated Paul Randall differently as an expectant father than a Romani father. Since it was at the end of the book, about a character quite far to the side, I didn't see much point to those thoughts being narrated in the novel.
Thank you again. I really appreciate your thoughts. I heartily agree that Goudge's work rises above sentimentalism, and is what gives them lasting appeal.
All good thoughts, and I would say that reading more of her work does help set it in perspective.
For instance, the attitude of Mrs Croft was an actually opinion that happened frequently near the villages where the novel is set, in real time. Goudge was using her dialogue to point out the injustice, which you mentioned, not supporting it. Goudge set The Scent of Water in the countryside around her home in Oxfordshire, where there were wandering Romany people, in the 1960's while she lived there. They camped out in her own fields. She wrote The White Witch as an extended tale about their plight, and I believe she was inspired to write about them because they were the people group who Hitler most hated during the war. (You can read accounts about them being killed first off the bus in the concentration camps.) Goudge set out to first tell about how people viewed them, with their prejudice, and then to let us see that they were the bringers of true light, especially because they were a suffering people. It is not developed in The Scent of Water, but it does quickly show the reader Mrs Croft's uncaring hypocrisy. She who seems so no-nonsense is guilty of extreme prejudice.
I say all of this to encourage you that Goudge is definitely worth reading a bit more! There is a depth here that is not caught by a single or even two readings. Every time I reread her books they unfold another layer like an onion. You see more what she cared about, and knowing the history she lived through helps you understand why. Which is why it is so good to have the time to unpack it in longer form, reading together each month. Hope you can join us sometime! :)
That's so fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to educate me so gently. I will keep my eyes open for that as I read The White Witch, too. As I mentioned in another comment, I have almost all of Goudge's books and plan to read them all. There's something said about Madeleine L'Engle in Sarah Arthur's A Light So Lovely, about how L'Engles works call to each other like a pod of whales calling to each other. The deepest understanding comes when all her works are read in concert with each other. A dozen books into her ouevre, I'm beginning to see that Goudge has a similar intertextual depth and complexity.
The Scent of Water is one of my favourites of EG’s books and this post and comments have given me more insight into its themes. I am looking forward to reading again in May with Judith.
Just a brief comment about some of the points you made. “Working like a n***” was a common phrase when I was young (in the 1960s) and there was a colour that was called n*** brown, that my mother often used when making clothes. To me, and I think many people living in England at that time, it was like saying rose pink, or leaf green – the original meaning of the name or adjective was not something consciously recognised. Just as I do not mindfully contemplate the meaning of my name or those around me when I use their name.
I remember being totally shocked when reading the letters by Joyce Grenfell, written in the 1930s and after. The occasional antisemitism expressed made me aware that we can do a disservice in our reading if we expect the same awareness of what we now consider unacceptable in an author’s writings from another era.
Also, with regards caning of children. That was still carried out in schools until just recently. I myself was not caned, but the boys were (and that was in the 60s and 70s). I had the ruler instead. “Spare the rod, and spoil the child” was a firmly held mantra in child rearing.
Physical punishment of children has long been unacceptable to me, and my awareness of racism etc has made me very uncomfortable when reading books which do not meet these standards. But I also remind myself to try to take into account the mores of when and where a book was written. And how much has changed in just my lifetime.
Thank you, Sandra. I appreciate your thoughts. As a Christian, I have to accept the fact that what we see as cruel or unkind now, was just as cruel and unkind then. I think of the sorrow a Romani reader of The Scent of Water might have had--would she have ever picked up The White Witch after that? As a historian, it's my goal to speak truthfully about these things and provide nuance. In times of injustice, there are always, always people speaking out against it and showing a better way forward.
I was introduced to Goudge's work about 12 years ago and have since purchased I think every book she's written. A Scent of Water has been read twice, and the underlined phrases continue to speak to me.
It is a gift to read your work Melody, especially the list of novelists you mention, including Noel Streatfield. It is not often that I meet a kindred soul in that department. Thank you for the time you pour into these posts.
Thank you, Jody! I am also trying to complete my Goudge library (still need some short story collections) and The Scent of Water is my favorite so far. Love to hear that you know and love Noel Streatfeild too. I haven't read much of her adult work yet besides her fictionalized memoirs, but her children's books are so dear to my heart.
I added The Scent of Water to my TBR recently after a friend recommended it. Your reflections have moved it up the list.
Thank you, Katy! I tried two other novels by Goudge first, and this is the one that clicked for me, where I caught her vision. I hope you enjoy it as well!
Thank you for this lovely, peaceful and insightful meditation. Perfect for reading on a grey morning when the scent of water is in the air. I will be reading E. Goudge's book soon.
Thank you, Henny! I think you and Goudge are a literary match. For me, reading her work is like going on a spiritual retreat. I always feel refreshed and deepened and I hope you find that too.