I've read a good bit of Elizabeth Goudge now. Of her books I've read, two stick with me better than the others: Green Dolphin Street and The Scent of Water. As a reader, I look first and always for the author's voice and style; if I enjoy those it hardly matters what is written about, where it occurs, or who occupy the pages.
Goudge has mastery of all elements of writing however, and since I read her with the certainty that her lively, innovative voice sparkles no matter the book, I then look for my second-favorite element, setting -- location. The two books I mention had settings I grew to love, so I remember them best. Characters, in fiction, become shadowy images to me after I've closed the final page. I am too busy exploring and inspecting my way through the author's setting myself, hand-in-hand with her, to bother with her characters much.
Goudge lived from 1900-1984. She published The Joy of the Snow in 1974, a short autobiography because friends demanded it of her. That's what I'm reading now. Delightful as ever, she now entertains me with personal family tales, and I feel I get to know my friend better with each page. Her grandparents hailed from Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands that I've been so interested in lately.
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| Guernsey Island |
Goudge is humorous. She writes this book "to share, too, some of the conclusions I have come to about work and life. Neither will be in the least exciting and so my hope for this book is that it will be a good bedside book, and keep nobody awake." (2)
And this, about turning 70: "The Bible thinks you have about had it by then. And so you have. You have almost closed the circle and like a ship that has sailed round the world you see the last stretch of water narrowing at a startling pace. But the coast of the country to which you sail is obscured by the spray of breaking waves, and the rainbows in them show you the shapes and the colours of your own childhood. What the poets say is true. The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning." I would add that the end feels like home.
She can begin with a light-hearted joke and seamlessly move into a most deep and meaningful metaphor. Does life feel like an adventure? Is it also a circle? Do you feel the familiarity of an old home as you come near your end? What are those "spray and breaking waves" of the final shore that obscure your return to home? How many people have feared that landing, only to find at the end that they are right where they have wanted to be? Goudge does all of that by the end of page 2.
Perhaps I identify with this confession she makes: "As I look back on my life I realise that together with the beauty of the world that holds them, I have loved places too much and people not enough." (5) I know this in myself and fight against it. It's good to hear it admitted by another.
I have many more Goudge books to go, and how thankful I am that she worked to hard so keep us all happily reading!
6 comments:
I will have to look for The Joy of the Snow.
Are you back home again?
I love Elizabeth Goudge too. She creates a spell as she writes that draws me into the world of the book and makes me long for it. I do love a wonderful setting, also, and many of my travels have been to see places I learned to love in books. I feel more affinity for the characters, though. As a child, I cried every time a loved character died. However, plot is my first love. I am eaten up with curiosity to know what happens. I love the resolution of struggle and final redemption. I have learned to enjoy books with little plot, like McCall-Smith's Botswana books, and I can rejoice in well-turned phrase and depth of insight, but when I am tired, give me a well-plotted storyline!
Oh I am so glad you posted this. I have read 2 or 3 books by her and I loved them all. Little White Horse is my favourite- it was the first book I ever specially ordered from a Bookshop when I was a child. She sounds a wonderful woman from what you have written here- I haven't really ever learnt about her life- I should!
Hello. I am new to your blog and confess I stopped because of this very post. I have been reading Elizabeth Goudge since I was 16 and I've never put her books down. My favorites (well I must say all that I have read thus far, but narrowing down hard) are Scent of Water and Rosemary Tree. I find as I get older my perspective on the content of her writing changes and the more wisdoms I glean. I do chuckle at her own estimation that she is not intelligent or clever! I find her very intelligent and extremely clever.
Ah, place. The Place of Guernsey as described in Green Dolphin Street charmed me so, it spoiled the movie for me mostly because the movie whisked you past the girls' childhoods way too fast.
It won't be long before I reach that "threescore and ten" stage, but even though I am sharply aware of the shortness of life from this place on the downhill slope, I don't at all feel that I am near the end. I think that's partly because God has given me a "new life" as a widow to figure out, and to live...
She is one of my favorite writers. The Scent of Water, City of Bells, The Rosemary Tree, The Dean's Watch, the Eliot Family trilogy, I love them all. Her writing is lovely. I love a beautiful setting and have to have it all sorted in my mind, where everything is, and if I read something later that contradicts my idea of the landscape or house design, I can't change it! But characters are important to me, and if I can't relate in some way to one, it's hard to read the book. I do love her characters.
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