Retro Reads discussion

Hi

This buddy read is being lead by Veronique.

This is the no spoilers thread. This means if you are going to post something that could spoil the read for a first time reader, either use spoiler tags or post in the other thread!

Enjoy!

Thanks, Carol, for setting these up :0)
Looking forward to reading this one for quite a few months now

Goudge is wonderful.

I haven't given up hop of finding this one! :)

I'm hoping to start this one next week. I haven't read Goudge in ages and am looking forward to it.

I'm picking up my copy from the library today. I see this is one of her earliest books. I'm looking forward to it.

Should start end of the week - have a couple of books to finish first, one being The Shape of Darkness.

Waiting for my copy to arrive.

I'm going to start tomorrow. I just finished all of Dorothy L. Sayers novels and I'm almost through the Barbara Reynolds biography, so this is good timing!

Karlyne wrote: "I'm going to start tomorrow. I just finished all of Dorothy L. Sayers novels and I'm almost through the Barbara Reynolds biography, so this is good timing!"

Nice! I’ve only read a couple of hers and really liked them. The bio should be quite something, considering her life. Tempted. Weirdly, I’m also tempted by the one on Pym, although I’ve only read one of her novels - but her life sounds fascinating.

Back to Goudge :O) I’ve literally just started and 2 pages in, I can see I’m going to enjoy this. Seems I love Goudge’s writing style.

I find it interesting that some of my favorite authors had somewhat similar upbringings. Goudge, Sayers, Mary Stewart and Mary O'hara were all daughters of clergymen, while Rumer Godden and M.M. Kaye were not, but their childhoods were quite similar to each other. There must be something in that early childhood training at home - not to mention that elusive something called heredity...

Chapter One is just about perfect, but Chapter 2, I, three pages long, is perfection itself. In those short pages, we learn all there is to know about Henrietta and Grandfather, who they are and what their lives are. Makes me cry tears of joy myself!

I think all great writers have an ability to quietly, sometimes slyly, poke fun at humanity without being bitter or angry. Austen was, of course, the master of wit, but I really noticed it my Sayers binge, and I'm chuckling at it in Goudge's story. I think for it to be really effective it almost has to be a thrown away observation, like this one: ..."smiling with the urbanity of those who feel themselves to be in the position of benefactors but yet have had no bother with the preparations." And: ..."Baggersley trotted round in circles calling out instructions to Peppercue and Barleycorn, after the manner of those who while doing no work themselves see all the more clearly how it should be done." I really enjoy cleverness.

I know what you mean. I keep having a smile on my face while reading

The descriptions are so fresh and beautiful in this story! Jocelyn’s thoughts as he was coming in on the train, the descriptions of Grandmother and Grandfather. I get almost a physical sensation of pleasure when reading such graceful and evocative words. Loving this book, and I’m already sad I only sprang for a paperback copy.

Abigail wrote: "The descriptions are so fresh and beautiful in this story! Jocelyn’s thoughts as he was coming in on the train, the descriptions of Grandmother and Grandfather. I get almost a physical sensation of..."

If it makes you feel any better, not only is my paperback one that has a terrible 1964 cover, but it's in so many pieces that I have to hold it together with a rubber band when I'm not reading it. I can only imagine what fun it would be to sniff a gorgeously bound hard back copy whose pages turned one at a time...

Mine’s a 1948 Pocket Book edition with a scary-bad cover as well: a dewy-eyed blonde starlet type emoting at stage left with, in the background peeping-Tomming it through a window, a Rhett Butler lookalike half her size.

Haha! Mine is a bouffant-ish blonde breathing heavily on a manly shoulder. I think she's aiming to nibble on his ear, but may have gotten sidetracked, but she's definitely amorous!

You make her sound like a golden lab! 😂

🤣

Abigail wrote: "You make her sound like a golden lab! 😂"

That's it!!!! An amorous lab!

Mini update - still reading it or rather savouring it.

Karlyne wrote: "my paperback is in so many pieces that I have to hold it together with a rubber band when I'm not reading it. .."

My copy of The Sister of the Angels is in a similar state!

A little over halfway in, and I’m struck by how immature it is even while the language, especially in description, is gorgeous. The focus on how a writer is born, Jocelyn’s mood swings, the depiction of love—was Goudge perhaps in her twenties when she wrote this?I should go look.

No! She was about 35! At least when it was published. I am surprised.

If I remember right, this was her third book. The Middle Window was her second, and it was much more ... immature, I guess, with too much mysticism and a rather labored weaving of "the pattern" that I love in her later books. Oddly enough, her first book, Island Magic, which was based on her mother's family memories, was much more cohesive (the kids and the animals and the characterizations were practically perfect). I think that with A City of Bells she was just starting to hit her stride again.

Even more oddly, the book that she herself loved the most was The Child from the Sea, her last novel. I hated it, because it's so dark and full of sad, ugly people. But she loved it because its theme was forgiveness - a good reason, but I don't know if I'll ever appreciate it!

Hah, if the theme of that book is forgiveness, I’d probably hate it too! Christian forgiveness is a trait I admire in theory but could never hope to emulate. I’m more of a justice gal.

Thanks for the notes about other books! I haven’t read nearly as much Goudge as I would like, and the guidance is appreciated.