A couple of days ago I found out about Rumer Godden reading week thanks to a comment on a recent blog post. It started yesterday hosted by Brona of Brona’s books. As I finished the Beryl Bainbridge I was reading I decided to read China Court by Rumer Godden which I have had tbr quite a while. However, I am behind in my reviewing – multiple review posts may be on the way, so I have no confidence in my ability to both finish this and review it before next Sunday. However, I really like Rumer Godden and I wanted to acknowledge the reading week on the blog.
Rumer Godden was born in Sussex in 1907 but spent much of her childhood growing up in Colonial India – experiences which came to shape some of her fiction. She was a very prolific writer, producing something like sixty books for both adults and children. I have only read about nine or ten of her adult books but they each left a huge impression. So, as my contribution to Rumer Godden reading week, I want to have a little look back at three Godden novels that have particularly stayed with me.
Black Narcissus (1939)
A simply stunning novel – one of Godden’s best known works. It was of course made into a very dramatic film in 1947 and more recently became a BBC TV adaptation. This is a novel of unsettling passions that have been repressed set against an extraordinary landscape.
As the novel opens, young Sister Clodagh prepares to leave her religious community in Darjeeling for Mopu in the Himalayan mountains to the north. Here Sister Clodagh will take on the role of Sister Superior to a small group of nuns who will be helping to set up a convent school community in an abandoned palace. The sisters begin a long trek through a stunning landscape to their new home.
“It was strange how little you noticed the valley or the River where the green snow water streaked the jelly whiteness of the stream. You noticed the gulf where the birds flew level with the lawn; across it was the forest rising to bare and bony ridges, and behind them and above them, the Himalayan snows where the ice wind blew.
Sometimes they were like turrets of icing sugar, pretty and harmless; on some days they seemed as if they might come crashing down on a hill. On others they were hidden behind drifts of cloud and a spray floated from one to another; but however they looked, there was always the wind to remind you of what they were. The wind was always the same.”
Once settled they meet Mr Dean, a British agent and young General Dilip Rai, they face extraordinary difficulties, jealousies and unexpected passions are brought uncomfortably to the surface.
The incredible landscape must have inspired Godden, as in this novel her writing is absolutely stunning, it’s also compelling and dramatic.
An Episode of Sparrows (1956)
One of those rare books that brought me to tears (I don’t cry at books often). There was a particular quality of poignancy around Godden’s portrayal of a child living against a post war landscape.
This novel is set in London sometime after the Second World War, among the street children who run up and down the grim, unloveliness of Catford Street. An Episode of Sparrows shows the simple joy that a garden can bring. At the end of Catford Street, is a gracious London square, a square of houses of an altogether different kind, they have a very pleasant garden, a gardener and a gardening committee. Catford Street is a place where nothing very much ever grows, the children there are small and scrawny, running wild, gathering in gangs in the bomb damaged ruins that still litter the street. Two middle aged sisters occupy one of the large old houses. One is a committee woman, cold, domineering, narrow minded the other, a quieter woman, has understanding and watches the children from the window.
Lovejoy Mason is the child at the centre of this novel, a child for who there is little joy or love in the world. Rumer Godden understands childhood, and writes children well – they feature in several books – and Lovejoy’s view of the world is sometimes rather heart-breaking. When a small packet of seeds falls into her hands it fuels an obsession.
It’s a wonderful novel full of heart.
The Greemgage Summer (1958)
It is over ten years since I read The Greengage Summer – and there isn’t a full review of it in my archive just a strange poorly written paragraph. I wish I still had a copy, but I may have read it from the library – it is one I would love to read again. Like Black Narcissus and An Episode of Sparrows, The Greengage Summer is very atmospheric, Godden’s sense of place is always strong. This novel is set in a French hotel – where a group of siblings ranging from 4 to 16 are left when their mother is taken to hospital. There’s a brilliant sense of not really knowing what’s going on all the time, I think it’s that feeling that one often has in childhood – where everything seems to be happening above your head.
“On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages. Joss and I felt guilty; we were still at the age when we thought being greedy was a childish fault and this gave our guilt a tinge of hopelessness because, up to then, we had believed that as we grew older our faults would disappear, and none of them did.”
The children come under the care of a mysterious Englishman staying at the same hotel. Other adults are brought into their world too. During the course of this coming of age novel the hotel becomes a place of secrets and summery exploration for these children.
So, there we are three fabulous novels from Rumer Godden, set on three different countries. The one I am currently reading is set in a large house in England telling the story of several generations of a large family. Not got far yet, but I am enjoying it a lot.
Are you reading anything for Rumer Godden reading week?
I’ve somehow never read anything by Godden despite knowing of her from ages. I’m remedying that, however, by reading An Episode of Sparrows–I can see how it must have made you tear up; I’m only someway in (Lovejoy looking to get some money for gardening tools), there’ve been some heart-wrenching moments. Miss Olivia is interesting me a lot as well. And I agree, not really a children’s book
Hope you enjoy China Court. I’ll look out for your review.
Ooh so glad you’re reading An Episode of Sparrows now I remember it with such fondness. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Very much so; I loved it, especially the end. The characters were so well done and I really liked how the background is so ‘alive’ and vivid–the happenings in the street more broadly I mean
I only know the Greengage Summer and Black Narcissus, but on the basis of those two books, I really think I should try reading more by Godden. Thanks for the reminder!
I think she’s an excellent writer, someone I definitely haven’t read enough by either. So, I recommend exploring more.
I have read quite a few Rumer Godden books, and you have picked my three favourites! They are all an excellent place to start when reading this author.
Yes, I picked my favourite three, so glad to hear they are yours too. I agree any of these would make a good introduction to Rumer Godden’s work.
I’m hoping to join in but I’m so slow at reading and blogging at the moment – fingers crossed I manage it. You’ve picked two of my favourite Goddens here, and the other I’ve not read, but An Episode of Sparrows sounds wonderful. As you say, she’s so memorable in what she creates.
I have recommended An Episode of Sparrows to a few people, because I just loved its portrait of a lonely childhood. Her places and characters are so memorable, I think she must be quite underrated.
I’ve only ever read The Greengage Summer, which I loved – but I don’t own anything else and so haven’t joined in this time. I ought to read more really, because if GS is anything to go by, I should love the rest of her books!
There are certainly other books by Godden that you should explore, she is another writer who has often been overlooked, I think.
Even at my age I’m still waiting for those faults to disappear…
Ha yes, I know. Well perhaps I am no longer expecting it to change.
I read An Episode of Sparrows and The Greengage Summer as a girl, but although I binged on Godden during the 1980s I’d never come across Black Narcissus until Brona’s week brought it to my attention. My library didn’t have it, but they had the DVD of the film which I found very interesting, if a bit problematic to our C21st eyes in its depiction of other races.
For Brona’s week, I’ve read two that I hadn’t read: The River and Breakfast with the Nikolides. Both terrific books, though Nikolides, I think, is sharper.
The River is another lovely portrait of childhood from what I remember and I agree Breakfast with the Nikolides is excellent.
A film adaptation of The Greengage Summer was made in 1961. It was called “Loss of Innocence.” I saw it many, many years ago on TV but it has stayed with me for years, mostly because of Susannah York’s lovely performance. I will try to read some Godden and to find the film.
I didn’t know about that film, I would be interested in seeing it. Godden is such a visual writer, such a strong sense of place in her books, it’s easy to see why some books made it onto film.
Thank you for sharing your trip down Godden lane Ali. I hadn’t realised that her novels were set in such varying times and settings.
I finished my choice so quickly (Coromandel Sea Change) I’m hoping to fit in a second.
I read Coramandel Sea Change years ago, I remember it having a strong sense of place too.
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I’ve only read Black Narcissus so far, but it was such an enjoyable experience that I’d like to try more. I recall you recommending The Greengage Summer earlier this year, so that’s likely to be my next. The setting sounds fabulous – wonderfully evocative!
I remember how much you enjoyed Black Narcissus, and I’m confident that you would enjoy The Greengage Summer too. It is very evocative.
Thank you for this reminder to include Rumer Godden in the TBR list – While I won’t be reading along this week, I hope to catch up next year. I remember loving her work as a child, and as a teen and young adult reader, but that was many years ago, so I’m looking forward to meeting these beautiful books again and reading more of them.
I know lots of people enjoyed her books as children, I came to her as an adult. You have lots to look forward to next year.
Lovely – I have enjoyed her books through my life though had none on the TBR for this challenge.
She’s a good writer. I am enjoying China Court, reading quite slowly I think this week. I had had it tbr for ages!
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Oh, dear…I feel as though I had just heard news of this happening and now I’m hearing news of it having already happened. I’ve been lost in books it seems! LOL
I know, it’s so easy to miss these things. And, I still haven’t reviewed China Court which I read that week.