Elizabeth Goudge
1900 - 1984
Books:
- The Castle on the Hill, 1941
- Green Dolphin Street, 1944
- The Little White Horse, 1947
- Gentian Hill, 1949
- The White Witch, 1958
- Linnets and Valerians, 1964
- The Child From the Sea, 1970
- and many others
The magic of Elizabeth Goudge's stories is hard to describe. In her children's books, such as The Little White Horse, it resembles the exuberant imagination of an eight-year-old girl. When at the age of ten or twelve I first read Linnets and Valerians, I was delighted and enthralled to discover that here was someone who dreamed the kind of dreams I did and wrote the kind of fairy tales I wove in my make-believe games. Here were magic gates and spells, long-lost relatives and dazzling coincidences, in the kind of profusion adult writers don't usually allow themselves, and described in such detail that it all came vividly alive.
In her books for adults the mood is not quite so light-hearted, nor the problems so straightforwardly solved; but the magic is much the same. The story draws you in even as it unrolls like a tapestry: intricately woven, brightly colored, and coming out square; not to mention keeping out the chilly drafts of mundane life. Goudge's characters are so splendidly drawn, her scenes so vividly depicted, and her prose so lyrical that in her books everything takes on a certain glow.
And I do mean lyrical. Take this passage from The White Witch:
"Whenever she returned to it Froniga found fresh delight in her home. When she got up on fine mornings she would find her window covered with frost flowers, with behind them the fires of the rising sun. She could not see the sun, she could only see the flame that seemed sparkling and crackling just behind her window, and she would stretch out her arms and laugh with joy. The fire on her hearth had never seemed to burn so merrily. The apple logs had blue and yellow flames, the cherry logs smelt like flowers and the burning fir cones were edged with the same color that had sparkled behind the frost flowers on her window. She would kneel before the hearth, warming her hands and singing, and Pen her white cat would weave round and round her purring and vibrating. But Pen was not so white as the snowflakes that fell outside her window, sometimes singly, like the feathers of a white swan that had passed overhead, sometimes in dense masses of falling light. Her room too was then so full of light that the flames on the hearth paled and did not come into their own again until dark came and she drew the curtains, and sat with her spinning wheel before the fire."
When I read that I was with Froniga (and Pen) in her herb-scented cottage, during the serenity of a bygone English winter, and very wonderful it was.
Until a couple of years ago Elizabeth Goudge was to me only a name on a dusty spine -- and, of course, the author of my beloved Linnets and Valerians -- but I've come to discover that not only did she write adult books, but she was fairly prolific, and very popular with readers of my mother's generation. Having read several of her books, I now realize why. Her world is beautiful, and the people in it are unique and memorable. Who could forget the sweet and gentle Loveday Minette in her house under the hills? or the brash gypsy Alamina Heron? or gnomelike Ezra Oake with his bees? or Polly and Job of The Dean's Watch, among the most likable young lovers in literature? Do yourself a favor, and introduce yourself to all of them.
(I would like to thank Kate Lindemann for putting up such a beautiful and informative Elizabeth Goudge page, thus not only enriching the WWW but helping me enormously with the putting together of this one. Even if the page is gone now. :/)
Links
- Meeting Elizabeth Goudge (new!)
Priscilla Valk remembers a visit to Miss Goudge in the seventies. - The Little White Horse
A book report by a student in Australia. - Plagiarism and mystery
An Indian woman ripped off The Rosemary Tree some years back. Strange story.
You may also want to join the Elizabeth Goudge Yahoo! Group.