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The Cathedral Trilogy: The City of Bells + Towers In the Mist + The Dean's Watch
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First published January 1, 1965
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About the author
Elizabeth Goudge
64 books895 followersElizabeth Goudge was an English author of novels, short stories and children's books.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 24, 2021
These three books are unrelated, but joined by the backdrop of cathedrals. The author's use of language, character and place is refreshing, life giving and resonates with my heart time and again. The third of the three books is my favorite by far and would make for a brilliant reread in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
October 16, 2012
This is three books in one (A City of Bells, Towers in the Mist, The Dean's Watch), each book about a cathedral town in England, set in either Edwardian or Elizabethan times. As historical fiction, it is filled with satisfying details on the daily life of the diffrent characters. There is also great insight into different human natures. Although showing its age by the moral attitudes, the assumption of differences based on social class, and the pat happy endings for so many characters, this is not always an undesirable thing in books, as with imagination we enter a world that is definitely different from our own, and that has much to teach us. Elizabeth Goudge is a writer who has a great gift in human insight and in language use.
P. 109: "Felicity chattered as a bird sings, joy being with her a thing that must be instantly expressed lest she burst, but Jocelyn did not speak, it being with him a thing that silenced."
P. 186: "As in all first intercourse between shy strangers each difficult sentence that they spoke seemed a rope flung across the chasm that separated them from each other."
P. 220: "...The cheerful comfortable view of those who have suffered...only in imagination."
P. 303: "The loveliest phrases are winged, and when the poet opens the door of the place where he put them he finds that the tiresome creatures have flown away."
P. 351: "A poem can be like two hands that lift you up and put you down in a new place. You look back with astonishment and find that because you have read a few lines on a printed page, or listened for a couple of minutes to a voice speaking, you have arrived at somewhere quite different."
P. 367: "They love indeed who quake to say they love."
P. 368: "(We forget) ...at midday when the sun is shining, that (we have) come from the dark and (are) journeying towards the dark again."
P. 454: "He was afraid. It was suddenly dreadful to him that we do not know to what we travel; only that the way is like an increasingly darkening tunnel. At the heart of it the blackness is like pitch. We must pass through it, there is no escape, and there is no one to come back and tell us what it is like in that darkness, or what it is like beyond."
P. 536: "All of them...had seemed to live in a world where compassion was not necessary. He saw now that it was the very first necessity, always and everywhere, and should flow between all men, always and everywhere. Men lived with their nearest and dearest and knew little of them, and strangers passing by in the street were as impersonal as trees walking, and all the while there was this deep affinity, for all men suffered."
P. 567, about daydreaming: "A drifting mood, encouraged, is like a current at sea. You have no control over where it will take you."
P. 109: "Felicity chattered as a bird sings, joy being with her a thing that must be instantly expressed lest she burst, but Jocelyn did not speak, it being with him a thing that silenced."
P. 186: "As in all first intercourse between shy strangers each difficult sentence that they spoke seemed a rope flung across the chasm that separated them from each other."
P. 220: "...The cheerful comfortable view of those who have suffered...only in imagination."
P. 303: "The loveliest phrases are winged, and when the poet opens the door of the place where he put them he finds that the tiresome creatures have flown away."
P. 351: "A poem can be like two hands that lift you up and put you down in a new place. You look back with astonishment and find that because you have read a few lines on a printed page, or listened for a couple of minutes to a voice speaking, you have arrived at somewhere quite different."
P. 367: "They love indeed who quake to say they love."
P. 368: "(We forget) ...at midday when the sun is shining, that (we have) come from the dark and (are) journeying towards the dark again."
P. 454: "He was afraid. It was suddenly dreadful to him that we do not know to what we travel; only that the way is like an increasingly darkening tunnel. At the heart of it the blackness is like pitch. We must pass through it, there is no escape, and there is no one to come back and tell us what it is like in that darkness, or what it is like beyond."
P. 536: "All of them...had seemed to live in a world where compassion was not necessary. He saw now that it was the very first necessity, always and everywhere, and should flow between all men, always and everywhere. Men lived with their nearest and dearest and knew little of them, and strangers passing by in the street were as impersonal as trees walking, and all the while there was this deep affinity, for all men suffered."
P. 567, about daydreaming: "A drifting mood, encouraged, is like a current at sea. You have no control over where it will take you."
May 6, 2016
First impressions: This book is just over 1,000 pages. I wonder if I'll be able to read it as fast as I read Gone with the Wind... yikes. 0_o
Yeah, nope.
The City of Bells Review - Four Stars
Oddly, when I was looking through my unread books pile for my next book to read, I saw this trilogy book and was again like "Nah. Too long. Not ready for it right now. Maybe later," and I lifted it off the pile to dig for a different book. Then I felt a voice within me say "No. This book." And I was like "...but..." and it was like "No. READ THIS ONE." So I embarked on the journey of reading the first section, A City of Bells. The voice was right.
This story is about a guy named Jocelyn Irvin. First of all, I was surprised that Jocelyn was at one time a dude's name, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It started to make sense in my head. So, Jocelyn's leg is wounded in the Boer War and he's young and privileged and doesn't know what to do with his life next. This is very depressing to him. His family agrees that sending him to the small cathedral town of Torminster to live with his grandparents and recuperate is a good idea. So off he goes. There he meets his grandparents' two young charges Hugh Anthony and Henrietta; Felicity Summers, a peculiar and beautiful young actress; and Gabriel Ferranti, a reclusive poet. When Ferranti disappears, Jocelyn opens a bookshop in his old house (against his family's wishes, for respectable gentlemen do not keep shops), and eventually comes into contact with Ferranti's last surviving manuscript. The only problem is that it's half-finished. Jocelyn sets himself to the task of completing it, and from there unfolds a wonderful mystery. Will Jocelyn find his real purpose? And is Ferranti dead or alive?
This story really spoke to me because I've been in a place lately where I felt stuck, not really knowing what to do next. I identified strongly with Jocelyn--he was me and I him. The way that his friends and the town (and--dare I say--God) conspired to set him on the path he was meant to walk was comforting to me, and once again I benefitted from the way Elizabeth Goudge writes about faith while still preserving the mysteries of the universe and not pushing any pat answers. This was a gorgeous, gorgeous book. Definitely my favorite of her works that I've read so far. The only things I got tired of in it were the constant lists of flowers everywhere (I didn't even know what half of them were), and the character Hugh Anthony, who I think was supposed to be child-like comic relief, but whom I wanted to put in a gunny sack and throw into a river. He was that obnoxious. Maybe the point was to contrast him with Henrietta, but it was way too much. More Jocelyn. Less Hugh Anthony. By the time I finished the trilogy, I realized that Hugh Anthony really knocked a star off of this book for me; he was that awful.
I'll read a couple of books in between the ones in this giant volume, but I think I will continue it. Hopefully the other stories are as good as The City of Bells, but I don't have high hopes, because it was very good.
Towers in the Mist Review - Two Stars
Aug. This book was not nearly as good as The City of Bells. I was really confused about why this is considered a trilogy--the only thing the books have in common is that they all take place in cathedral towns.
Towers in the Mist is about the Leigh family who live in Oxford in the mid-1560s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Only at first it seems like it's about Faithful Crocker, an orphan traveling to Oxford and hoping for a miracle to allow him to study there. So we kind of care about Faithful at first, but the problem is that he gets what he wants immediately, followed by convoluted introductions to all of the other characters and lots of focus on TOO MANY FLOWERS and a bunch of Leigh kids who don't do much and whom we don't really care about.
Then one of the Leigh kids, the oldest daughter Joyeuce, who is overly responsible for everyone else, falls in love, presenting her with the conundrum of pursuing her own desires or martyring herself upon the alter of her family. This seemed like the core tension in the book, only there wasn't enough of it in the first two-thirds or so.
There is a simultaneously convoluted and too-obvious story about a gypsy child who was switched with one of the Leigh children soon after birth because his mother wanted him to grow up in better circumstances... but we don't get enough of the original mother, or especially the father, to really care.
Goudge gets distracted throughout the book with side-trips to expostulate on Oxford's scenery and history, hang out with Walter Raleigh and Philip Sidney, and finally build up to a visit from Queen Elizabeth herself.
There were a few things I got out of reading this, but overall it was a disappointment. If you like history for the sake of history in your fiction, or you are passionately interested in Oxford, or even if you like FLOWERS, then this book might be for you. If you like strong plots and clear main characters who are easy to care about, take a pass.
The Dean's Watch Review - Three Stars
And five months later, she finishes the trilogy. Man. Wow. I'm so glad to move on; these books were a quagmire for sure, even though I liked the first one a lot.
I really thought about quitting The Dean's Watch multiple times. The plot was, once again with the majority of Goudge's books, just... so... slow. It's about Isaac Peabody, an old clockmaker who lives with his sister Emma. Both of them are stuck under the shadow of their awful, strict minister father. Isaac is afraid of all religion because of their father, while Emma is ultra-religious, yet utterly lacking joy.
Their maid, Polly, is in love with Job, who's apprenticed to a fishmonger who beats him all the time because he's jealous of how smart and awesome Job is.
Isaac makes friends with the city's Dean, who, as he gets older, begins to better understand what loving others is really about.
The Dean influences all of their lives for the better. There is a lot of beautiful metaphor involving watches and clocks.
There's also an annoying, spoiled little girl in the story, and the author has a curious fixation on her underwear (and also her doll's underwear). By fixation, I mean that she mentions a couple of times that different adults in the story notice the underwear and it holds some kind of specialness or symbolic significance to them. It was a little weird to me, but maybe was more innocent when this was written almost 60 years ago? And what is it with the author needing to include some kind of horribly-behaved child in almost every story? It's not cute. It's just horrible.
Anyway, Goudge captures the mystery of faith in a beautiful... and so very, agonizingly slow... way in this story. Not sure I would recommend it, but again I'm left with that feeling with her work that I did like it and was glad I finished it.
Yeah, nope.
The City of Bells Review - Four Stars
Oddly, when I was looking through my unread books pile for my next book to read, I saw this trilogy book and was again like "Nah. Too long. Not ready for it right now. Maybe later," and I lifted it off the pile to dig for a different book. Then I felt a voice within me say "No. This book." And I was like "...but..." and it was like "No. READ THIS ONE." So I embarked on the journey of reading the first section, A City of Bells. The voice was right.
This story is about a guy named Jocelyn Irvin. First of all, I was surprised that Jocelyn was at one time a dude's name, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It started to make sense in my head. So, Jocelyn's leg is wounded in the Boer War and he's young and privileged and doesn't know what to do with his life next. This is very depressing to him. His family agrees that sending him to the small cathedral town of Torminster to live with his grandparents and recuperate is a good idea. So off he goes. There he meets his grandparents' two young charges Hugh Anthony and Henrietta; Felicity Summers, a peculiar and beautiful young actress; and Gabriel Ferranti, a reclusive poet. When Ferranti disappears, Jocelyn opens a bookshop in his old house (against his family's wishes, for respectable gentlemen do not keep shops), and eventually comes into contact with Ferranti's last surviving manuscript. The only problem is that it's half-finished. Jocelyn sets himself to the task of completing it, and from there unfolds a wonderful mystery. Will Jocelyn find his real purpose? And is Ferranti dead or alive?
This story really spoke to me because I've been in a place lately where I felt stuck, not really knowing what to do next. I identified strongly with Jocelyn--he was me and I him. The way that his friends and the town (and--dare I say--God) conspired to set him on the path he was meant to walk was comforting to me, and once again I benefitted from the way Elizabeth Goudge writes about faith while still preserving the mysteries of the universe and not pushing any pat answers. This was a gorgeous, gorgeous book. Definitely my favorite of her works that I've read so far. The only things I got tired of in it were the constant lists of flowers everywhere (I didn't even know what half of them were), and the character Hugh Anthony, who I think was supposed to be child-like comic relief, but whom I wanted to put in a gunny sack and throw into a river. He was that obnoxious. Maybe the point was to contrast him with Henrietta, but it was way too much. More Jocelyn. Less Hugh Anthony. By the time I finished the trilogy, I realized that Hugh Anthony really knocked a star off of this book for me; he was that awful.
I'll read a couple of books in between the ones in this giant volume, but I think I will continue it. Hopefully the other stories are as good as The City of Bells, but I don't have high hopes, because it was very good.
Towers in the Mist Review - Two Stars
Aug. This book was not nearly as good as The City of Bells. I was really confused about why this is considered a trilogy--the only thing the books have in common is that they all take place in cathedral towns.
Towers in the Mist is about the Leigh family who live in Oxford in the mid-1560s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Only at first it seems like it's about Faithful Crocker, an orphan traveling to Oxford and hoping for a miracle to allow him to study there. So we kind of care about Faithful at first, but the problem is that he gets what he wants immediately, followed by convoluted introductions to all of the other characters and lots of focus on TOO MANY FLOWERS and a bunch of Leigh kids who don't do much and whom we don't really care about.
Then one of the Leigh kids, the oldest daughter Joyeuce, who is overly responsible for everyone else, falls in love, presenting her with the conundrum of pursuing her own desires or martyring herself upon the alter of her family. This seemed like the core tension in the book, only there wasn't enough of it in the first two-thirds or so.
There is a simultaneously convoluted and too-obvious story about a gypsy child who was switched with one of the Leigh children soon after birth because his mother wanted him to grow up in better circumstances... but we don't get enough of the original mother, or especially the father, to really care.
Goudge gets distracted throughout the book with side-trips to expostulate on Oxford's scenery and history, hang out with Walter Raleigh and Philip Sidney, and finally build up to a visit from Queen Elizabeth herself.
There were a few things I got out of reading this, but overall it was a disappointment. If you like history for the sake of history in your fiction, or you are passionately interested in Oxford, or even if you like FLOWERS, then this book might be for you. If you like strong plots and clear main characters who are easy to care about, take a pass.
The Dean's Watch Review - Three Stars
And five months later, she finishes the trilogy. Man. Wow. I'm so glad to move on; these books were a quagmire for sure, even though I liked the first one a lot.
I really thought about quitting The Dean's Watch multiple times. The plot was, once again with the majority of Goudge's books, just... so... slow. It's about Isaac Peabody, an old clockmaker who lives with his sister Emma. Both of them are stuck under the shadow of their awful, strict minister father. Isaac is afraid of all religion because of their father, while Emma is ultra-religious, yet utterly lacking joy.
Their maid, Polly, is in love with Job, who's apprenticed to a fishmonger who beats him all the time because he's jealous of how smart and awesome Job is.
Isaac makes friends with the city's Dean, who, as he gets older, begins to better understand what loving others is really about.
The Dean influences all of their lives for the better. There is a lot of beautiful metaphor involving watches and clocks.
There's also an annoying, spoiled little girl in the story, and the author has a curious fixation on her underwear (and also her doll's underwear). By fixation, I mean that she mentions a couple of times that different adults in the story notice the underwear and it holds some kind of specialness or symbolic significance to them. It was a little weird to me, but maybe was more innocent when this was written almost 60 years ago? And what is it with the author needing to include some kind of horribly-behaved child in almost every story? It's not cute. It's just horrible.
Anyway, Goudge captures the mystery of faith in a beautiful... and so very, agonizingly slow... way in this story. Not sure I would recommend it, but again I'm left with that feeling with her work that I did like it and was glad I finished it.
February 23, 2025
Very nice walk through the city of Oxford. It brings the spires close. I liked the characters.. altho I thought there would be more about Faithfuls academic career.
Looking now for the 'City of Bells' to complete the trilogy.
Looking now for the 'City of Bells' to complete the trilogy.
February 20, 2025
Very beautiful and spiritual, three old fashioned and uplifting novels.
January 16, 2020
Of the three, Towers in the Mist was my least favorite. It was evocative, but there didn't seem to be much story there. Maybe I got bored and missed something?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews