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Gentian Hill
Novel set in England at the time of Napoleonic Wars. They met as children... Unable to bear the prospect of life at sea, young Anthony O'Connell deserts his ship at Torquay and escapes into the Devonshire countryside under a new name. Zachary Moon. In this lush, enchanting land where anguish and strife did not exist, he met Stella Sprigg, the adopted daughter of local farmers. The pair instantly know they are destined to be toge ther forever.
As they grew up, the world rushed into their magic kingdom. War raged--a war to challenge the bravest of men. Zachary answered that challenge, knowing it would sweep him far away, into the depths of danger. Yet he vowed to return to Stella, no matter what, no matter how.
Intertwined with the local legend of St. Michael's Chapel at Torquay, Zachary and Stella's story takes them from the secluded Devonshire valley to the perilous Mediterranean seas and finally to the poverty and squalor of eighteenth-century London.
As they grew up, the world rushed into their magic kingdom. War raged--a war to challenge the bravest of men. Zachary answered that challenge, knowing it would sweep him far away, into the depths of danger. Yet he vowed to return to Stella, no matter what, no matter how.
Intertwined with the local legend of St. Michael's Chapel at Torquay, Zachary and Stella's story takes them from the secluded Devonshire valley to the perilous Mediterranean seas and finally to the poverty and squalor of eighteenth-century London.
402 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
103 people are currently reading
916 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Goudge
64 books892 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 - 30 of 125 reviews
November 28, 2021
When I started this book I was instantly enchanted - forty pages flew by just like that!
Set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this book has another of Goudge's magical children. Stella & her dead mother are washed ashore and Stella is adopted by good farming folk. When Anthony/Zachary comes into her life, he proves to be the other half of her, but they are too young to make any formal commitment to each other. I'm not totally convinced with the plot developments that Goudge uses to work around this, (and ascribing favourable physical characteristics to being of noble birth!) but I did quite definitely enjoy the journey and spending the time with nice people.
An added bonus was the Christmas content - I loved reading about an English traditional Christmas. What a lucky chance that I was reading at this time of year!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
Set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this book has another of Goudge's magical children. Stella & her dead mother are washed ashore and Stella is adopted by good farming folk. When Anthony/Zachary comes into her life, he proves to be the other half of her, but they are too young to make any formal commitment to each other. I'm not totally convinced with the plot developments that Goudge uses to work around this, (and ascribing favourable physical characteristics to being of noble birth!) but I did quite definitely enjoy the journey and spending the time with nice people.
An added bonus was the Christmas content - I loved reading about an English traditional Christmas. What a lucky chance that I was reading at this time of year!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
November 19, 2021
Elizabeth Goudge is one of the great overlooked British middlebrow writers of the twentieth century. While Angela Thirkell, Margery Sharp, Stella Gibbons, et al. get well-supported reprints, Goudge novels can be hard to find and don’t attract much publicity. Maybe it is the Christian themes running through her work that make modern publishers squeamish, but as someone of an atheistic bent, may I say that is a pity? Her novels tell stories about Christian people who often contend with spiritual questions, but the questions tend to be broader human ones, not doctrinal or ideological ones. Shunning her for such a reason does readers a disservice, for her work is simply beautiful. She has Mary Stewart’s gift for evocative description and then some.
Many of her novels were set in her present day, but there are a few historicals and Gentian Hill is one of them, taking place during the Napoleonic War, that shattering and drawn-out global conflict. It is set in Dorsetshire, in an area Goudge lived in and loved, and that love of a home place shines through every page of the novel. It is based on, and replicates, a popular local legend. As such it telegraphs pretty clearly what the plot will be, but as in most of the books I like best the destination matters less than the journey.
The story gets its emotional punch from lost children who find life through each other. The two principal children are Stella, a little girl who was found alive in the arms of her dead mother after a shipwreck and was raised by local farmers; and Anthony, also known as Zachary, an orphaned boy whose security vanished after the grandmother who raised him died. He was put into the navy by an uncle, deserted from the service, and through enormous difficulties set his feet back on a path toward building strength of character. Secondarily it is also the story of lonely older men and women, battered by tragedy, who manage to find new life through their selfless love for the young people. In fact, love in all its higher forms is the throughline of the story; it shapes the characters’ lives and gives them meaning.
The setting of the book is a character in itself—the rhythms of the agricultural year, the sound of church bells, the layers of popular history and myth, the hard work and uncertainties, the encroaching wild and its deep magics. The people are rooted in the soil and dependent on it in ways now foreign to most of us, and those old ways are portrayed in loving, evocative detail. That rootedness allows the story to be simple and sweet without being cloying.
As always with Goudge novels, the storyline and themes are clearly inspired by a few texts—in this case ones taken from Shakespeare and the Bible—that drive the meatier spiritual journeys of the characters. Those texts crop up again and again, each time ringing with a deeper resonance, making the reader think as well as feel.
One element of this book ruffled my enjoyment a bit, though not enough for disappointment. Several of the characters with mysterious pasts turn out to have upper-crust roots, and to my dismay those roots were seen as accounting for something special about them—greater intelligence, greater powers of insight, unstudied elegance. That was the one feature of the story that felt dated and gratuitous to me; but as it was not a major theme, I let it go.
Goudge does have a few preoccupations that are infused into much of her work, and they received eloquent acknowledgment here. Perhaps the most salient among them is this: “Of all the illusions which torment the minds of men, one of the worst is the illusion of separateness.” It is in relation to others, through obligation to others, that people rise to their highest spiritual potential and happiness. This humanist, social idea is what makes all the Christian elements worthwhile for me in Goudge’s work: it is Christianity expressed through everyday work and everyday interaction that matters to her, not ecstatic feelings clutched inside the heart. Working with and for another, or others in general, gives her characters meaning and joy.
This is a leisurely story with outbreaks of incident, taking its way at a slower pace than most historical fiction today. That makes it all the richer from my perspective.
Many of her novels were set in her present day, but there are a few historicals and Gentian Hill is one of them, taking place during the Napoleonic War, that shattering and drawn-out global conflict. It is set in Dorsetshire, in an area Goudge lived in and loved, and that love of a home place shines through every page of the novel. It is based on, and replicates, a popular local legend. As such it telegraphs pretty clearly what the plot will be, but as in most of the books I like best the destination matters less than the journey.
The story gets its emotional punch from lost children who find life through each other. The two principal children are Stella, a little girl who was found alive in the arms of her dead mother after a shipwreck and was raised by local farmers; and Anthony, also known as Zachary, an orphaned boy whose security vanished after the grandmother who raised him died. He was put into the navy by an uncle, deserted from the service, and through enormous difficulties set his feet back on a path toward building strength of character. Secondarily it is also the story of lonely older men and women, battered by tragedy, who manage to find new life through their selfless love for the young people. In fact, love in all its higher forms is the throughline of the story; it shapes the characters’ lives and gives them meaning.
The setting of the book is a character in itself—the rhythms of the agricultural year, the sound of church bells, the layers of popular history and myth, the hard work and uncertainties, the encroaching wild and its deep magics. The people are rooted in the soil and dependent on it in ways now foreign to most of us, and those old ways are portrayed in loving, evocative detail. That rootedness allows the story to be simple and sweet without being cloying.
As always with Goudge novels, the storyline and themes are clearly inspired by a few texts—in this case ones taken from Shakespeare and the Bible—that drive the meatier spiritual journeys of the characters. Those texts crop up again and again, each time ringing with a deeper resonance, making the reader think as well as feel.
One element of this book ruffled my enjoyment a bit, though not enough for disappointment. Several of the characters with mysterious pasts turn out to have upper-crust roots, and to my dismay those roots were seen as accounting for something special about them—greater intelligence, greater powers of insight, unstudied elegance. That was the one feature of the story that felt dated and gratuitous to me; but as it was not a major theme, I let it go.
Goudge does have a few preoccupations that are infused into much of her work, and they received eloquent acknowledgment here. Perhaps the most salient among them is this: “Of all the illusions which torment the minds of men, one of the worst is the illusion of separateness.” It is in relation to others, through obligation to others, that people rise to their highest spiritual potential and happiness. This humanist, social idea is what makes all the Christian elements worthwhile for me in Goudge’s work: it is Christianity expressed through everyday work and everyday interaction that matters to her, not ecstatic feelings clutched inside the heart. Working with and for another, or others in general, gives her characters meaning and joy.
This is a leisurely story with outbreaks of incident, taking its way at a slower pace than most historical fiction today. That makes it all the richer from my perspective.
October 5, 2025
A flawed masterpiece is still a masterpiece.
This story of a young girl and boy falling in love "against all odds" during the Napoleonic Wars was my first Elizabeth Goudge novel, and I myself fell in love with her writing immediately. It's peace, pure spiritual peace, distilled into prose. The ocean, the orchard, the yew trees, the ancient chapel on the hill... I lived there as long as the book was open in my lap, and I brought their serenity and harmony back into the world with me.
As I say, the story is not without flaws; the MCs do get married far too young (even by the standards of the time), and there is a certain attitude of militarism here which I didn't care for, as well as an allegedly "Roman Catholic" priest character who is so TRANSPARENTLY AND OBVIOUSLY copied from an Anglican minister that it was quite hilarious at times. But for all that, this is still the best fictional exploration I've seen of England in the post-Reformation era, and what the dissolution of the monasteries actually meant for the communities it devastated. This isn't "and then a nice nobleman and his family moved into the Abbey and everybody was happy :)))" We are actually sitting with the weight of what was lost. But we also see the beauty of what remains. That one scene with Zachary chanting the prayers of the Mass as he follows the plow through the fields is worth a million dollars in gold.
This story of a young girl and boy falling in love "against all odds" during the Napoleonic Wars was my first Elizabeth Goudge novel, and I myself fell in love with her writing immediately. It's peace, pure spiritual peace, distilled into prose. The ocean, the orchard, the yew trees, the ancient chapel on the hill... I lived there as long as the book was open in my lap, and I brought their serenity and harmony back into the world with me.
As I say, the story is not without flaws; the MCs do get married far too young (even by the standards of the time), and there is a certain attitude of militarism here which I didn't care for, as well as an allegedly "Roman Catholic" priest character who is so TRANSPARENTLY AND OBVIOUSLY copied from an Anglican minister that it was quite hilarious at times. But for all that, this is still the best fictional exploration I've seen of England in the post-Reformation era, and what the dissolution of the monasteries actually meant for the communities it devastated. This isn't "and then a nice nobleman and his family moved into the Abbey and everybody was happy :)))" We are actually sitting with the weight of what was lost. But we also see the beauty of what remains. That one scene with Zachary chanting the prayers of the Mass as he follows the plow through the fields is worth a million dollars in gold.
July 3, 2012
To be honest, I'm not sure how to rate Gentian Hill. I've read two other works by Goudge: The Rosemary Tree and the Scent of Water. I've also seen the movie adaptation of the White Witch (Horse?). I loved the Rosemary Tree, liked the Scent of Water, and am perplexed about Gentian Hill.
Should I rate it four or five stars? I might for the following reasons:
1) This is well-researched historical fiction. The setting is intriguing, all the more so because it is intertwined with an even older legend of the same area.
2) The characters are charming.
3) Many of the characters are noble in heart or are in the process of being transformed in heart and life. There is a purity and innocence about them that is beguiling.
4) Miss Goudge was a lyrical writer who created beautiful images in her work. She must also been a keen observer of nature, and she recorded the loveliness therein. The pages of Gentian Hill are loaded with wonderful descriptions.
5) As in her other works, Goudge manages to weave religious and spiritual themes into a good story, and she does this without coming across as too sappy or stilted.
Should I rate it 1 or 2 stars? Well, I might go there, too, for the following reasons:
1) For me, the lyrical quality of the writing is at once the book's greatest strength and the greatest weakness. I found this quality charming in the two other books I've read by Goudge. In Gentian Hill, it gets a little out of hand. Once I got hooked on the plot, I started skipping passages, some of which I will go back to and savor and some of which I probably won't.
2) The plot takes a long, winding route through many subplots in order to get to the climax. I think the story could have been told more tightly.
3) As another reviewer pointed out, the spiritual element is a strange mix of Christian and pagan. Though that might have some historical validity, it does take away from a story in which one of the great themes is purity of heart and faith.
4) The central romance in the book is between a little girl and a much older boy who is waiting for her to grow up. It's innocent, but I think I would have liked it better if they had been closer in age.
So, there you go.
Should I rate it four or five stars? I might for the following reasons:
1) This is well-researched historical fiction. The setting is intriguing, all the more so because it is intertwined with an even older legend of the same area.
2) The characters are charming.
3) Many of the characters are noble in heart or are in the process of being transformed in heart and life. There is a purity and innocence about them that is beguiling.
4) Miss Goudge was a lyrical writer who created beautiful images in her work. She must also been a keen observer of nature, and she recorded the loveliness therein. The pages of Gentian Hill are loaded with wonderful descriptions.
5) As in her other works, Goudge manages to weave religious and spiritual themes into a good story, and she does this without coming across as too sappy or stilted.
Should I rate it 1 or 2 stars? Well, I might go there, too, for the following reasons:
1) For me, the lyrical quality of the writing is at once the book's greatest strength and the greatest weakness. I found this quality charming in the two other books I've read by Goudge. In Gentian Hill, it gets a little out of hand. Once I got hooked on the plot, I started skipping passages, some of which I will go back to and savor and some of which I probably won't.
2) The plot takes a long, winding route through many subplots in order to get to the climax. I think the story could have been told more tightly.
3) As another reviewer pointed out, the spiritual element is a strange mix of Christian and pagan. Though that might have some historical validity, it does take away from a story in which one of the great themes is purity of heart and faith.
4) The central romance in the book is between a little girl and a much older boy who is waiting for her to grow up. It's innocent, but I think I would have liked it better if they had been closer in age.
So, there you go.
September 7, 2021
"Everyone needed someone in the world who was like his other hand. You can't hold much or do much with one hand only. It is with both hands that a man lifts the garnered gold of the wheatsheaf and the brimming bowl of milk, with both hands that he builds his home, with both hands, clasped together, that he prays."
There is so much good in this book that I hardly know where to begin! This is my second reading of Gentian Hill - the second of what I am sure will be many more to come. I guess I will start out by saying that I think by far the best and loveliest part of this book was the relationship between Anthony (Zachary) and Stella. I love the concept of a man and woman being like two halves to one person.
“She felt for the first time in her life, a sense of likeness with another human creature, and a sense of safety, not so much physical safety as the safety of understanding that comes between those who are two of a sort.”
The connection between their souls, even when apart, is demonstrated so many times. It's beautiful how when Zachary is in trouble, or afraid, Stella knows.
"The moon that had shone upon Zachary's fight with Mike kept Stella awake most of the night in her room at Weekaborough. She was not accustomed to being treated in this way by her friend the moon, but she had the feeling that it was watching something that was happening to Zachary and trying to tell her about it. When she dropped into restless sleep she saw Zachary once again as the boy from the moon with his bundle on his back, and he was finding it so heavy that he was staggering beneath it."
Zachary also has this connection to Stella, though seemingly in a lesser degree, as there aren't so many instances noted.
"Zachary, lying in his hammock with his eyes shut and his hands behind his head, could hear the crackle of fire, see the play of the light upon the brass pans, and Stella's dark head bent appreciatively over her plate of rabbit pie. He could actually smell the pie, its fragrance rising triumphantly above the loathsome smells of the after-cockpit, and wrinkled his nose appreciatively."
The most beautiful instance of their spiritual connection, though, is when, on Christmas Eve, thousands of miles apart, Stella in the barn with the animals at Weekaborough, Zachary at sea, they share a dream. Some excerpts of that from Stella's side:
"She was sinking down and down through depth upon depth of peace, the green water closing over her head, but she was not afraid, because she knew that there would be something to stay her before she fell out of existence altogether. It was with no sense of shock that it stayed her, the awareness of arrival came so gradually that she found herself walking forward to the tolling of the bell without having realized that her feet had touched the ground. Though it wasn't ground, it was silver sand jewelled with bright shells. The seaweeds all about her were some of them like flowers and some like stars, and the strange creatures that floated past, weaving in and out between the trunks of the trees, were gold and silver, translucent, luminous. The light was not of the earth. It was deep green, clear, without warmth but not chill. It was the trees that told Stella where she was, the trees and the tolling of the bell. Though their trunks had become like polished ivory, and their branches bore, not leaves, but flowers and stars that were living creatures, she knew that these trees had once grown in the air and sunlight, and that the bell had rung out over green fields and Devon earth...
...She paused and looked back and saw the print of her lonely feet on the silver sand. Yet she did not feel alone, for she knew it was not just the movement of the water that was ringing the bell. There was no movement of the water because far up above her head, on the sea's surface, there brooded 'the windless silence of storms.' Some person was ringing the bell...
...She ran on and presently she saw the church, looking like a gray rock. It was so small that it looked as though it had been made for two people only. The bell swung slowly in the belfry and light shone from the door. She reached the door, stepped in over the doorstep that was silted up with sand, passed into the church, and knelt down. She knew that someone was standing behind her, just inside the door, ringing the bell, but she did not look to see who it could be, though the nearness of whoever it was made her intensely happy.... She looked up and saw that the tiny church was just like a cave. There was nothing in it at all except the beautiful sea creatures that clung to the walls and the roof. A bunch of them, like a cluster of stars, were in the center of the roof and it was from them that the light shone. Yet there was no mistaking this place as a church. It would not have occurred to Stella to do anything here except kneel down.
The bell stopped and the person who had been ringing it came and knelt beside her and slipped his hand into hers, and it was Zachary. They did not speak to each other for they were listening intently to the mighty surging murmur that was all about them. It ebbed and flowed like waves, it broke against the walls that protected them and then receded. It was a great eager swell of sound and yet the quiet was unbroken, it was a roaring wind and yet nothing stirred. It was the voice of the sea itself.
'If I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.... Whiter shall I go then from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I go then from Thy presence?' Zachary and Stella looked at each other and smiled. The presence was the peace, and the peace was the presence. If you could only sink down deep enough to find it, there was no separation, for you could find each other there...."
I could go on and on with the beautiful quotes from this book, but I will stop there.
I suppose it is too much to expect a novel with sailors and war to be completely free from language. Among the sailors this is quite common, and so I try to overlook it, since without it the book would not be believable. Aside from language, the only things I really had a problem with were some of the pagan practices that even the Christians observed, such as the Wassailing at Christmas, and the "Harvest Maiden" after the wheat was garnered and stored.
I hope I gave you enough that you will want to read this book yourself. I don't think that you will regret it!
There is so much good in this book that I hardly know where to begin! This is my second reading of Gentian Hill - the second of what I am sure will be many more to come. I guess I will start out by saying that I think by far the best and loveliest part of this book was the relationship between Anthony (Zachary) and Stella. I love the concept of a man and woman being like two halves to one person.
“She felt for the first time in her life, a sense of likeness with another human creature, and a sense of safety, not so much physical safety as the safety of understanding that comes between those who are two of a sort.”
The connection between their souls, even when apart, is demonstrated so many times. It's beautiful how when Zachary is in trouble, or afraid, Stella knows.
"The moon that had shone upon Zachary's fight with Mike kept Stella awake most of the night in her room at Weekaborough. She was not accustomed to being treated in this way by her friend the moon, but she had the feeling that it was watching something that was happening to Zachary and trying to tell her about it. When she dropped into restless sleep she saw Zachary once again as the boy from the moon with his bundle on his back, and he was finding it so heavy that he was staggering beneath it."
Zachary also has this connection to Stella, though seemingly in a lesser degree, as there aren't so many instances noted.
"Zachary, lying in his hammock with his eyes shut and his hands behind his head, could hear the crackle of fire, see the play of the light upon the brass pans, and Stella's dark head bent appreciatively over her plate of rabbit pie. He could actually smell the pie, its fragrance rising triumphantly above the loathsome smells of the after-cockpit, and wrinkled his nose appreciatively."
The most beautiful instance of their spiritual connection, though, is when, on Christmas Eve, thousands of miles apart, Stella in the barn with the animals at Weekaborough, Zachary at sea, they share a dream. Some excerpts of that from Stella's side:
"She was sinking down and down through depth upon depth of peace, the green water closing over her head, but she was not afraid, because she knew that there would be something to stay her before she fell out of existence altogether. It was with no sense of shock that it stayed her, the awareness of arrival came so gradually that she found herself walking forward to the tolling of the bell without having realized that her feet had touched the ground. Though it wasn't ground, it was silver sand jewelled with bright shells. The seaweeds all about her were some of them like flowers and some like stars, and the strange creatures that floated past, weaving in and out between the trunks of the trees, were gold and silver, translucent, luminous. The light was not of the earth. It was deep green, clear, without warmth but not chill. It was the trees that told Stella where she was, the trees and the tolling of the bell. Though their trunks had become like polished ivory, and their branches bore, not leaves, but flowers and stars that were living creatures, she knew that these trees had once grown in the air and sunlight, and that the bell had rung out over green fields and Devon earth...
...She paused and looked back and saw the print of her lonely feet on the silver sand. Yet she did not feel alone, for she knew it was not just the movement of the water that was ringing the bell. There was no movement of the water because far up above her head, on the sea's surface, there brooded 'the windless silence of storms.' Some person was ringing the bell...
...She ran on and presently she saw the church, looking like a gray rock. It was so small that it looked as though it had been made for two people only. The bell swung slowly in the belfry and light shone from the door. She reached the door, stepped in over the doorstep that was silted up with sand, passed into the church, and knelt down. She knew that someone was standing behind her, just inside the door, ringing the bell, but she did not look to see who it could be, though the nearness of whoever it was made her intensely happy.... She looked up and saw that the tiny church was just like a cave. There was nothing in it at all except the beautiful sea creatures that clung to the walls and the roof. A bunch of them, like a cluster of stars, were in the center of the roof and it was from them that the light shone. Yet there was no mistaking this place as a church. It would not have occurred to Stella to do anything here except kneel down.
The bell stopped and the person who had been ringing it came and knelt beside her and slipped his hand into hers, and it was Zachary. They did not speak to each other for they were listening intently to the mighty surging murmur that was all about them. It ebbed and flowed like waves, it broke against the walls that protected them and then receded. It was a great eager swell of sound and yet the quiet was unbroken, it was a roaring wind and yet nothing stirred. It was the voice of the sea itself.
'If I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.... Whiter shall I go then from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I go then from Thy presence?' Zachary and Stella looked at each other and smiled. The presence was the peace, and the peace was the presence. If you could only sink down deep enough to find it, there was no separation, for you could find each other there...."
I could go on and on with the beautiful quotes from this book, but I will stop there.
I suppose it is too much to expect a novel with sailors and war to be completely free from language. Among the sailors this is quite common, and so I try to overlook it, since without it the book would not be believable. Aside from language, the only things I really had a problem with were some of the pagan practices that even the Christians observed, such as the Wassailing at Christmas, and the "Harvest Maiden" after the wheat was garnered and stored.
I hope I gave you enough that you will want to read this book yourself. I don't think that you will regret it!
April 27, 2022
Goudge is a novelist for introverts par excellence. Her books rarely feature one centre of consciousness, normally several (here, four) in a confined setting (here the small port of Torbay) with a few clearly defined relationships, all each other needs. One is often a woman utterly competent and strong (here, Stella), another is often a man emerging from harrowing physical and/or emotional suffering (here, Zachary and the Abbe) who needs time to convalesce, and someone else's strength.
This particular book puts on a clinic on how to suffer and how to get better from suffering. Zachary goes into suffering bravely--the English fleet in the Napoleonic Wars--and with his eyes open. But the book is more about the inevitable suffering that love brings the person who loves. Its theme is the mystical, spiritual blurring of boundaries, the fluid identity that comes when someone suffers lovingly for someone else. The book doesn't have a single centre of consciousness because it's about the bigger story all its characters are a part of, which is the suffering love that binds a whole lot of people together over time and space into a body something like the body of Christ. The book symbolizes this wider who-we-are-together once as a hazelnut (shout-out to Julian of Norwich) but throughout as light in the midst of darkness. Sounds simple, childish, trite as stated, but the light shows up in many forms (candles, lanterns, sun and moon, &c) with many effects.
Gentian Hill is something like the eleventh Goudge book I've read, and something like my favourite. She knows something good most people don't.
This particular book puts on a clinic on how to suffer and how to get better from suffering. Zachary goes into suffering bravely--the English fleet in the Napoleonic Wars--and with his eyes open. But the book is more about the inevitable suffering that love brings the person who loves. Its theme is the mystical, spiritual blurring of boundaries, the fluid identity that comes when someone suffers lovingly for someone else. The book doesn't have a single centre of consciousness because it's about the bigger story all its characters are a part of, which is the suffering love that binds a whole lot of people together over time and space into a body something like the body of Christ. The book symbolizes this wider who-we-are-together once as a hazelnut (shout-out to Julian of Norwich) but throughout as light in the midst of darkness. Sounds simple, childish, trite as stated, but the light shows up in many forms (candles, lanterns, sun and moon, &c) with many effects.
Gentian Hill is something like the eleventh Goudge book I've read, and something like my favourite. She knows something good most people don't.
December 4, 2015
Not as strong as The Dean's Watch or The Scent of Water. I always enjoy Elizabeth Goudge's gift for language and description and this historical novel was no exception. Set during the Napoleonic Wars it is rich with atmosphere and a sense of the loss that the French community in exile felt after the Revolution. What worked less well for me was the romance, which involves a young man who falls in love with a child and then waits patiently for her to grow up. I couldn't get past my own cultural biases on this. There was also a coincidental connection between the characters that I guessed right at the outset. It was a little too pat. Still, for me, anything by Elizabeth Goudge is worth reading at least once.
Content rating G except for the weirdness of the romance.
Content rating G except for the weirdness of the romance.
Read
May 18, 2011Gentian Hill is about home, beauty, innocence, love, loyalty, and the God who holds them all. I absolutely adored this book. I really cannot say enough about it. The pure goodness of the main character, a 10 year old girl named Stella, held me captive, but nearly every character holds treasure to be unearthed. On finishing the novel, I felt that I didn't love the ending, but I think I really just regretted that the story had come to an end. (GH is out of print, but I loved it so much that I purchased a hard-back copy when I was done, so if any of my goodreads friends would like to have my falling-apart, highlighted copy, let me know)
April 25, 2022
I don't think Elizabeth Goudge can tell a story that isn't beautiful. Her intensely evocative writing, which not only shows you what she's describing but also makes you feel it deeply in your soul, goes a long way in making her stories beautiful. But then as well the plots are always redemptive and uplifting with many interwoven elements, symbols, and themes that make them into works of art. Gentian Hill, though perhaps not as magnificent as some of her other better-known novels, is no exception.
I enjoyed the setting of the Napoleonic Wars because those years were the precursor to most of Jane Austen's novels, which I'm more familiar with. The focus on a subject I knew only slightly was very interesting. Also, Devonshire, the main locale, is one of my favorite English counties to read about. It seems like Goudge did justice to its beauty, mystery, and legends.
The characters immediately captured my heart, especially Stella. I loved how she had a special way of viewing the world and loving other people. Of course, I also really liked Zachary and his journey of growth and discovery—his theme of overcoming fear spoke to me—plus all the contrasts and complements between his and Stella's natures. "She felt, for the first time in her life, a sense of likeness with another human creature, and a sense of safety; not so much physical safety as the safety of understanding that comes between those who are two of a sort." (p. 55)
Crusty Dr. Crane and the contradictory Abbe Charles de Colbert were my other favorite characters. The sense of mystery around Charles, his tragic story in the French Revolution, and his spiritual growth were enthralling.
One of the few things that bothered me was the view on "white" witchcraft and fairies, though the inconclusive question of the reality of fairies sort of adds to the fairy-tale quality of the book, which I liked very much. I did get a little impatient with the in-depth telling of the old story about John and Rosalind toward the end of the book because I'd felt enough had already been said about it and I just wanted to find out how the main story was going to end. But otherwise, I have very few complaints.
One last thing I'll mention is what I probably loved best of all from this book: the joy in God's Word, both in the epic sense of its stories and in its transcendent, lyrical worship. Stella felt this especially, but so did some of the other characters. Time and again, words from Scripture come to them with comfort, emboldening, and insight. That's how I want God's Word to speak to me in my life and color my perspective.
Quotes:
"This was probably one of those many queer experiences that human beings could not speak of to each other, because though words could be formed into a casket to hold visions, and could be at the same time the power that liberated them, they seemed of very little use when one tried to use them to explain to another person what it was that they had set free. Words were queer things, Stella decided, to be at once so powerful and so weak." (p. 44)
"Everyone needed someone in the world who was like their other hand. You can't either hold much or do much with one hand only. It is with both hands that a man lifts the garnered gold of the wheatsheaf and the brimming bowl of milk, with both hands that he builds his house, with both hands, clasped together, that he prays." (p. 92)
"Zachary had been brought up to believe that those who do right are happy. He found next morning that this is not necessarily the case." (p. 148)
"There was a leap of joy in him, like a flame lighting up in a dark lantern. At that moment he believed it was worth it. This moment of supreme beauty was worth all the wretchedness of the journey. It was always worth it. 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' It was the central truth of existence..." (p. 184)
"A man looked forward to the ending of a way of life that had been hard and difficult, and then when the end came he felt regret. That particular way had moulded and enriched him and so was a friend, and goodbyes to friends are not easy." (p. 348)
I enjoyed the setting of the Napoleonic Wars because those years were the precursor to most of Jane Austen's novels, which I'm more familiar with. The focus on a subject I knew only slightly was very interesting. Also, Devonshire, the main locale, is one of my favorite English counties to read about. It seems like Goudge did justice to its beauty, mystery, and legends.
The characters immediately captured my heart, especially Stella. I loved how she had a special way of viewing the world and loving other people. Of course, I also really liked Zachary and his journey of growth and discovery—his theme of overcoming fear spoke to me—plus all the contrasts and complements between his and Stella's natures. "She felt, for the first time in her life, a sense of likeness with another human creature, and a sense of safety; not so much physical safety as the safety of understanding that comes between those who are two of a sort." (p. 55)
Crusty Dr. Crane and the contradictory Abbe Charles de Colbert were my other favorite characters. The sense of mystery around Charles, his tragic story in the French Revolution, and his spiritual growth were enthralling.
One of the few things that bothered me was the view on "white" witchcraft and fairies, though the inconclusive question of the reality of fairies sort of adds to the fairy-tale quality of the book, which I liked very much. I did get a little impatient with the in-depth telling of the old story about John and Rosalind toward the end of the book because I'd felt enough had already been said about it and I just wanted to find out how the main story was going to end. But otherwise, I have very few complaints.
One last thing I'll mention is what I probably loved best of all from this book: the joy in God's Word, both in the epic sense of its stories and in its transcendent, lyrical worship. Stella felt this especially, but so did some of the other characters. Time and again, words from Scripture come to them with comfort, emboldening, and insight. That's how I want God's Word to speak to me in my life and color my perspective.
Quotes:
"This was probably one of those many queer experiences that human beings could not speak of to each other, because though words could be formed into a casket to hold visions, and could be at the same time the power that liberated them, they seemed of very little use when one tried to use them to explain to another person what it was that they had set free. Words were queer things, Stella decided, to be at once so powerful and so weak." (p. 44)
"Everyone needed someone in the world who was like their other hand. You can't either hold much or do much with one hand only. It is with both hands that a man lifts the garnered gold of the wheatsheaf and the brimming bowl of milk, with both hands that he builds his house, with both hands, clasped together, that he prays." (p. 92)
"Zachary had been brought up to believe that those who do right are happy. He found next morning that this is not necessarily the case." (p. 148)
"There was a leap of joy in him, like a flame lighting up in a dark lantern. At that moment he believed it was worth it. This moment of supreme beauty was worth all the wretchedness of the journey. It was always worth it. 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' It was the central truth of existence..." (p. 184)
"A man looked forward to the ending of a way of life that had been hard and difficult, and then when the end came he felt regret. That particular way had moulded and enriched him and so was a friend, and goodbyes to friends are not easy." (p. 348)
April 21, 2015
Gentian Hill combines legend with history, real characters with fictional, and seascapes with farmland. Set in England in late 18th to early 19th century, this novel gave me a longing to find out more about Admiral Nelson and the naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars.
The story is multi-layered, combining two major characters; Stella, an orphaned farm girl, and Zachary, a naval deserter, and follows their lives as they make friends (among others), with a French ex-patriot, (persecuted during the French revolution for his nobility), and a village doctor (a hero in his own right.) The author creatively weaves in Zachary's personal story with that of Admiral Nelson's naval strategy, while Zachary fights the demons of war and fear, faithfulness to duty and love of country. We find out *why* Stella is an orphan and whom her true parents were, and it is just a lovely story!
I wish I had room here to write of the many themes Goudge has explored in this novel!
"What was the matter with him, Zachary wondered, that he could not thrill to the music of great names, and the splendor of great deeds? Why was it that for him the horror of war completely overlaid the glory? It was not so for other men. To them it was all worthwhile, because of the glory. And what was glory? What did they mean by this glory that was something more than the love of country? He had the love of country, but it was not enough. He had not this other love, that seemed for most men to be interwoven with the first. He did not know what it was."
As always, Goudge's descriptive writing is lyrical and her characterization realistic and original. Her sentiment (Goudge has always been portrayed as a sentimentalist), comes to play in her linking Stella and Zachary's romance to an old medieval legend. Anya Seton used the 'time-travel' device in fiction writing in her "Green Darkness", and several other contemporary authors (Susanna Kearsley comes immediately to mind), have followed suit. With the latter, their novels seems popular, but for some reason, it doesn't always work for me in Elizabeth Goudge's writing.
What *does* work for me in her writing is her jubilant, cheerful portrayals of both human and physical nature, her quiet confidence that there is always hope when we persevere in the difficult times of life, and that goodness, although not seeming always to, ultimately will triumph over evil.
"During the last fifteen years or so he had passed through one of those furnaces of suffering and hardship that break the body of a man of weak constitution, but temper the body of a strong one to whipcord and steel. The Abbe's constitution had always been remarkable, and he was now whipcord and steel. He regretted it. He was thinking this morning that if he were to live to ninety like his grandfather, then he was still only halfway through. And since Therese had died, the time had seemed long. That was the way of it in loneliness.
When they had been together, the years had flown, and even the bad things they had endured had not seemed to last so long because they had been together. And now one solitary and eventful week seemed a century. He supposed he ought to try and be more companionable, but he had lost the trick of it, and that after being one of the most gregarious young men in all France.... The world was a madhouse, he had thought, and as most of the men and women in it were what you would expect in such a place, it was best to have as little contact with them as possible....
They existed here and there, the wise and gentle, the brave and gay, and the incurious. Among the little community he had just left were many excellent men and women, he knew but their curiosity, searching his wounds like a surgeon's probe, was a thing that he could not yet endure."
Goudge is an author I have turned to again and again over the years. I had read "Gentian Hill" more than once, but picked it up again after an absence of a few years, and immersed myself in the story of Stella and Zach, and once again was carried away into another time and place.
And maybe that is the best thing anyone can ever say, of any author.
"The fire burned low, waiting for the new yule-log to replenish it. The apples for the wassailing bowl were roasting in the ashes, the Christmas bread was baking in the bread oven in the wall, and delicious warm smells were creeping out. It was so still and quiet that the ticking of the grandfather clock sounded very loud. One could hear the rustling of the settling ashes, the scamper of a mouse in the corner, and the click of Stella's needle against her dented little brass thimble. She was getting on faster with her sampler now, because she was turning it into a gift for Zachary. She had done quite a lot of the border of stiff little apple trees and strange birds that went all around the edge, and in the middle, she was going to embroider a frigate in full sail, with dolphins and seagulls sporting 'round it. When it was done, she would frame it, and Zachary should have it for a picture to hang on the wall. But she was aware that she had set herself a very difficult task. She would get on better, she thought, if she had a really nice workbox, with skeins of bright colors in it, and a real silver thimble."
The story is multi-layered, combining two major characters; Stella, an orphaned farm girl, and Zachary, a naval deserter, and follows their lives as they make friends (among others), with a French ex-patriot, (persecuted during the French revolution for his nobility), and a village doctor (a hero in his own right.) The author creatively weaves in Zachary's personal story with that of Admiral Nelson's naval strategy, while Zachary fights the demons of war and fear, faithfulness to duty and love of country. We find out *why* Stella is an orphan and whom her true parents were, and it is just a lovely story!
I wish I had room here to write of the many themes Goudge has explored in this novel!
"What was the matter with him, Zachary wondered, that he could not thrill to the music of great names, and the splendor of great deeds? Why was it that for him the horror of war completely overlaid the glory? It was not so for other men. To them it was all worthwhile, because of the glory. And what was glory? What did they mean by this glory that was something more than the love of country? He had the love of country, but it was not enough. He had not this other love, that seemed for most men to be interwoven with the first. He did not know what it was."
As always, Goudge's descriptive writing is lyrical and her characterization realistic and original. Her sentiment (Goudge has always been portrayed as a sentimentalist), comes to play in her linking Stella and Zachary's romance to an old medieval legend. Anya Seton used the 'time-travel' device in fiction writing in her "Green Darkness", and several other contemporary authors (Susanna Kearsley comes immediately to mind), have followed suit. With the latter, their novels seems popular, but for some reason, it doesn't always work for me in Elizabeth Goudge's writing.
What *does* work for me in her writing is her jubilant, cheerful portrayals of both human and physical nature, her quiet confidence that there is always hope when we persevere in the difficult times of life, and that goodness, although not seeming always to, ultimately will triumph over evil.
"During the last fifteen years or so he had passed through one of those furnaces of suffering and hardship that break the body of a man of weak constitution, but temper the body of a strong one to whipcord and steel. The Abbe's constitution had always been remarkable, and he was now whipcord and steel. He regretted it. He was thinking this morning that if he were to live to ninety like his grandfather, then he was still only halfway through. And since Therese had died, the time had seemed long. That was the way of it in loneliness.
When they had been together, the years had flown, and even the bad things they had endured had not seemed to last so long because they had been together. And now one solitary and eventful week seemed a century. He supposed he ought to try and be more companionable, but he had lost the trick of it, and that after being one of the most gregarious young men in all France.... The world was a madhouse, he had thought, and as most of the men and women in it were what you would expect in such a place, it was best to have as little contact with them as possible....
They existed here and there, the wise and gentle, the brave and gay, and the incurious. Among the little community he had just left were many excellent men and women, he knew but their curiosity, searching his wounds like a surgeon's probe, was a thing that he could not yet endure."
Goudge is an author I have turned to again and again over the years. I had read "Gentian Hill" more than once, but picked it up again after an absence of a few years, and immersed myself in the story of Stella and Zach, and once again was carried away into another time and place.
And maybe that is the best thing anyone can ever say, of any author.
"The fire burned low, waiting for the new yule-log to replenish it. The apples for the wassailing bowl were roasting in the ashes, the Christmas bread was baking in the bread oven in the wall, and delicious warm smells were creeping out. It was so still and quiet that the ticking of the grandfather clock sounded very loud. One could hear the rustling of the settling ashes, the scamper of a mouse in the corner, and the click of Stella's needle against her dented little brass thimble. She was getting on faster with her sampler now, because she was turning it into a gift for Zachary. She had done quite a lot of the border of stiff little apple trees and strange birds that went all around the edge, and in the middle, she was going to embroider a frigate in full sail, with dolphins and seagulls sporting 'round it. When it was done, she would frame it, and Zachary should have it for a picture to hang on the wall. But she was aware that she had set herself a very difficult task. She would get on better, she thought, if she had a really nice workbox, with skeins of bright colors in it, and a real silver thimble."
November 24, 2013
Where has Elizabeth Goudge been all my life? I just love her writing, such depth and beauty. I always feel enriched after I finish one of her books. Actually, I probably would not have appreciated her when I was younger so I'm thankful that I finally discovered her in my 30s.
March 22, 2020
This is such a hard book to rate and review, so perhaps three and a half stars. I have always loved Goudge's lyrical descriptions of nature, her understanding of human character and motivations, and her mystical overtones. To be honest, I prefer her 'contemporary' (mid 1930's to early 1960's) books to her historicals, though she does convey place and time and customs well in her historicals. Gentian Hill seems almost fairy tale in nature, where the story of the two young protagonists at the time of the Napoleonic wars mirrors an older tale in the same location. In her author's note, Goudge says that this is the retelling of the legend of St. Michael's Chapel at Torquay. While her story has the same elements of the legend, she makes the hermit of the chapel a real person rather than an apparition, but, nonetheless, there is plenty of magic and mysticism. The two central characters, Stella and Zachary, are twin souls. (Goudge sometimes likes to flirt with reincarnation and seems to argue both for and against it, but upon hearing the old tale recounted Zachary remarks: If my love for Stella is a new flowering of an old love, then I need not wonder any more that it came so instantly.) Stella is a child of ten and Zachary a teen of fifteen when they meet and have that instant recognition, but of course they are separated for a difficult time as such a story requires. There is also a mystery of Stella's birth and true parents because she was found in the water in her dead mother's arms after an explosion on a ship and raised by a farmer and his wife. The connections among the characters are rather like something out of Shakespeare, and maybe a little farfetched for today's readers. Still, stranger things have happened. Along with the fairy tale like nature of the story, there are references to fairies, magical herbs, a white witch, and what we would call psychic visions. After following a magical ritual, Stella, with her mystical connection to Zachary, is able to see his dire circumstances in a dream and send someone to his aid. Despite the traces of old paganism deeply tied to the land, there is a lot of Christian spirituality as well. One primary character is an abbot. There is tragedy, war, and hardship, and the theme is about doing one's duty, especially if it is tortuous. Not an especially modern outlook, though it resonates a bit more in our new coronavirus situation. Goudge is always worth reading, and if you like fantastical, mystical elements, historical settings, beautiful evocative descriptions of nature, characters both simple and deeply philosophical, and are not averse to religious themes and tone, you will especially enjoy this.
October 15, 2019
Its so hard to explain how special Elizabeth Goudge's books are. This one was no exception. Delightful from start to finish.
May 14, 2015
This has never been a favorite Elizabeth Goudge for me and not on my re-read list, but I picked it up casually the other day and found it spell-binding. Of course her prose is lovely and her children and animals are masterful-they always are. But this time I found much more. The whole point of this book is that there are no coincidences in life, that everything is connected, that no matter what happens there is always redemption. It's a powerful, gorgeous (oh, those flowers, trees, landscapes!) novel, and, unlike Great Expectations where I thought Dickens ruined his book by throwing in coincidence after coincidence, this one is perfect and is the heart of the story. Simply lovely.
August 15, 2025
4.5 stars
The writing style of Elizabeth Goudge is so beautiful and descriptive, which leads me to feel like her books are older than they are. 5 stars for the beautiful writing. 5 stars as well for the keen insight into her characters that can be surprisingly instructive. A half star less overall, because I struggled to truly like Stella and Zachary. I wanted to cheer them on, but found myself slightly annoyed by them and more drawn to others in the book. I found Zachary especially annoying at the beginning and almost put the book aside altogether, but the story as a whole was worthwhile and the writing impeccable.
The writing style of Elizabeth Goudge is so beautiful and descriptive, which leads me to feel like her books are older than they are. 5 stars for the beautiful writing. 5 stars as well for the keen insight into her characters that can be surprisingly instructive. A half star less overall, because I struggled to truly like Stella and Zachary. I wanted to cheer them on, but found myself slightly annoyed by them and more drawn to others in the book. I found Zachary especially annoying at the beginning and almost put the book aside altogether, but the story as a whole was worthwhile and the writing impeccable.
September 3, 2024
okay, nobody likes a perfect main character. but when another main character is second to none, then the book is worth it. The themes of faith and devotion to God, of nobility and courage in the face of fear, and of patience in love are incredible and so Goudge. Also, the theme of true holiness and sanctity being not an end in themselves but the means to more effectively love others, especially those who do not deserve it
And another Protestantism vs Catholicism. You have me scratching my head, Elizabeth
And another Protestantism vs Catholicism. You have me scratching my head, Elizabeth
July 26, 2025
3,5 étoiles. Charmante lecture d’été, mais qui s’est étirée en longueur à partir de la moitié! J’ai honnêtement adoré la première partie, les descriptions de la campagne anglaise, les personnages et le style d’histoire très classique fonctionnaient vraiment pour moi et me donnaient une certaine nostalgie qui fittait bien avec le milieu de l’été! Les sections sur la religion et les histoires dans l’histoire étaient par contre trop longues et un peu ennuyantes.
J’ai quand même passé un beau moment, et le chien s’appelait Daniel, donc ça aura valu le coup.
J’ai quand même passé un beau moment, et le chien s’appelait Daniel, donc ça aura valu le coup.
July 26, 2021
I really enjoy Elizabeth Goudge.
December 4, 2009
This is my third time through with this book, which I first ran across by accident when I was 10 or 11. But each time I find something different in it. Reading it now, I have trouble remembering what I loved about it in 6th grade--I suppose I thought the love at first sight romantic relationship between Stella and Zachary was tres romantique--but since Zachary is 10 or 11 years older than Stella, it now seems a little creepy. As a teenager, though, I would have identified with Stella. I would also have been drawn to the beautiful descriptions of the Devon countryside, and to the charm of the old legend of St. Michael's chapel.
Now I think it is the spiritual journeys of the men which are more interesting, especially that of the Abbe, who grows from a somewhat decadent French nobleman to an ascetic who devotes his lives to helping others. Goudge never really tells us why the connection between Stella and Zachary is so instant and so deep and unwavering, just that it happens and nothing can kill it. We never really get to know the adolescent or grown-up Stella--she always seems something of a child, even after she is married (at the ripe old age of 15--which her adoptive father optimistically suggests to Zachary as an ideal age because she is young enough to be molded!).
Most contemporary books with a religious theme are quite fundamentalistic, which for me makes them hard to swallow. But religion in Goudge's books does not swamp the story, nor are the most religious characters the most self-righteous--usually the opposite. I can relish the spirituality in her books without being surfeited with religion.
Now I think it is the spiritual journeys of the men which are more interesting, especially that of the Abbe, who grows from a somewhat decadent French nobleman to an ascetic who devotes his lives to helping others. Goudge never really tells us why the connection between Stella and Zachary is so instant and so deep and unwavering, just that it happens and nothing can kill it. We never really get to know the adolescent or grown-up Stella--she always seems something of a child, even after she is married (at the ripe old age of 15--which her adoptive father optimistically suggests to Zachary as an ideal age because she is young enough to be molded!).
Most contemporary books with a religious theme are quite fundamentalistic, which for me makes them hard to swallow. But religion in Goudge's books does not swamp the story, nor are the most religious characters the most self-righteous--usually the opposite. I can relish the spirituality in her books without being surfeited with religion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2021
This is my fifth Elizabeth Goudge book and yet again I can't help wishing I'd started with The Dean's Watch and now Gentian Hill rather than the Damerosehay Trilogy. The characters in The Bird in the Tree and The Herb of Grace etc seemed such snobbily wealthy egocentric upper class whingers that it is a wonder I tried any more of Goudge's books. But I'm so glad I did. I also feel If I now read the trilogy, I'd come to a different conclusion
All that to say I enjoyed this book - not quite as much as The Dean's Watch but enough to have stored some of the truly magical moments in my memory so I can recall the scenes again.
There is so much depth and unpeeling of human nature and yet so much hope and courage there for the taking - it's quite astounding how Goudge weaves a lovely tale with soul building life lessons without ever sounding preachy.
My favourite part (although uncomfortable to read) was the prison scenes and how several characters behaved and changed. That, I think, is the key to why Damerosehay irked me - reading about snobby middle/upperclass wealthy people is something (as a working class woman) I find hard to relate to. It is very easy to be civilised and surround yourself with beauty if you have money. And yet the Eliots of Damerosehay had those things but were not particularly happy - so maybe there is a lesson to be had there too. But I must read those books again as I do fear my bristling at their self-centred wealthy outlook coloured my reading.
Back to Gentian Hill....I enjoyed it very much. It does amble along (which is obviously Goudge's way that I've finally got used to) buy is anything but boring. It is a book to be savoured.
All that to say I enjoyed this book - not quite as much as The Dean's Watch but enough to have stored some of the truly magical moments in my memory so I can recall the scenes again.
There is so much depth and unpeeling of human nature and yet so much hope and courage there for the taking - it's quite astounding how Goudge weaves a lovely tale with soul building life lessons without ever sounding preachy.
My favourite part (although uncomfortable to read) was the prison scenes and how several characters behaved and changed. That, I think, is the key to why Damerosehay irked me - reading about snobby middle/upperclass wealthy people is something (as a working class woman) I find hard to relate to. It is very easy to be civilised and surround yourself with beauty if you have money. And yet the Eliots of Damerosehay had those things but were not particularly happy - so maybe there is a lesson to be had there too. But I must read those books again as I do fear my bristling at their self-centred wealthy outlook coloured my reading.
Back to Gentian Hill....I enjoyed it very much. It does amble along (which is obviously Goudge's way that I've finally got used to) buy is anything but boring. It is a book to be savoured.
August 24, 2019
J'ai découvert cette auteure il y a fort longtemps, par le biais de ma mère, puis je m'y suis plongée avec délices ! Maintenant je retrouve toujours avec un grand bonheur l'écriture d'Elisabeth Goudge, sa description si poétique et riche de la campagne anglaise, ici particulièrement le Devon et ses collines. Si j'ai eu toujours envie de visiter l'Angleterre, c'est grâce la plume d'Elisabeth Goudge, et la première fois que j'y ai posé le pied, c'était dans l'Oxfordshire, c'est à travers le prisme de mes souvenirs de lecture que je l'ai découverte, avec bonheur,la réalité étant tout à fait à la hauteur de mes lectures ! Chaque fois que je retourne en Angleterre c'est toujours à travers ce prisme que j'admire les paysages, les campagnes,les villages. Ce doit être pour ça que l'Angleterre, pour moi, ne sera jamais Londres, mais ses campagnes !
December 19, 2018
One of my all time favourite books. Not one that can be rushed as Elizabeth Goudge adds a lot of detail. I first read this in my late teens and the imagery stayed with me.
Stella Sprigg is just a girl, a simple lassie in a farming community near the sea. Bonaparte is a very real threat.
And then she meets Zachary Moon. Zachary has his own demons, and he is separated from Stella, but life has a way of bringing them together again, but not in the way you might have expected.
Beautiful and many-layered, this is a book to savour and to wallow in the vividly painted scenes of yesteryear, when life was harsh and real, but the people were the same as always, some were thinkers, some do-ers and all of them in need of someone else to help them through this life.
Stella Sprigg is just a girl, a simple lassie in a farming community near the sea. Bonaparte is a very real threat.
And then she meets Zachary Moon. Zachary has his own demons, and he is separated from Stella, but life has a way of bringing them together again, but not in the way you might have expected.
Beautiful and many-layered, this is a book to savour and to wallow in the vividly painted scenes of yesteryear, when life was harsh and real, but the people were the same as always, some were thinkers, some do-ers and all of them in need of someone else to help them through this life.
December 25, 2021
Retro Reads group read for November-December, 2021
This was enjoyable but in some places a bit long and slow for me. It certainly is not my favorite of Elizabeth Goudge. I really enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of Devonshire England. The one time I visited England I was so impressed with Devonshire and thought it one of the most beautiful areas that we traveled through. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Christmas and harvesting traditions along with other country traditions.
I read the Kindle version and it had numerous typographical errors. That's the first time I have run across that although I have heard that it is common with Kindle. It was very annoying.
This was enjoyable but in some places a bit long and slow for me. It certainly is not my favorite of Elizabeth Goudge. I really enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of Devonshire England. The one time I visited England I was so impressed with Devonshire and thought it one of the most beautiful areas that we traveled through. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Christmas and harvesting traditions along with other country traditions.
I read the Kindle version and it had numerous typographical errors. That's the first time I have run across that although I have heard that it is common with Kindle. It was very annoying.
January 12, 2022
I wanted to like it enough to give it 4 ⭐ or 5 ⭐ but I just couldn't, maybe for no fault of its own, or maybe because it didn't manage to grab me, at all, except when the main character was at sea, oddly enough as I don't usually like to read about sea voyages and wars and such. Anyhow! It's Elizabeth Goudge and there were some passages that I underlined but the story itself 🥱. It made it look like a patchwork quilt and while it wrapped up beautifully I didn't feel I got to know any character well enough to like him/her or their story for that matter. I'm really really glad to have finished it though 🤷🏻♀️
November 9, 2024
In Gentian Hill, Elizabeth Goudge weaves together, past, present, and future with the vivid thread of the spiritual realm. Before fantasy writers were "world building," Goudge was writing worlds so vivid as to be characters themselves and placing characters in these worlds that open windows to our own souls. If you enjoy George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, L. M. Montgomery, or Madeleine L'Engle, you'll enjoy Goudge.
July 23, 2024
The writings of Elizabeth Goudge are life-giving and beautiful. She has a style and heart all her own. Words to describe her writing more fully seem now to fail me.
February 23, 2024
A new favorite!
February 7, 2019
Any review for an author like Elizabeth Goudge needs to be approached in two ways. Firstly as a novel in its own right, and secondly as an encounter with something mystical and indefinable.
As a novel I found Gentian Hill lacking. The author reached for, but did not attain, the magic and lustre of her Green Dolphin Country. The mystical elements were forced, confusing, and unbelievable. The characters were often too perfect, particularly the protagonist, Stella, who was exalted by the author to sainthood on many occasions. Overall the story was fanciful beyond belief--little more than an unlikely fairy tale that the author tried to bring into reality by including the Napoleonic wars and the French Revolution. I was not convinced except for one subplot--the life story of the priest, a noble Frenchman who had fled France and the terror and eventually found God in southern England. Somehow his was the only story that seemed remotely believable--I think perhaps because of the detail, depth, and genuine emotion lent to his tragedy. Confusing is also a word that describes most of the book. The story was hindered by constant repetition of certain elements--but inserted so strangely that as a reader I just wanted to skip over them and 'get to the real story'. I discovered deep into the book that these strange elements were in actual fact the main story and it felt too late to sort it all out in my head. Is this a fictional novel that moves forward with energy or a fairy story that circles itself with no purpose? I was never really sure. The foundation and premise of the book was strong--the essential elements were there--but it seemed to disintegrate on many occasions and unfortunately was not well put-together. (Being dragged out unnecessarily in many places or alternatively rushed through where more attention was needed.)
As a mystical work the book is clearly about reincarnation and predestination but I think that the author never completely committed to these concepts. I assume because much of Elizabeth Goudge's audience are religious. A reluctance to commit to the truth of what the book was about increased the sense of evasiveness without providing the relevant mystical understanding that this sort of writing should accompany.
I really enjoy the author's work but I feel that Gentian Hill was a good idea poorly accomplished.
As a novel I found Gentian Hill lacking. The author reached for, but did not attain, the magic and lustre of her Green Dolphin Country. The mystical elements were forced, confusing, and unbelievable. The characters were often too perfect, particularly the protagonist, Stella, who was exalted by the author to sainthood on many occasions. Overall the story was fanciful beyond belief--little more than an unlikely fairy tale that the author tried to bring into reality by including the Napoleonic wars and the French Revolution. I was not convinced except for one subplot--the life story of the priest, a noble Frenchman who had fled France and the terror and eventually found God in southern England. Somehow his was the only story that seemed remotely believable--I think perhaps because of the detail, depth, and genuine emotion lent to his tragedy. Confusing is also a word that describes most of the book. The story was hindered by constant repetition of certain elements--but inserted so strangely that as a reader I just wanted to skip over them and 'get to the real story'. I discovered deep into the book that these strange elements were in actual fact the main story and it felt too late to sort it all out in my head. Is this a fictional novel that moves forward with energy or a fairy story that circles itself with no purpose? I was never really sure. The foundation and premise of the book was strong--the essential elements were there--but it seemed to disintegrate on many occasions and unfortunately was not well put-together. (Being dragged out unnecessarily in many places or alternatively rushed through where more attention was needed.)
As a mystical work the book is clearly about reincarnation and predestination but I think that the author never completely committed to these concepts. I assume because much of Elizabeth Goudge's audience are religious. A reluctance to commit to the truth of what the book was about increased the sense of evasiveness without providing the relevant mystical understanding that this sort of writing should accompany.
I really enjoy the author's work but I feel that Gentian Hill was a good idea poorly accomplished.
October 13, 2018
This is a historical novel, set in Devon, based around a legend which is told in the book. The main character is a ten-year-old girl called Stella, who lives at a farmhouse but knows she is 'different' from the people she calls mother and father. She's a dreamer, full of wisdom and also full of questions.
Stells learns something about her past, and she meets two people who change her life: a boy a few years older than herself who has deserted the Navy, and a rather remote Catholic priest. Her vision sees further than what is obvious to others, and she recognises kindred spirits in both.
It's a slow-moving book, not one to be read in a hurry. There are battles to be fought - both physical (the book is set in the time of Napoleon and Nelson) and psychological, as characters struggle to overcome their internal fears. There's a very gentle romance, and also the unfolding of a mystery - easy to guess the outcome early in the book, but beautifully written.
Not for those who like fast action or realism, but for anyone else a most delightful book.
Stells learns something about her past, and she meets two people who change her life: a boy a few years older than herself who has deserted the Navy, and a rather remote Catholic priest. Her vision sees further than what is obvious to others, and she recognises kindred spirits in both.
It's a slow-moving book, not one to be read in a hurry. There are battles to be fought - both physical (the book is set in the time of Napoleon and Nelson) and psychological, as characters struggle to overcome their internal fears. There's a very gentle romance, and also the unfolding of a mystery - easy to guess the outcome early in the book, but beautifully written.
Not for those who like fast action or realism, but for anyone else a most delightful book.
May 15, 2018
Edit: there WAS one especially poignant passage that has lingered with me, and it was the Abbé's mulling over the spiritual shortcomings of Crusaders vs scholars vs doctors and then his realization that "in one life only had the fighting, the healing, the teaching, the praying, and the suffering held equal and perfect place". I know this concept had been presented to me before, but it seemed to shine out particularly in this passage and I am grateful to it for bringing me a greater depth of understanding into the mystery of Jesus as not only God but also Human.
Enjoyable, but felt overly wordy and drawn out, even for a Goudge. (And I usually love her wordiness!)
Lots of beautiful imagery and reconciliation, but also lots of bits about the war which wasn't quite as interesting to me, alas. Several other reviewers mention being slightly creeped out by Zachary "waiting" for Stella, but he was only 5 years older than her, so it didn't seem too terrible to me. Anyways, this one wasn't particularly inspiring, but I'm glad I read it and will be looking forward to the next one!
Enjoyable, but felt overly wordy and drawn out, even for a Goudge. (And I usually love her wordiness!)
Lots of beautiful imagery and reconciliation, but also lots of bits about the war which wasn't quite as interesting to me, alas. Several other reviewers mention being slightly creeped out by Zachary "waiting" for Stella, but he was only 5 years older than her, so it didn't seem too terrible to me. Anyways, this one wasn't particularly inspiring, but I'm glad I read it and will be looking forward to the next one!
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