The Heart of the Family

The Eliots of Damerosehay #3

by Elizabeth Goudge

Despite the "crinkled pink petals strewn in the path of those who would have preferred red," four generations of Eliots have survived the War and are moving forward. The family's remarkable matriarch Lucilla is still with them, though she's facing the dark night of the soul. All is turned on its head with the arrival of Sebastian, another survivor of WWII. He has a story far more painful than any of the Eliots. While with them, he wrestles with questions about his own disconnected existence.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Romance, Christian Fiction, Christian, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Elizabeth 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.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth Goudge. Whenever I pick up one of her novels my heart rate slows and peace enters my world. Her language is beautiful, the description of nature and its effect on people transports me to a more beautiful place. She asks some of the deep questions; Is love stronger than hatred? How does the love between family members strengthen or smother? Where do we find the courage to do what is right? How do we help one another in the deepest, most eternal way?
This is the third book of the Eliot Family Trilogy. We meet again the irrepressible Lucilla, matriarch of the family, and her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. There is not one character who is not flawed, but there is also not one character that I have not come to love, admire and learn from.

1/27/21
I loved this book as much the second time around as I did the first, perhaps even more.
The beauty of Elizabeth Goudge's work is the depth and insight that can be plumbed on rereading.
A lovely way to begin my 2021 reading year.

[Anne White · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024: Never my favourite of the trilogy, but I think one grows into this one more as time goes on.

2016: If you enjoyed Pilgrim's Inn (the second book of the Trilogy), you don't really need to read this book to find out what happened next, because not much happened next. A lot of the book takes place on one summer afternoon in the woods, a bit like Goudge's Henrietta's House although without the literally magic bits--the supernatural here is more towards the theological and philosophical. If you are in the mood for wandering through Knyghtwood and listening to what's on the mind of Goudge and her characters (from very old to very little), you may find a special place also for this book.

(I kept coming back to Father Tim's big sermon on pain and surrender in Jan Karon's In This Mountain--there are some similarities.)

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually if I have enjoyed a series, I am sad to finish it. However, the ending of The Eliot Family Trilogy was so perfect I was smiling and was able to close the cover with only a little nostalgia. It helps that I have several other books by Elizabeth Goudge waiting on my shelf to fill the vacuum. The environments she creates are so wonderful, so loving—not perfect, of course—but still filled with the Divine virtues that the reader feels safe, warm and right.

This last book in the trilogy introduced a new character who proved to be cathartic for a number of the mainstay characters, but especially for David who—despite all his blessings of wealth, good looks, talent, favored grandson, loving wife and children—has had the most emotional struggles over the three books. Sebastian is introduced as David’s ‘secretary’, but we know that it is nominal position, and he has been taken on as a favor to a friend and charity to Sebastian who is obviously sick. But sick, how? His past is a mystery which he keeps to himself and despite an initial favorable beginning, he and David seem now to be archrivals, although that is also a puzzle to all.

However, the peaceful and spiritually-renewing surroundings of Damerosehay, with occasional forays to the Herb of Grace Inn, the two homes of the extended Eliot family, begin to thaw Sebastian’s outward diffidence. They also work on David who had been on an extended theatre tour in America where he played King Lear and fell briefly in love with a woman, the guilt of which is weighing heavily on his mind now that he is back home to his dear wife.

Goudge resolves these and other threads of family life carried over from the previous two books in The Heart of the Family. Wonderful!

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Heart of the Family" is the third and last volume of the Eliot Family trilogy. I wish there were three more! This book continues the story of Lucilla Eliot and her family and focuses mainly on David, Lucilla's grandson, his wife Sally and their two children.

Sebastian Weber has a lot to recover from. He has lost everything in the war; his family, his health, and his emotional well-being. Recovering from his incarceration in a concentration camp, Sebastian is really not a healthy guy... and then he meets David Eliot the actor. David is handsome, successful, with a lovely wife and children, and Sebastian in his emotional upheaval finds that unlike most of the world, he simply does not like, or even admire, David Eliot.

How the author weaves together these lives in the aftermath of World War 2 makes for a pleasant story. I found this novel to be character driven rather than plot driven, lacking the twists and turns of action-filled events. Instead, the author concentrates on the 'inner man', asking questions all of us struggle with at one time or another. How do we heal from man's inhumanity to man? is it possible to forgive those who rob us of our strongest loves?

"Yet it would be hard to stop hating, when hatred had been the source of his strength for so long. It had been like food to him while he clung to his endurance. It had been life. Without hatred he would feel hideously weak. It might take him a long time to learn to let go of hatred..."

Mrs. Wilkes is the family cook and she is a treasure!

"There now," said Mrs. Wilkes when she had finished. "Coming on to rain again. Bad for the 'arvest, and I'll never get me washing dry. But there it is. There's One Above, and there's the weather, and it ain't no good fighting either on 'em. If you've finished I'll take your tray. Like a cupper tea?"

"I'm not English," said Sebastian. "I've no great passion for tea."

"Well, there, it mightn't mix with the sherry," said Mrs. Wilkes. "Seeing it's raining, you might 'ave a nice lay down."

It was a command. Obediently Sebastian removed his shoes while Mrs. Wilkes folded up the quilt..."There now," said Mrs. Wilkes, departing with the tray. "Out of 'arm's way."

Lucilla still has a part to play, even at 91. Hilary (one of my favorite characters in the series), makes his reappearance also with his wisdom and gentle advice. How Goudge so creatively crafted her characters with such insightful of the human persona constantly amazes me.

"The Heart of the Family" is occasionally sad and introspective (and of the three in the trilogy, probably my least favorite). It is about a journey within the lives of several of the characters; their own personal choices and journey toward wholeness, hope, and peace. For Sebastian personally, it is the story of his journey from death to life.

I read slowly and am still thinking about the characters and their struggles!

"Sebastian relaxed in a sudden blessed peace, and a happiness such as he had never expected to feel again. It was never too late for a new upspringing of that fountain of freshness that Hilary had called the grace of God. The miracle had happened. He could love."

[Kellyn Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread 5/23/2020:

Still don't know what to think of this one. Gah, I love this series, and these characters, but I again can't agree with it all. I don't think I took it in on the first read, and I doubt I did on the reread. I understand Sally a little better now, and David, and Sebastian. However, I no longer sense a lack of finality - of course there was. I just was too young to see it the first time, whenever that was.

This felt like a story that Goudge created issues for rather than a story she wrote about the issues now, though, and as always, some of her conclusions frustrated me. (David and Sally need to talllkkkk. Like y'all. They just need to talk. And yet they're both agreed that they won't talk even though they knew the same things but they don't know the other knows the same things? I just ... I can't.)

Lucilla remains a gem. How I love her!

Anyways, yup, 4 stars instead of 5. I miss the Eliots already.

Original read:

Though a great work of art, a grand thinking novel, a good winter-read, it lacked the finality I was looking for in the last book of a great series. I suppose I was hoping for a little more "happily-ever-after" than Elizabeth Goudge could allow in her very realistic, true-to-life novel. Still, it was an excellent book which I'd definitely recommend.
~Kellyn Roth

[Samantha B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goudge's books are always so restful for me. It's strange...the restfulness that Damerosehay and the Herb of Grace provide somehow are able to spill over into the reader's life. (For instance, a lot of the time when I'm reading, I get antsy if it takes me more than a couple of days to finish a book...that didn't happen here. At all.

It was just beautiful and peaceful and end-of-life-beginning-of-life-y. And I loved it. I loved Meg, I loved Sebastian, I loved the relationships and the love. I don't know how Elizabeth Goudge gets to the human heart so quickly...and I feel like she goes even deeper than I know about myself, if that makes sense.

Beauty. There's a lot of beauty. It feels like a twilight book with a hope of sunrise.

This gets 4 stars, but it'll definitely go higher on a reread.

[Chautona Havig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took forever to finish this book--mostly because I didn't want it to end. But the last quarter... I don't know. It felt like Goudge scooped up all the loose ends of the series and tied them into one huge knot and called it good.

I did like seeing that David finally grew up. The rest just kind of floundered around and... meh. I was loving it so much until then.

Additionally, there were some seriously uncomfortable moments in the last half. I think it's just a different time and how we see things now. Still... miserable.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Meg liked to join on to people; not in the physical sense, because she was not very fond of endearments, but in the sense of not feeling herself a separate and lonely island in the sea, miles away from the person she was with. She liked to feel there was a causeway between herself and other people, so that they could go backwards and forwards to each other.”

Meg is the 4 year old daughter of David Eliot and his young wife Sally, and the book begins with her joyous plunge through summer puddles as she waits for her father to arrive home from a long tour in the US. When she falls and scrapes her face, a man picks her up - but it is not her father. It’s a strange man, but Meg immediately feels at home with him. And he, too, feels “a sense almost of home coming that deepened when he saw a child running to meet him.”

The third book in the Eliot family trilogy picks up about five years after The Herb of Grace concludes. David and Sally have now been married for five years and they have two children and another on the way. David has resumed his successful acting career, but he is still haunted by the events of the war. Although he has everything, he is plagued by depression, shame and guilt. When he is in New York City, he hires a man called Sebastian Weber who he feels connected to some profound way. Weber, unlike David, has lost everything in the war. Both men are (or have been, in Weber’s case) great artists in their own spheres, and both men have struggled with egocentricity and the demands of their professions. Weber feels a sort of hatred for David, while David feels both pity and love for the older man. The “causeway” that they build between themselves is central to the plot of this book, and the idea of connectedness in a more general sense.

Lucilla, matriarch of the family, is very old now - but still emotionally consumed with the spiritual and physical well-being of her family. Death lurks in this book, and threatens several of the main characters. There is an important birth, too; but although the next Eliot generation is coming of age, the emotional centre of the book is really with the older characters who are nearing the end of their time.

Although war (and more specifically, the fall-out of war) is an aspect of all three books, it is most important in this storyline. The great human struggle between good and evil has taken place on this epic stage, and now two of the characters (one on the ‘losing’ side, and one on the ‘winning’ side) are grappling with the aftermath. This book finds Goudge at her most philosophical (and religious), and although there are some interesting and illuminating moments, the book suffers from not having enough plot-line. There are some wonderful new characters in Damerosehay, but I never felt like Goudge joined all of the dots. Although there is still that idea of the ‘restorative country home’, this book lacks the magic and cohering force of the previous two books in the trilogy.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know anyone who writes about suffering and redemption, hope and despair, light and darkness, and the sacramental power of nature and home as well as Elizabeth Goudge. In this third book in the trilogy, she writes so beautifully about so many characters and leaves them at the end so that we know they’ll be okay. They will fight the brave fight of life, they will tend to their souls, they will live into the generous light of faith. Even the robust young Tommy and Robin who seem inured to the sensitivity of pain and beauty are shown to have the potential for depth of soul. Lucilla finally gives her dutiful, spinster daughter Margaret the most tender and loving of words. Hilary is a rock in a sea of change. David has been seared by war but has turned a corner. Sebastian has touched their lives indelibly. I love the thread of King Lear. Sebastian saw David’s Lear which brought them together. The critical line from Lear is like a benediction between Sebastian and David and the tough kernel of hatred that existed between them. Truly the Lear line is perfect. So much more I could write, but I’ll end with simply writing that this is now one of my favorite Elizabeth Goudge novels. Perhaps even my favorite.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound and deeply spiritual.

In your war, the first, how did you endure?" asked Sebastian.

"My war was nothing," said Hilary hastily, "nothing at all compared with yours, or even David's. Yet I had a way, then, that helped with other things later. For there is always the Thing, you know, the hidden Thing, some fear or pain or shame, temptation or bit of self-knowledge that you can never explain to another. . . . And even in those very few healthy insensitives who do not seem to suffer, a love of something—of their work, perhaps—that they would not want to talk about and could not if they would. For it is the essence of it that it is, humanly speaking, a lonely thing. . . . Returning to the sensitives, if you just endure it simply because you must, like a boil on the neck, or fret yourself to pieces trying to get rid of it, or cadge sympathy for it, then it can break you. But if you accept it as a secret burden borne secretly for the love of Christ, it can become your hidden treasure. For it is your point of contact with Him, your point of contact with that fountain of refreshment down at the root of things. "Oh Lord, thou fountain of living waters.' That fountain of life is what Christians mean by grace. That is all. Nothing new, for it brings us back to where we were before. In those deep green pastures where cool waters are there is no separation. Our point of contact with the suffering Christ is our point of contact with every other suffering man and woman, and is the source of our life. "

"You could put it another way," said Sebastian. "We are all the branches of the vine, and the wine runs red for the cleansing of the world."

"The symbols are endless," agreed Hilary. "Too many, perhaps. They complicate the simplicity of that one act of secret acceptance and dedication."

5 stars

[Psirene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart of the Family is the last in the series of books featuring the Eliot family. The Eliot children have grownup and are starting to find their own path, learning that grownup decisions are not always easy. The reader finds David returning after a tour in America with Sebastian in tow and morning a forbidden love affair. Goudge introduces us to Sebastian who has lost his family in the war and who has developed an uncomfortably mysterious bond with David. This book though well written was my least favorite. Goudge understands that even in literature all characters can't have happy endings but as a romantic that is what I wish for.
Thanks to Ria who introduced me to this wonderful writer.

[Katharina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars feels a little unfair to Elizabeth Goudge, but I really struggled to get into this book. It was incredibly slow paced and focused almost entirely on the thoughts/fears/theology of the characters.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had not realized this book would be more about internal character changes than actual plot. It begins slowly, and moves its focus from person to person enough to intrigue you, but not to slow you down.

I think I surprised myself by liking this.

[Gigi Berrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really like her writing style and descriptions. Great insight into the way people think, but she gives her characters too much wisdom and insight, almost a clairvoyance that's not quite believable. Not a fast-moving plot, but a book to be savored in quiet times.

[Kelsey Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, heart-wrenching, deep, encouraging.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth Goudge. Whenever I pick up one of her novels my heart rate slows and peace enters my world. Her language is beautiful, the description of nature and its effect on people transports me to a more beautiful place. She asks some of the deep questions; Is love stronger than hatred? How does the love between family members strengthen or smother? Where do we find the courage to do what is right? How do we help one another in the deepest, most eternal way?
This is the third book of the Eliot Family Trilogy. We meet again the irrepressible Lucilla, matriarch of the family, and her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. There is not one character who is not flawed, but there is also not one character that I have not come to love, admire and learn from.

1/27/21
I loved this book as much the second time around as I did the first, perhaps even more.
The beauty of Elizabeth Goudge's work is the depth and insight that can be plumbed on rereading.
A lovely way to begin my 2021 reading year.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a lovely ending to this trilogy. I love the way the characters mature and change over the course of the three books, and how their relationships also stretch and grow and remake themselves as time goes by. Goudge writes so well about human beings at very different stages of life. She writes wonderfully imaginative and mischievous children, as well as perfectly flawed and sometimes difficult elderly people. I would really love to find copies of all three books to have on my shelves, as I think the story of the Eliot family has much to say not just about these individual characters but about the human condition, faith in God, marriage and family, and many other important topics. In this third book, in particular, she drives home the long-lasting effects of war, and the healing power of home and family. Though I don't often read books more than once, this will decidedly not be my last time reading this one.

[Janae Mast · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth Goudge and feel a little bad giving one of her books three stars. I loved the first two books in this series, but this third one was a let down. In the first two she did a great job of connecting the two while keeping it separate and different in plot and character development. But in The Heart of the Family, she veered off into an uninteresting character and almost nonexistent plot. It felt like a long, boring, and overdue Christmas letter of trying to catch up your friends you’ve fallen out of contact with about what’s happening with everyone in your extended family. The last 40 pages finally grabbed me in a Goudge way, but that’s not enough to redeem the whole book.

[Fran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Years after first reading and loving Pilgrim's Inn, I was delighted to find out that there was a sequel: The Heart of the Family. Unfortunately, The Heart of the Family lacks the magic and coziness of the previous book. Its message seems to be that if you're not suffering enough, you need to try harder. This is mid-20th-century literary Christianity at its most twisted. One character, Sally Eliot actually believes that her (justified!) terror of childbirth is a gift from God, allowing her to feel less ashamed of her comfortable life. Yuck.

[Kate Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly a let down after the first two books in this trilogy. I was thoroughly enjoying the first 75% of this book and two characters in particular fell flat. We were presented with two trials they were going through at the beginning and I felt their problems weren't explained enough nor were they truly resolved. I really hated being disappointed at the end of this trilogy and were it not for the beautiful writing I would have given this two stars.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am surprised to be giving a book by Goudge such a low score but I really found this irritating. Very little plot, mostly just people walking around a wood having mystical thoughts. And David and Lucilla take their annoyingness to new levels. I'd have theological things to say if I could be bothered to work out what Goudge is on about but I can't be bothered. Read the first two in the series but give this one a miss.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this last book of the trilogy quite as much as the first two.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Elizabeth Goudge tells a story that leaves me pondering how to better love God and my neighbor.

[Emma Hinkle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another wonderful book by Goudge full of spiritual truths and character development. I wished some of the characters had been focused upon more in this book.

[Christine Calabrese · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is just too descriptive for me... I lost interest. :-(

[Brittany Lindvall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Pilgrims Inn and Bird in the Tree, I don’t think, but definitely worth the read. I love the Eliots!

[CynthyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heart of the Family is an intricately woven study of the characters of each member of a closely-knit English family and the man they "adopt" for a short period of time in the years following the 2nd World War. I don't believe I've ever read anything quite like it. Elizabeth Goudge demonstrates a wonderful understanding of human nature, and opens a window into the souls of each of her characters. The plot is swallowed up in the thoughts, feelings, and daily activities of these family members as they work through their pasts, try to understand their present lives, and struggle to comprehend what the future holds for each of them, individually, and as a family. It is a quiet book. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it a bit slow at times, and the depth and philosophy behind some of the discussions were, at times, difficult to follow, but not too difficult. The Christian undercurrent is apparent as each character grapples with life, death, injustice, suffering, selfishness, hatred, love, forgiveness, and compassion, each in his or her own way. I look forward to reading more of Elizabeth Goudge's books in the future.

[Mary Prather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a book by Elizabeth Goudge is a beautiful experience - I often say reading her books is like a big, continuous embrace.

The Heart of the Family (the third book in the Eliot Family Trilogy) was the conclusion to a series I started three years ago. It is also this month’s selection for the @elizabethgoudgebookclub .

“One compelled feeling by action, slowly and laboriously by one act of self-denial after another, instead of allowing feeling to control action.”

Through her character development, gorgeous sense of place, and reliance on scripture, Goudge allows us to follow David, Sally, Sebastian, Lucilla, Hilary, George, Nadine - and so many other well described characters - as they navigate life after WWII. There are births, deaths, infidelity, success, heartbreak - but always at the center is family and HOME.

I have put the first two books in the series on my TBR again! The Elliot Family has a place in my heart. ♥️

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not gonna lie - I really struggled to finish this one. Partly because it was not large print, so it strained my eyes and I could only read a few pages at a time. But also partly because there was a great deal of philosophizing and not much action. Normally that doesn't bother me, but this time it frustrated me. I pressed on because I wanted to see how Goudge finished the story of the Eliots, and it was good, just very slow and drawn out. Since I can't get Goudge's books in large print, I may have to give them up for a time, until I can get an e-reader or some other form of magnification.

[Sheenagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fitting end to the series, though I was expecting Goudge to have the guts to kill off Lucilla. An interesting but pleasing decision to realise that explicitly that David is annoying and appalling and a very bad husband.

I did find it somewhat hilarious that everyone is amazed that Sally is afraid of, and dreads, giving birth. Surely anyone sane would?!