Gervase

by Ann Moray

A girl and her stag

Genres: Fiction

93 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Ann Moray grew up in Wales, although she was of Scots-Irish descent, and has been deeply interested in the ancient world and its myth and legend since childhood. It was while she was working on a book about the folklore of Gaelic and Brythonic Celts that the mountains among which she spent her youth, the Welsh people and the gypsies became so vivid in her memory that this novel pre-empted the other work and came into being. In private life, Miss Moray was married to Juan Lopez de Ceballos, a Venezualan diplomat.

Reviews

[Theresa C. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book at a library sale, when I was in elementary school. I'm now many moons past my childhood, have moved several times-- and I still have this book.

The story is told first person, through the eyes of Maeve, an orphaned child raised by her grandparents and considered a bit strange. She finds more acceptance from Gervase, an orphaned stag fawn she raises, and the other animals of her Headland, than she finds among the townsfolk.

Her story is magical, in a daydream way, mythic and fabulous. Bits and pieces of this book still float to the surface of my mind at the oddest times. I feel I'm all the richer for having read it, and I'm sure you will be too.

It's a shame that there's no cover image for this one, so when I unpack from the latest move, I'll scan it and see if I'm able to upload it here.

[Full disclosure: If you search this book on Amazon, you'll read this review, almost word for word. That's because I wrote it too, under a prior pen name.]

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a very long time ago, and I read it often enough that I could quote whole passages of it, but somehow I lost track of the book. The other day I remembered it so vividly that I started trying to find it. I'd forgotten the author's name, everything but the title. Nothing. Nowhere. Except a mention on the blog of The Contrary Goddess. I wrote to her and asked for the name of the author, and when she wrote back, I found that she and I were both spelling the title as "Gervaise". Once I had the proper title, it was the work of a nonce to get a copy. It's still a good book, an otherworldly, magical, sweet book.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reader of Gervase can experience a mental and spiritual epiphany in this touching story of the relationship between a strange girl and a wild stag who, together, discover a higher way of being. The great value of the book's message is that we can learn to transcend instincts that are destructive and replace these with constructive ways of being instead. We can master the "natural man."

[Cheryl Olseth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1970, Gervase is the story of a young girl who is described by the Maine village locals as "strange-in-the-head". In spite of her disabilities she appears to have the ability to talk with animals through her pet white tailed deer, Geervase.

Ann Moray is a gifted storyteller.