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O, The Brave Music
Ruan and Sylvia are the two daughters of a marriage which has weathered many emotional tempests. Their beautiful mother was disowned by her aristocratic county family when she married the quiet young minister and settled down to life in a small village.
Sylvia, a year older that Ruan, is beautiful and wilful and the apple of her mother's eye, while Ruan is quiet like her father. When Ruan meets David there is never a moment's doubt of her love.
David has ambitions to be a great doctor. Adopted by a wealthy uncle, it is a hard blow when he discovers the hidden truth about his own father, the uncle's brother. Torn as he is between ambition and his sense of responsibility to his family, he is called upon to make a decision which will color his whole life.
Upon the appearance of captain Dalton, new master of the local riding academy, Ruan's vital, vibrant and lovely mother succumbs to a passion she has never been able to repress. Leaving the vicarage and its endless routine of teas, she runs away with the gay, attractive Captain to resume a way of life to which she feels entitled.
It is Rosie, the warm-hearted, wealthy friend of them all, passionately in love with the young farmer, Luke, who is able to ease much of the tension in their lives.
O, The Brave Music is a romantic novel in the very best sense. It is warm, pulsing with life and peopled with characters who are believable and whose actions and motives are altogether human and understandable.
Sylvia, a year older that Ruan, is beautiful and wilful and the apple of her mother's eye, while Ruan is quiet like her father. When Ruan meets David there is never a moment's doubt of her love.
David has ambitions to be a great doctor. Adopted by a wealthy uncle, it is a hard blow when he discovers the hidden truth about his own father, the uncle's brother. Torn as he is between ambition and his sense of responsibility to his family, he is called upon to make a decision which will color his whole life.
Upon the appearance of captain Dalton, new master of the local riding academy, Ruan's vital, vibrant and lovely mother succumbs to a passion she has never been able to repress. Leaving the vicarage and its endless routine of teas, she runs away with the gay, attractive Captain to resume a way of life to which she feels entitled.
It is Rosie, the warm-hearted, wealthy friend of them all, passionately in love with the young farmer, Luke, who is able to ease much of the tension in their lives.
O, The Brave Music is a romantic novel in the very best sense. It is warm, pulsing with life and peopled with characters who are believable and whose actions and motives are altogether human and understandable.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
61 people are currently reading
1653 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Evelyn Smith
17 books54 followersDorothy Evelyn Smith was born in Derby, England, the daughter of a Methodist parson. She first began to write successfully for English magazines while her husband was serving in the First World War. Thereafter her short stories and articles steadily reached a wide market, though her work was subject to interruptions from her growing daughter and son and their prodigious number of pets. In 1939, when most English magazines went off the market, Mrs. Smith began her first novel, interrupted this time by her war work. Often she wrote "on the end of the kitchen table with bombs falling around the house," and part of her first novel was finished while she was confined to bed with an injured leg.
Now that peace had come, Mrs. Smith wrote in her own small study in the three-hundred-year-old cottage in Essex.
Now that peace had come, Mrs. Smith wrote in her own small study in the three-hundred-year-old cottage in Essex.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
April 12, 2022
I was reading along and was so pleasantly surprised throughout most of this book (originally published in 1943, reissued by the British Library Women Writers Series, 2020).... like it was 5 stars for me! And when all is said and done, I will give it 4.5 stars which when rounding up (which is what I do) is 5 stars. It’s been a while since I read a book that was 5 stars for me. It is nice! 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃
Last week, I read her book, ‘Miss Plum and Miss Penny’, and liked it, and gave it 3.5 stars...and looked up her other books, and saw this one and was going to order it from Abebooks.com eventually....but that would be for the future, and I needed a book to read 3 days ago and so I opened up a book amongst the pile of books on my living room floor that I have ordered (yes I have a pile of books on my living room floor, so it’s like Christmas presents under the tree without the tree, for most of the year at least), and lo and behold, it was this book! How’s that for happenstance?! And once again it proves my memory is shot, because I ordered this a while back and don’t remember that I did so! 🙁
I had remarked in my review of Miss Plum and Miss Penny that I thought it was sad that so few people have apparently heard of this author...she doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry! And I don’t understand why.... that book was good, and at least for me, this book is even better...it is really good (and the reviewers below are in agreement, so I am not an outlier on this)!! It seems to me to be a bildungsroman...that it has to come from her past experiences in growing up...people just can’t make this up, can they? But in a review of Smith’s life in the Afterword from this re-issue (British Library Women Writers), it says that this is semi-autobiographical, and that some of it is apparently true and some not true (she never labeled it as an autobiography to the best of my knowledge). I’d be interested in knowing what she made up and what had actually happened for real. Some of this can’t have happened to her in real life, because
This book drew me in right away. The story is told from Ruan’s perspective. She is 7 years old. Her sister, Sylvia, is a one year older, and they have a brother, Clem, who has some sort of disability and who is probably 3 or so. Their father is a parson, and the family is not well off, but they do have a servant. The mother is beautiful and came from a house in which her own mother died when she was a kid, and her rich father was an alcoholic, and she apparently escaped that life by falling in love with the parson and marrying him which pissed off her father (he disowned her).
The story takes place over roughly a 5- or 6-year period. The story is divided into 3 parts: Book One —The Manse (where the girls originally grew up), Book Two —Cobbetts (where they lived after they no longer lived in the Manse), and Book Three — The Moor (where Ruan frequently spent visiting another set of characters in the book, David (central character in the book) who is a 6 years older than her and to whom she forms a deep friendship, and Rosie, a young woman in her 20s who is step-sister to David, and Luke a farmhand. I don’t want to go much more into the plot, as that will detract from the read, methinks.
The writing was so good. I was not for a minute distracted from the story, I was totally immersed into Ruan’s life and the different people that formed an integral part of her life and the different people who were less important, but Dorothy Evelyn Smith included them to make it a rich read (for example, schoolmates of Ruan, townspeople, villagers).
Ruan was no saint. The thoughts that ran through her head and what she thought of different people she met...my gosh! But unlike some other characters I have read in stories lately, where I just didn’t plain like them, I really liked Ruan. She was a character and a half!!!! She had a temper with her older sister Sylvia. I laughed out loud at this writing...on two separate occasions her sister is going to go to somebody else and say something, and Ruan does not want Sylvia to say what she is going to say so she threatens Sylvia:
• “...if she did I would, amongst other things, push her head through the bannisters, and swing on her hair, so she gave up the idea.”
• “...I promised passionately that if she dared to ask Uncle Alaric for another single thing, I would bang her head against the spikes in the wrought-iron gate, by which we happened to be standing...Sylvia said that I was utterly impossible; but she moved away from the gate pretty quickly, just the same, and no more was heard of foreign travel.” 😲
I took 3 ½ pages of notes, oftentimes writing down things that I liked.
I think this book will stay with me for a long time... Please consider reading this book! 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃
Reviews:
• Well, this makes me feel good...this blogger stated that this was her book of the year when she read it... https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-favou...
• Well, here again this blogger loved it! https://bagfullofbooks.com/2020/11/17...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2021/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://theblankgarden.com/2020/12/30...
Last week, I read her book, ‘Miss Plum and Miss Penny’, and liked it, and gave it 3.5 stars...and looked up her other books, and saw this one and was going to order it from Abebooks.com eventually....but that would be for the future, and I needed a book to read 3 days ago and so I opened up a book amongst the pile of books on my living room floor that I have ordered (yes I have a pile of books on my living room floor, so it’s like Christmas presents under the tree without the tree, for most of the year at least), and lo and behold, it was this book! How’s that for happenstance?! And once again it proves my memory is shot, because I ordered this a while back and don’t remember that I did so! 🙁
I had remarked in my review of Miss Plum and Miss Penny that I thought it was sad that so few people have apparently heard of this author...she doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry! And I don’t understand why.... that book was good, and at least for me, this book is even better...it is really good (and the reviewers below are in agreement, so I am not an outlier on this)!! It seems to me to be a bildungsroman...that it has to come from her past experiences in growing up...people just can’t make this up, can they? But in a review of Smith’s life in the Afterword from this re-issue (British Library Women Writers), it says that this is semi-autobiographical, and that some of it is apparently true and some not true (she never labeled it as an autobiography to the best of my knowledge). I’d be interested in knowing what she made up and what had actually happened for real. Some of this can’t have happened to her in real life, because
This book drew me in right away. The story is told from Ruan’s perspective. She is 7 years old. Her sister, Sylvia, is a one year older, and they have a brother, Clem, who has some sort of disability and who is probably 3 or so. Their father is a parson, and the family is not well off, but they do have a servant. The mother is beautiful and came from a house in which her own mother died when she was a kid, and her rich father was an alcoholic, and she apparently escaped that life by falling in love with the parson and marrying him which pissed off her father (he disowned her).
The story takes place over roughly a 5- or 6-year period. The story is divided into 3 parts: Book One —The Manse (where the girls originally grew up), Book Two —Cobbetts (where they lived after they no longer lived in the Manse), and Book Three — The Moor (where Ruan frequently spent visiting another set of characters in the book, David (central character in the book) who is a 6 years older than her and to whom she forms a deep friendship, and Rosie, a young woman in her 20s who is step-sister to David, and Luke a farmhand. I don’t want to go much more into the plot, as that will detract from the read, methinks.
The writing was so good. I was not for a minute distracted from the story, I was totally immersed into Ruan’s life and the different people that formed an integral part of her life and the different people who were less important, but Dorothy Evelyn Smith included them to make it a rich read (for example, schoolmates of Ruan, townspeople, villagers).
Ruan was no saint. The thoughts that ran through her head and what she thought of different people she met...my gosh! But unlike some other characters I have read in stories lately, where I just didn’t plain like them, I really liked Ruan. She was a character and a half!!!! She had a temper with her older sister Sylvia. I laughed out loud at this writing...on two separate occasions her sister is going to go to somebody else and say something, and Ruan does not want Sylvia to say what she is going to say so she threatens Sylvia:
• “...if she did I would, amongst other things, push her head through the bannisters, and swing on her hair, so she gave up the idea.”
• “...I promised passionately that if she dared to ask Uncle Alaric for another single thing, I would bang her head against the spikes in the wrought-iron gate, by which we happened to be standing...Sylvia said that I was utterly impossible; but she moved away from the gate pretty quickly, just the same, and no more was heard of foreign travel.” 😲
I took 3 ½ pages of notes, oftentimes writing down things that I liked.
I think this book will stay with me for a long time... Please consider reading this book! 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃
Reviews:
• Well, this makes me feel good...this blogger stated that this was her book of the year when she read it... https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-favou...
• Well, here again this blogger loved it! https://bagfullofbooks.com/2020/11/17...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2021/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://theblankgarden.com/2020/12/30...
April 10, 2016
I dearly, dearly love this book.
Smith writes with a beauty and a feeling that is hard to find nowadays.
This book is a well written, beautiful story. It always manages to capture me between its pages.
I have spent many fond hours in it's company.
Smith writes with a beauty and a feeling that is hard to find nowadays.
This book is a well written, beautiful story. It always manages to capture me between its pages.
I have spent many fond hours in it's company.
January 1, 2021
My cup of tea
August 9, 2023
'O, The Brave Music' es una entrañable historia de iniciación ambientada en los páramos de Yorkshire. Aunque la autora no proporciona fechas, una deduce que la historia transcurre entre finales del s.XIX y principios del XX. Ruan, la pequeña protagonista, acaba de cumplir siete años al inicio de la novela. Hija de un rígido pastor, Ruan vive con sus padres y hermanos en una modesta casita de un barrio obrero. Su padre vive para salvar las almas de sus feligreses, su madre para encontrar una salida a su triste existencia, y Ruan...Ruan vive gracias a su imaginación y a los libros que van cayendo en sus manos.
Aquella Inglaterra industrial aparece ante nosotros a través de los ojos de una niña curiosa y soñadora. De la sucia Cheddar Street, con sus excéntricos habitantes, a los majestuosos páramos que rodean Bolton House, el hogar de Rosie y David, acompañamos a Ruan en su camino hacia la adolescencia.
Los primeros días de colegio, los primeros secretos; las primeras incursiones en ese mundo desconocido que rodea los muros del hogar. Un hogar sobre el que pesa una sombra destructora.
Momentos felices y momentos trágicos que marcan los primeros años de la pequeña Ruan.
Y en el horizonte, los páramos a lo largo de las estaciones, el lugar en el que Ruan encuentra refugio junto a Rosie, a David y a una galería de entrañables personajes...
Después llegará el tío Alaric y la majestuosa decadencia de Cobbetts. Un lugar frío, como el corazón de su dueño, que se transformará con la calidez de Ruan.
Este libro huele a brezo salvaje y a lluvia regeneradora; a scones con mermelada y a fragantes tazas de té compartidas frente a un fuego de chimenea...
No puedo describir con palabras lo mucho que lo he adorado. Solo puedo deciros que lo he habitado durante mi lectura y que he tenido que despedirme de él con enorme tristeza. Deseando que no terminase nunca; deseando poder acompañar a la pequeña Ruan hasta el final de sus días y no solo hasta su catorce cumpleaños.
'O, The Brave Music' ya ha ocupado un lugar especial entre esas historias de iniciación que atesoro en mis estanterías. Junto a 'Mariana', 'Un árbol crece en Brooklyn', 'El castillo soñado', 'Mi impresionante carrera', 'El mensajero' y tantas y tantas otras.
¡Me haría tan feliz verla traducida algún día! Sin duda es uno de esos libros olvidados que merecen ser rescatados para el deleite de nuevos lectores.
Aquella Inglaterra industrial aparece ante nosotros a través de los ojos de una niña curiosa y soñadora. De la sucia Cheddar Street, con sus excéntricos habitantes, a los majestuosos páramos que rodean Bolton House, el hogar de Rosie y David, acompañamos a Ruan en su camino hacia la adolescencia.
Los primeros días de colegio, los primeros secretos; las primeras incursiones en ese mundo desconocido que rodea los muros del hogar. Un hogar sobre el que pesa una sombra destructora.
Momentos felices y momentos trágicos que marcan los primeros años de la pequeña Ruan.
Y en el horizonte, los páramos a lo largo de las estaciones, el lugar en el que Ruan encuentra refugio junto a Rosie, a David y a una galería de entrañables personajes...
Después llegará el tío Alaric y la majestuosa decadencia de Cobbetts. Un lugar frío, como el corazón de su dueño, que se transformará con la calidez de Ruan.
Este libro huele a brezo salvaje y a lluvia regeneradora; a scones con mermelada y a fragantes tazas de té compartidas frente a un fuego de chimenea...
No puedo describir con palabras lo mucho que lo he adorado. Solo puedo deciros que lo he habitado durante mi lectura y que he tenido que despedirme de él con enorme tristeza. Deseando que no terminase nunca; deseando poder acompañar a la pequeña Ruan hasta el final de sus días y no solo hasta su catorce cumpleaños.
'O, The Brave Music' ya ha ocupado un lugar especial entre esas historias de iniciación que atesoro en mis estanterías. Junto a 'Mariana', 'Un árbol crece en Brooklyn', 'El castillo soñado', 'Mi impresionante carrera', 'El mensajero' y tantas y tantas otras.
¡Me haría tan feliz verla traducida algún día! Sin duda es uno de esos libros olvidados que merecen ser rescatados para el deleite de nuevos lectores.
July 15, 2025
Ruan Ashley is quite a character. We meet her on her 7th birthday and follow her for the next 8 years. Her childhood is difficult for many reasons, but she is fortunate to have wonderful friends who truly care for her. Her older sister Sylvia is quite beautiful, while Ruan is the clever one, albeit very plain looking. She loves books and learning, but not school, so she educates herself, and decides that while there are tragedies in life, they can be overcome with the right attitude. She is a mix of Heidi, Jo March, Anne of Green Gables and just about any other beloved female in literature, but yet is uniquely her own self.
Her beloved Moor had me longing to experience them myself, they were her escape into a natural world that made her feel safe and loved. I finished this with regret, but this will go on a reread shelf so I can visit again. A comfort read extraordinaire!
Her beloved Moor had me longing to experience them myself, they were her escape into a natural world that made her feel safe and loved. I finished this with regret, but this will go on a reread shelf so I can visit again. A comfort read extraordinaire!
August 10, 2021
I have seen this likened to I Capture the Castle, a comparison which, to be honest leaves me slightly baffled, (can you be slightly baffled)? To me the two books have a completely different feel to them, and the only similarity is that they are both about young girls growing up.
This one is set near the beginning of the last century and is told by Ruan, who is looking back on the early years of her life. We first meet her at the age of seven, when she is living with her rather forbidding father who is a nonconformist minister and her mother who is clearly trapped in a loveless marriage. When illness causes her to move out to a friends place up in the Yorkshire Moors, she falls in love with the place and there are some beautiful descriptions of the place by an author who obviously knows and loves the area herself. It was really lovely reading about this almost wild life up on the moors with her friend David, a young lad a bit older than herself.
Her life has many ups and downs, but she is always drawn back to the moors and to David, which seem to give her a sense of belonging. Really enjoyable.
This one is set near the beginning of the last century and is told by Ruan, who is looking back on the early years of her life. We first meet her at the age of seven, when she is living with her rather forbidding father who is a nonconformist minister and her mother who is clearly trapped in a loveless marriage. When illness causes her to move out to a friends place up in the Yorkshire Moors, she falls in love with the place and there are some beautiful descriptions of the place by an author who obviously knows and loves the area herself. It was really lovely reading about this almost wild life up on the moors with her friend David, a young lad a bit older than herself.
Her life has many ups and downs, but she is always drawn back to the moors and to David, which seem to give her a sense of belonging. Really enjoyable.
December 21, 2020
But I could not be myself, and that seemed to me important, as it still does.
There is something about this book that reminds me of Jane Eyre and not just because there are some similarities in terms of setting and plot elements. (There are some key differences, too, so I won't waste my time with a compare and contrast.) The really important thing is the quality of the protagonist - her intensity as a character, and the intensity of the relationship that the reader develops with her. It's that intensity which casts its spell on the reader. The writing is vivid, too, and Smith has a particular gift for conveying a sense of place and atmosphere. Her descriptions of nature, and Ruan's responses to it, are particularly memorable.
Ruan Ashley is the protagonist of this story, and when the story begins she is 7 years old - the middle child between a beautiful older sister and a toddler brother. The heroine is not a beauty, in fact she knows herself to be stocky and plain, but she has a keen intellect and a thirst to learn. Even more importantly, she has a vivid imagination that in many ways allows her to transcend the circumstances of her life. Early on, her father - a Nonconformist preacher - warns her of the danger of too much imagination:
Imagination is a wonderful gift from God and it should be used wisely. Control it, and it will be your friend, Give it rein and it will destroy you. Like fire, it is a good servant and a bad master.
The book opens into a domestic setting of stability, albeit a shaky one. Ruan's parents are a mismatch, both in terms of class and temperament. Being an emotionally sensitive child, Ruan is attuned to the atmosphere of her home ('The Manse') and the unhappy people in it. The first third of the book moves at an especially fast clip, though, and the changes come pretty thick and fast. Ruan suffers many losses, but there is always something indomitable about her.
Although Ruan is a highly individual character, with a strong sense of self - and this is what reminds me so much of Jane Eyre - she is not as friendless or solitary as that character. Indeed, she becomes attached to a variety of people throughout the novel. Age, station in life, even skin colour are not as important as authenticity and most of Ruan's friends are much older than she is. (Although Ruan can be childlike in her behaviour and interests, she tends to seem wise beyond her years.). As with most coming-of-age stories, there are several scenes at school - and Ruan experiences the contrast of not only attending a 'free' school, where she mixes with all of the children in the town, but also an exclusive boarding school for girls. In both cases, she most definitely does not belong. From the first she understands that conformity will require her to 'give up her soul', and also that the sacrifice of her own individuality and independence is something she is not prepared to make.
This book was published in 1943, but it is set in some indeterminate time before both world wars. The idea of a world war is introduced just once, and it's like a shadow on the novel - and probably would have been even more so for the book's contemporary readers. The book feels late Victorian; one of Ruan's adopted homes is owned by the town's most successful industrialist, while her mother's family home is a faded remnant of an already lost agricultural golden age, characterised by drunken squires and the hunt.
Throughout the book Ruan has a strong friendship and a puppy love for David - the ward of her friends Joshua Day and his daughter Rosie. This friendship is one of the recurring 'constants' in Ruan's life and it is also a touchstone for her. If I did have any niggles with the book, it was with the ending. Although Ruan gains confidence from the idea that David will always be there for her, the rest of the narrative seems to suggest that the lessons of Ruan's life have mostly been ones of self-reliance.
4.5 stars I debated giving this book 5 stars, but there is something unsatisfying and abrupt about the ending which made me hold back from that rare rating. Still, I absolutely adored this book and will definitely reread it someday.
February 26, 2024
"Oh, que espléndida música" es una obra literaria que merece un lugar especial en el corazón de cada lector afortunado que se adentre en sus páginas. Con una narrativa tan encantadora como evocadora, Dorothy Evelyn Smith nos brinda una historia que perdura en el tiempo, cautivando generaciones con su belleza y profundidad.
Desde las primeras líneas, nos sumerge en un mundo de maravilla y emoción, donde los personajes cobran vida con una intensidad raramente encontrada en la literatura contemporánea. La protagonista, Ruan, es una niña extraordinaria cuya historia de crecimiento en la Inglaterra previa a la Primera Guerra Mundial nos atrapa desde el principio hasta el final.
Smith escribe con una gracia y un sentimiento que se han vuelto difíciles de encontrar en la actualidad, y eso es precisamente lo que hace que este libro sea tan especial. Sus descripciones son tan vívidas que transportan al lector a los paisajes de los páramos ingleses y a las atmósferas de los distintos escenarios donde se desarrolla la trama.
La relación entre los personajes, especialmente la conexión entre Ruan y su amigo David, está tejida con una delicadeza que conmueve el corazón del lector. A medida que Ruan crece y enfrenta los desafíos de su entorno, uno no puede evitar reír y llorar junto a ella, compartiendo sus alegrías y sus penas en cada página.
La ambientación histórica añade una capa adicional de profundidad a la historia, recordándonos los tiempos turbulentos que precedieron a la guerra mundial y el impacto que tuvieron en la vida cotidiana de las personas. A través de los ojos de Ruan, el lector vislumbra las sombras de la intriga y la incertidumbre que se ciernen sobre el horizonte, creando una sensación de anticipación que impulsa la narrativa hacia adelante con un poder irresistible.
"Oh, que espléndida música" es más que una simple novela, es una experiencia en sí misma. Con personajes inolvidables, una prosa exquisita y una trama que teje magistralmente los hilos del amor, la pérdida y la esperanza, este libro merece sin duda alguna cinco estrellas y más. Es una obra maestra que perdurará en la memoria de los lectores mucho después de haber pasado la última página.
Desde las primeras líneas, nos sumerge en un mundo de maravilla y emoción, donde los personajes cobran vida con una intensidad raramente encontrada en la literatura contemporánea. La protagonista, Ruan, es una niña extraordinaria cuya historia de crecimiento en la Inglaterra previa a la Primera Guerra Mundial nos atrapa desde el principio hasta el final.
Smith escribe con una gracia y un sentimiento que se han vuelto difíciles de encontrar en la actualidad, y eso es precisamente lo que hace que este libro sea tan especial. Sus descripciones son tan vívidas que transportan al lector a los paisajes de los páramos ingleses y a las atmósferas de los distintos escenarios donde se desarrolla la trama.
La relación entre los personajes, especialmente la conexión entre Ruan y su amigo David, está tejida con una delicadeza que conmueve el corazón del lector. A medida que Ruan crece y enfrenta los desafíos de su entorno, uno no puede evitar reír y llorar junto a ella, compartiendo sus alegrías y sus penas en cada página.
La ambientación histórica añade una capa adicional de profundidad a la historia, recordándonos los tiempos turbulentos que precedieron a la guerra mundial y el impacto que tuvieron en la vida cotidiana de las personas. A través de los ojos de Ruan, el lector vislumbra las sombras de la intriga y la incertidumbre que se ciernen sobre el horizonte, creando una sensación de anticipación que impulsa la narrativa hacia adelante con un poder irresistible.
"Oh, que espléndida música" es más que una simple novela, es una experiencia en sí misma. Con personajes inolvidables, una prosa exquisita y una trama que teje magistralmente los hilos del amor, la pérdida y la esperanza, este libro merece sin duda alguna cinco estrellas y más. Es una obra maestra que perdurará en la memoria de los lectores mucho después de haber pasado la última página.
August 16, 2021
I'm a bookish soul and this has been my favorite book since I was 14. I'm almost 84.
August 3, 2023
I was enthralled by the opening chapters of this 1943 novel. It's sort of a bildungsroman set some time in the late 19th century about Ruan, an imaginative, intelligent, and beauty loving girl, who is confined, physically and emotionally, by life in her grim Northern town as the daughter of a deeply conservative non-conformist minister, witnessing but not understanding the unhappiness of her parents' marriage. Kind friends -- working class but wealthy -- who attend the father's chapel, take Ruan under their wing and expand her world by introducing her to the moors and to David, their ward, who despite being some five years older than Ruan, instantly becomes her best friend, a teasing but infinitely kind companion. It's narrated in the first person, by Ruan looking back at her childhood as an adult.
This was all well and good, but as the book went on, I became impatient with a certain self-congratulatory tone about how preternaturally wise, intellectually superior and above all else, true to herself child-Ruan is. Also the (fairly stupid looking) cover of the American edition which I read gives the impression that the book takes Ruan and her much more beautiful older sister into adulthood, but at the close she's about 14, and I kept getting jarred because I was always vaguely thinking that years had been glided over in the course of the narration and then it turned out they hadn't . So three stars.
This was all well and good, but as the book went on, I became impatient with a certain self-congratulatory tone about how preternaturally wise, intellectually superior and above all else, true to herself child-Ruan is. Also the (fairly stupid looking) cover of the American edition which I read gives the impression that the book takes Ruan and her much more beautiful older sister into adulthood, but at the close she's about 14, and I kept getting jarred because I was always vaguely thinking that years had been glided over in the course of the narration and then it turned out they hadn't . So three stars.
January 7, 2021
Un libro que va de cabeza a mi colección de favoritos. Qué maravilla de historia, de prosa, de ambientación, detalles y, sobre todo, qué maravilla de personajes.
Ya en la edad adulta, Ruan recuerda su infancia y a su querido David creciendo en los páramos de Yorkshire, los veranos en la gran casa de Rosie Day, que la adora y la acoge, primero como una hermana y más tarde como una madre. Esos veranos de correteos, de risas, de olvidar lo estricto de la educación de Padre, de ver como Madre se va marchitando, de su dulce pero egoísta hermana Sylvia. La granja de Luke, bálsamo para todas las pérdidas que sufrirá Ruan a lo largo de sus primeros 15 años de vida. La ternura de tio Alaric y su vieja casona que se derrumba pero cuyos libros son un tesoro para Ruan, el cariño que se tienen... Un libro que, en ocasiones encoge el corazón y en ocasiones nos hace sonreír, con los sueños, la imaginación y la visión inocente de la vida que tiene Ruan y las risas y los juegos de David, su mejor y más querido amigo.
Dorothy Evelyn Smith fue una autora tardía pero con este libro demostró que sabía muy bien cómo usar las palabras, cómo evocar imagenes duraderas y cómo crear personajes inolvidables.
Me da tantísima pena que este libro no esté traducido.
Ya en la edad adulta, Ruan recuerda su infancia y a su querido David creciendo en los páramos de Yorkshire, los veranos en la gran casa de Rosie Day, que la adora y la acoge, primero como una hermana y más tarde como una madre. Esos veranos de correteos, de risas, de olvidar lo estricto de la educación de Padre, de ver como Madre se va marchitando, de su dulce pero egoísta hermana Sylvia. La granja de Luke, bálsamo para todas las pérdidas que sufrirá Ruan a lo largo de sus primeros 15 años de vida. La ternura de tio Alaric y su vieja casona que se derrumba pero cuyos libros son un tesoro para Ruan, el cariño que se tienen... Un libro que, en ocasiones encoge el corazón y en ocasiones nos hace sonreír, con los sueños, la imaginación y la visión inocente de la vida que tiene Ruan y las risas y los juegos de David, su mejor y más querido amigo.
Dorothy Evelyn Smith fue una autora tardía pero con este libro demostró que sabía muy bien cómo usar las palabras, cómo evocar imagenes duraderas y cómo crear personajes inolvidables.
Me da tantísima pena que este libro no esté traducido.
October 8, 2023
Dorothy's Evelyn Smith's story touched my heart so deeply. As soon as I read the scene with "Little Man", I was hooked. Even though this was not an overly happy book and was filled with a great deal of loss and sadness, I still adored it. The characters of Ruan, Uncle Alaric, Rosie and, especially, David, filled my mind daily and became real friends to me.
Although my childhood was drastically different from Ruan's, not only in time but in family and events, I felt so sympathetic towards her thoughts, feelings and actions. The scenes on the beautiful moor and cuddled up at Rosie's home were the most impressive and wonderful. I loved the author's descriptions of the home, nature and people.
I read Miss Plum and Miss Penny first and adored it, but this book went way beyond that one in tone, writing and depth of feeling. I can't wait to read more of her books. Highly, highly recommended!!
Although my childhood was drastically different from Ruan's, not only in time but in family and events, I felt so sympathetic towards her thoughts, feelings and actions. The scenes on the beautiful moor and cuddled up at Rosie's home were the most impressive and wonderful. I loved the author's descriptions of the home, nature and people.
I read Miss Plum and Miss Penny first and adored it, but this book went way beyond that one in tone, writing and depth of feeling. I can't wait to read more of her books. Highly, highly recommended!!
May 17, 2025
Soooooooo good!!! 😂 I love Ruan! I can’t wait to talk about this with the Cozy Reader book club tomorrow. There is so much to discuss! Alaric! Rosie! The parents! David! Stebbing! Even Ada Morris. And the end! Clearly there is no coherency from me right now. This book is in print through the brilliant British Library Women Writers series and thank goodness! It is so worth a read (and a re-read, which I already want to do)!
March 22, 2020
This was recommended by Simon at Stuck in a Book. Simon compared it to I Captured the Castle. I can see where that comes from, but it reminded me more of How Green Was My Valley, I think mainly because of its wonderful depictions of landscape and environment but also because it isn’t shy about depicting the unhappy and sometimes ugly events experienced in childhood. Published in 1943, it is a coming of age novel set in the early 20th century narrated by Ruan, the daughter of a non-conformist minister who married a beautiful, upper-class woman above his station. The marriage is a stormy one and the family’s relative poverty in a dreary north England industrial town puts further strain on Ruan and her older sister Silvia. However, luckily for Ruan she has an escape and a consolation in the nearby moorland where she is allowed to visit the wealthy working class parishioners, Joshua Day and his daughter Rosie. Through the Days, Ruan meets Mr. Day’s ward, David, who becomes Ruan’s best friend and ultimate solace as she grows up.
July 6, 2025
A new favorite!
August 4, 2024
Precioso. Dorothy Evelyn Smith escribía como los ángeles.
Una historia tierna, aparentemente sencilla, pero que me ha encantado. Pero lo que más me ha gustado es lo bien que describe los parajes, esa habilidad que tiene para que los vivas, los huelas y los sientas.
De estas historias que te dejan el corazón calentito.
Una historia tierna, aparentemente sencilla, pero que me ha encantado. Pero lo que más me ha gustado es lo bien que describe los parajes, esa habilidad que tiene para que los vivas, los huelas y los sientas.
De estas historias que te dejan el corazón calentito.
December 12, 2024
I’m going to find it hard to describe this one. It was just wonderful. You know when you’re reading a book and you think, I can see myself re-reading this, and then reread it again at some point in the future. It’s a pre-World War I coming of age story, full of characters, love for nature, and told with the most extraordinary narrative voice. Most of all it’s just wonderful.
March 1, 2020
What a lovely book! I wish I'd first read it years ago, so I could have been re-reading it all this time. Somewhat in the same vein as I Capture the Castle (mentioned by other reviewers, and what attracted me to it) and Jane Gardam's A Long Way to Verona, it's narrated by an unusual, imaginative, bookish girl. Darkness and light, love and sorrow...all so beautifully expressed.
Many thanks to the Stuck in a Book blog for alerting me to Dorothy Evelyn Smith...I'll be searching out more of her novels.
Many thanks to the Stuck in a Book blog for alerting me to Dorothy Evelyn Smith...I'll be searching out more of her novels.
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June 30, 2025Really lovely. It had echoes of many other things I've read: Dorothy Whipple's childhood memoir, The Other Day, The Secret Garden, E.H. Young's Miss Mole (that uptight nonconformist minister dad), Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary.
Lots of heartache happens but it's a gentle novel.
Lots of heartache happens but it's a gentle novel.
December 25, 2025
Aquí, en este libro, es donde está ese lugar al que se acude en busca de comodidad, candor, hogar, recreo.
Aquí, más que en ningún otro libro, he encontrado ese brillo de las historias sencillas, aquellas que se nutren de algo tremendamente verdadero, de un personaje y de un contexto, de una tierra, que funcionan al unísono, como tocados con las mismas teclas.
La música de este libro ensalza la nostalgia, pero a sabiendas de que no tiene por qué hacer ningún daño, sino que simplemente da valor a lo vivido. También es como un grito, aquel que eleva el tono para decir "¡soy feliz!" en el preciso momento en el que se está siéndolo.
Aquí, más que en ningún otro libro, he encontrado ese brillo de las historias sencillas, aquellas que se nutren de algo tremendamente verdadero, de un personaje y de un contexto, de una tierra, que funcionan al unísono, como tocados con las mismas teclas.
La música de este libro ensalza la nostalgia, pero a sabiendas de que no tiene por qué hacer ningún daño, sino que simplemente da valor a lo vivido. También es como un grito, aquel que eleva el tono para decir "¡soy feliz!" en el preciso momento en el que se está siéndolo.
October 31, 2023
Hermosa lectura, una prosa lírica que te hace añorar tu propia niñez.
June 6, 2015
3 1/2 Stars
I have a really hard time rating and classifying this. I think if it were written today it would be YA, since the main character starts out at age 7 (I think), stays around 10 years old for ages and finally in the last few pages reaches 14.
It's a good book but I'm not used to reading about such young characters. I think if I were of the YA age range I would have liked this a lot more than I did. Its a very sweet, gentle read but I kept wondering, "Where are we going with this?" and the answer was, "We're not. We're just enjoying the ride".
And for the most part you do enjoy it, although I couldn't help wondering why the author saw fit to
The friendship/love between Ruan and David was probably one of the sweetest Ive read (although at one point I could have smacked him. I suppose he couldn't be completely perfect). The ending leaves you satisfied but wanting an epilogue.
Recommended for lovers of old fashioned, quaint, cozy reads. This is my second DES, and I have to say I enjoyed her book The Lovely Day a lot more.
CONTENT:
SEX: None
PROFANITY: Very mild (Ds)
VIOLENCE: None
PARANORMAL ELEMENTS: None
THEMATIC ELEMENTS: Death, family abandonment, unwed pregnancy vaguely hinted at
MY RATING: G
I have a really hard time rating and classifying this. I think if it were written today it would be YA, since the main character starts out at age 7 (I think), stays around 10 years old for ages and finally in the last few pages reaches 14.
It's a good book but I'm not used to reading about such young characters. I think if I were of the YA age range I would have liked this a lot more than I did. Its a very sweet, gentle read but I kept wondering, "Where are we going with this?" and the answer was, "We're not. We're just enjoying the ride".
And for the most part you do enjoy it, although I couldn't help wondering why the author saw fit to
The friendship/love between Ruan and David was probably one of the sweetest Ive read (although at one point I could have smacked him. I suppose he couldn't be completely perfect). The ending leaves you satisfied but wanting an epilogue.
Recommended for lovers of old fashioned, quaint, cozy reads. This is my second DES, and I have to say I enjoyed her book The Lovely Day a lot more.
CONTENT:
SEX: None
PROFANITY: Very mild (Ds)
VIOLENCE: None
PARANORMAL ELEMENTS: None
THEMATIC ELEMENTS: Death, family abandonment, unwed pregnancy vaguely hinted at
MY RATING: G
November 11, 2012
I love this book and I'm not sure I could say exactly why. I first read this book when I was around 12; it had a haunting effect on my little 12 year old soul. As an adult, I thought it would be interesting to re-read it and see if I still liked it, but the book was out of print and I couldn't find a copy in my library. Now, 60 years later I found a used copy on Amazon and bought it. I still love the book although it no longer has a haunting effect. The narrator, 7 years old when the book begins and 12 when it ends, is an unusual child growing up in England in the years before WWI. The author has some beautiful passages and descriptions; I remember I immediately wanted to go and run across the moors when I first read it; still do.
January 16, 2013
This is my desert island book. I've read it a million times, have at least 4 copies of it. It was also my Mum's favourite book and my daughter loves it too. My daughter, incidentally , is named after the girl in the story. A must read!
February 15, 2014
There is a warmth and security in this book that had me at hello. Like someone else said, this is my desert island book! My daughter loves it too.
January 14, 2025
Existen libros que son un puñado de felicidad y otros, que como un aluvión, te llenan hasta los cimientos de puro amor. Ruan Ashley, una pequeña niña que sin más, ha calado muy hondo y que junto a mis favoritos de los favoritos, llega para quedarse el resto de la vida.
Oh, qué espléndida música es la canción que inunda los campos ingleses a inicios del siglo XX, una historia donde los recuerdos son lo más preciado de la vida. Ruan Ashley hace una remembranza de su vida cuando era niña, sus aventuras y desventuras junto a familia y amigos. Una novela de descubrimiento y aprendizaje.
Esta es una historia que se ve con los ojos de la inocencia. De hecho, tiene una gran carga sentimental, pero no de esa que te lleva hasta las lágrimas, porque la vida de esta pequeña niña de mente inquieta que ama los libros, la soledad y la naturaleza no es para lamentar o sufrir, es para abrazar.
Cada pieza de este libro, es un engranaje perfecto. Son las siete notas para una melodía perfecta: David, el páramo, Rosie, el tío Aleric, John, los libros y su libertad.
La narración es tan bucólica y lírica que resulta una belleza, además, no dejan de pasar cosas, pero no de esas que te saltas de la silla, sino de las del tipo emocional. En cuanto a personajes, los hay de los que te encariñas tan sólo en el primer párrafo o de los que así entiendas su comportamiento, no quieres tocar ni con un palo.
Yo también quiero recorer el páramo de Ruan, ese lugar de ensueño tan verde en donde respiras libertad, porque he de decir que la ambientación es de lo más evocadora: la mansión de los Mallinson con su aspecto lúgubre y decadente, la granja con sus animales y tan llena de vida, la casa parroquial triste y solitaria, pero también calles, tiendas, escuela y demás.
Cuando un libro traspasa los límites de mi felicidad lectora, suelo extenderme un poco porque hay tanto para hablar, como por ejemplo la relación de Ruan y David, que sea dicho la sufrí un poco al final y las que ya la leyeron, sabrán la razón, pero es que esos lazos de amistad, consuelo, lealtad, cariño, amor, sinceridad, uff preciosa, así como la relación con Rosie y el tío Aleric que son un poco más.
Considero que no hay libros que se deban leer, porque cada cual va a su libre albedrío, pero hay libros que a veces resultan necesidad y este es uno de ellos, así que si se quieren dar la oportunidad de tener una lectura brillante e inolvidable, lean Oh, qué espléndida música. 🎶
Oh, qué espléndida música es la canción que inunda los campos ingleses a inicios del siglo XX, una historia donde los recuerdos son lo más preciado de la vida. Ruan Ashley hace una remembranza de su vida cuando era niña, sus aventuras y desventuras junto a familia y amigos. Una novela de descubrimiento y aprendizaje.
Esta es una historia que se ve con los ojos de la inocencia. De hecho, tiene una gran carga sentimental, pero no de esa que te lleva hasta las lágrimas, porque la vida de esta pequeña niña de mente inquieta que ama los libros, la soledad y la naturaleza no es para lamentar o sufrir, es para abrazar.
Cada pieza de este libro, es un engranaje perfecto. Son las siete notas para una melodía perfecta: David, el páramo, Rosie, el tío Aleric, John, los libros y su libertad.
La narración es tan bucólica y lírica que resulta una belleza, además, no dejan de pasar cosas, pero no de esas que te saltas de la silla, sino de las del tipo emocional. En cuanto a personajes, los hay de los que te encariñas tan sólo en el primer párrafo o de los que así entiendas su comportamiento, no quieres tocar ni con un palo.
Yo también quiero recorer el páramo de Ruan, ese lugar de ensueño tan verde en donde respiras libertad, porque he de decir que la ambientación es de lo más evocadora: la mansión de los Mallinson con su aspecto lúgubre y decadente, la granja con sus animales y tan llena de vida, la casa parroquial triste y solitaria, pero también calles, tiendas, escuela y demás.
Cuando un libro traspasa los límites de mi felicidad lectora, suelo extenderme un poco porque hay tanto para hablar, como por ejemplo la relación de Ruan y David, que sea dicho la sufrí un poco al final y las que ya la leyeron, sabrán la razón, pero es que esos lazos de amistad, consuelo, lealtad, cariño, amor, sinceridad, uff preciosa, así como la relación con Rosie y el tío Aleric que son un poco más.
Considero que no hay libros que se deban leer, porque cada cual va a su libre albedrío, pero hay libros que a veces resultan necesidad y este es uno de ellos, así que si se quieren dar la oportunidad de tener una lectura brillante e inolvidable, lean Oh, qué espléndida música. 🎶
February 17, 2025
Oh, qué espléndida música, de Dorothy Evelyn Smith, llamó mi atención hace tiempo por las buenas críticas que estaba cosechando, pero ha sido el ver que @dalunabooks lo ponía como mejor lectura del 2024 lo que me ha animado a leerlo. Le doy gracias desde ya por ello.
Ruan, la niña protagonista y narradora de esta historia, nos contará su historia a través de los años, desde que es una niña hasta que se convierte en una adolescente. Conoceremos a fondo también a su familia y amigos, teniendo especial interés el devenir de sus familiares y la amistad que se crea con su amigo David, todo ello ambientado en los primeros años del siglo pasado.
Es esta una novela calmada, sin que pasen grandes cosas, con una protagonista encantadora con la que empatizaremos, sufriremos y también disfrutaremos. Una narración pausada pero no por ellos menos interesante, en la que me he sentido muy cómodo: me ha pasado una cosa realmente rara con este libro, y es que no he estado "enganchado" a él, y hay veces en que no me apetecía ponerme con él, pero cuando me ponía me encantaba, cosa que no suele pasar porque si cuando leo me encanta, luego siempre suelo tener ganas de ponerme con él. No ha sido este el caso pero no importa, me quedo con esos momentos de disfrute leyendo sobre la vida, la amistad, el amor y la evolución de Ruan.
Una novela preciosa, de la que a grandes rasgos he disfrutado mucho, de la que me hubiera gustado seguir leyendo otras 100-200 páginas tranquilamente, perdiéndome con Ruan y David por esos bellos paisajes que dejan huella. Os la recomiendo mucho, sin duda.
8,5-9/10
Ruan, la niña protagonista y narradora de esta historia, nos contará su historia a través de los años, desde que es una niña hasta que se convierte en una adolescente. Conoceremos a fondo también a su familia y amigos, teniendo especial interés el devenir de sus familiares y la amistad que se crea con su amigo David, todo ello ambientado en los primeros años del siglo pasado.
Es esta una novela calmada, sin que pasen grandes cosas, con una protagonista encantadora con la que empatizaremos, sufriremos y también disfrutaremos. Una narración pausada pero no por ellos menos interesante, en la que me he sentido muy cómodo: me ha pasado una cosa realmente rara con este libro, y es que no he estado "enganchado" a él, y hay veces en que no me apetecía ponerme con él, pero cuando me ponía me encantaba, cosa que no suele pasar porque si cuando leo me encanta, luego siempre suelo tener ganas de ponerme con él. No ha sido este el caso pero no importa, me quedo con esos momentos de disfrute leyendo sobre la vida, la amistad, el amor y la evolución de Ruan.
Una novela preciosa, de la que a grandes rasgos he disfrutado mucho, de la que me hubiera gustado seguir leyendo otras 100-200 páginas tranquilamente, perdiéndome con Ruan y David por esos bellos paisajes que dejan huella. Os la recomiendo mucho, sin duda.
8,5-9/10
November 15, 2025
A lovely coming of age story written in 1943, looking back to a childhood in northern England in the very early 1900s, before World War 1. The story spans 7 or so years, starting when Ruan was 7 years old and living in the town Manse, the daughter of a Non-Conformist minister. The story is told from the viewpoint of Ruan the chjłd but occasionally the adult Ruan gives you a hint of how things will turn out.
I am not sure how this can be such a comforting read when Ruan suffers so many losses and hardships through the book but she is always sustained by her good friend, Rosie (an aunt/ mother to her) and by her love for David, Rosie’s adopted younger brother, and by her love of books and the wild, free moors. Ruan is a free spirit with a rich inner life. The relationship between David, 5 years older, and Ruan is very innocent but the hints, throughout the book, are that it becomes a permanent adult love. That’s a bit hard to understand in 2025 but I can believe that in 1900, the world was different.
I am guessing there’s a bit of the autobiographical in this, the first of Smith’s novels, published when she was 50 years old. I would like to read more by this author.
I am not sure how this can be such a comforting read when Ruan suffers so many losses and hardships through the book but she is always sustained by her good friend, Rosie (an aunt/ mother to her) and by her love for David, Rosie’s adopted younger brother, and by her love of books and the wild, free moors. Ruan is a free spirit with a rich inner life. The relationship between David, 5 years older, and Ruan is very innocent but the hints, throughout the book, are that it becomes a permanent adult love. That’s a bit hard to understand in 2025 but I can believe that in 1900, the world was different.
I am guessing there’s a bit of the autobiographical in this, the first of Smith’s novels, published when she was 50 years old. I would like to read more by this author.
June 17, 2023
Una historia conmovedora, alegre, vívida, con tropiezos, ternura, pérdidas, amigos inquebrantables que siempre estarán para esa niña, Ruan, que nos cuenta su vida desde el día de su séptimo cumpleaños hasta los catorce y que desearíamos saber mucho más.
Destaca sobremanera sobre los demás personajes, su evanescente madre, su padre frio y distante, su hermana presumida y egoísta, su vida triste en la rectoría que contrasta con los veranos en los páramos, llenos de amor, alegría, libertad, ternura. El cambio a la casona familiar de su tío Alaric que será, junto con Rosie, las dos personas que mejor comprenden a esa niña, llena de lógica y sentido común, que se rebela a las convenciones sociales y que solo desea lo que cualquier niño a su edad, correr al aire, tener un amigo incondicional, pasar de niña a adolescente sin darse cuenta, solo disfrutando lo que le ofrece la vida.
Rosie y Alaric se lo darán, una un cariño y amor maternal y otro un bagaje cultural que será la mejor compañía para sus días de añoranza, tristeza, felicidad.
Magnífica lectura.
Destaca sobremanera sobre los demás personajes, su evanescente madre, su padre frio y distante, su hermana presumida y egoísta, su vida triste en la rectoría que contrasta con los veranos en los páramos, llenos de amor, alegría, libertad, ternura. El cambio a la casona familiar de su tío Alaric que será, junto con Rosie, las dos personas que mejor comprenden a esa niña, llena de lógica y sentido común, que se rebela a las convenciones sociales y que solo desea lo que cualquier niño a su edad, correr al aire, tener un amigo incondicional, pasar de niña a adolescente sin darse cuenta, solo disfrutando lo que le ofrece la vida.
Rosie y Alaric se lo darán, una un cariño y amor maternal y otro un bagaje cultural que será la mejor compañía para sus días de añoranza, tristeza, felicidad.
Magnífica lectura.
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