What do you think?
Rate this book
The Covenant
The death of Jessica Mortimer's husband of five years has plunged her into such intense grief that she is unable to pick up the threads of her life. This has been conveyed by her mother in one of her regular letters to Lady Eleanor and Sir Matthew Rensby in England, by whom Jessica's parents were employed until the tragic and mysterious disappearance of Jessica's sister Jane when Jessica was nine years old.
Suggesting that a change of surrounding might help Jessica, Lady Rensby offers her a job; that of helping Sir Matthew organize the family archives. Jessica accepts, not realizing until she arrives at the Rensby estate how much power some of her long-forgotten memories would still have over her.
There is much else she finds unsettling: Sir Matthew and Lady Eleanor are alternately over-solicitous or strangely cold and remote, and their nineteen-year-old daughter is openly hostile. While the family awaits the imminent arrival of the Rensby heir, Peter, to celebrate his 21st birthday, Jessica hears voices and sees phantoms that make her doubt her sanity.
The Covenant is contemporary gothic horror at its unusual and original best.
Suggesting that a change of surrounding might help Jessica, Lady Rensby offers her a job; that of helping Sir Matthew organize the family archives. Jessica accepts, not realizing until she arrives at the Rensby estate how much power some of her long-forgotten memories would still have over her.
There is much else she finds unsettling: Sir Matthew and Lady Eleanor are alternately over-solicitous or strangely cold and remote, and their nineteen-year-old daughter is openly hostile. While the family awaits the imminent arrival of the Rensby heir, Peter, to celebrate his 21st birthday, Jessica hears voices and sees phantoms that make her doubt her sanity.
The Covenant is contemporary gothic horror at its unusual and original best.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Pauline Gedge
48 books503 followersI was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on December 11, 1945, the first of three girls. Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father, an ex-policeman, wanted to study for the Anglican ministry. We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland, and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley. I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed, played in, and grew to know and love passionately, and I wrote lyrically of its many moods.
My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everything but mathematics. Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer, but math was bewildering and foreign, a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common. I liked chemistry, because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them. I studied the violin, an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years, and the piano, which I enjoyed and continue to play, along with the recorders. Music has always been important to me.
Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden, Manitoba, and the family left for Canada. After three months at the local high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan. It was the most dehumanizing, miserable experience of my life. In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba’s Brandon College. I did not work very hard, and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying. I lost all interest in passing.
Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born, so we all returned to New Zealand. She died a month after our arrival, and is buried in Auckland. The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton. For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools. In ’64 I attended the Teachers’ Training College in Dunedin, South Island, where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered. I did not particularly want to be a teacher. All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write. I was eighteen, bored and restless. I met my first husband there.
In 1966 I married and returned to Canada, this time to Alberta, with my husband and my family. I found work at a day care in Edmonton. My husband and I returned to England the next year, and my first son, Simon, was born there in January ’68. In 1969 we came back to Edmonton, and my second son was born there in December 1970.
By 1972 I was divorced, and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton. I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. It took fourth place out of ninety-eight entries, and though it received no prize, the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again. The next year I entered my second attempt, a bad novel that sank out of sight. Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning, the story of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, which won the competition. With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest, as they say, is history.
My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everything but mathematics. Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer, but math was bewildering and foreign, a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common. I liked chemistry, because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them. I studied the violin, an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years, and the piano, which I enjoyed and continue to play, along with the recorders. Music has always been important to me.
Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden, Manitoba, and the family left for Canada. After three months at the local high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan. It was the most dehumanizing, miserable experience of my life. In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba’s Brandon College. I did not work very hard, and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying. I lost all interest in passing.
Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born, so we all returned to New Zealand. She died a month after our arrival, and is buried in Auckland. The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton. For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools. In ’64 I attended the Teachers’ Training College in Dunedin, South Island, where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered. I did not particularly want to be a teacher. All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write. I was eighteen, bored and restless. I met my first husband there.
In 1966 I married and returned to Canada, this time to Alberta, with my husband and my family. I found work at a day care in Edmonton. My husband and I returned to England the next year, and my first son, Simon, was born there in January ’68. In 1969 we came back to Edmonton, and my second son was born there in December 1970.
By 1972 I was divorced, and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton. I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. It took fourth place out of ninety-eight entries, and though it received no prize, the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again. The next year I entered my second attempt, a bad novel that sank out of sight. Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning, the story of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, which won the competition. With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 6, 2017
It's not bad. And I think I hold Gedge to a very high standard. In this little book, which has a great ending, I found myself not really caring for any of the characters, which was a huge problem for me.
February 24, 2013
Pauline Gedge must have breathed a sigh of relief when she sat down to write this gothic thriller. After several meticulously researched books on ancient Egypt and Celtic Britain - this must have felt like a lark.
It was an enjoyable brainless romp complete with crumbling English manor hall, old unsolved disappearances of children, ghostly hauntings and ancient evil family secrets.
It was an enjoyable brainless romp complete with crumbling English manor hall, old unsolved disappearances of children, ghostly hauntings and ancient evil family secrets.
May 27, 2020
Very dark book. Not my favorite genre, but it was well written.
February 23, 2026
I've signed up to Goodreads for the sole reason of defending this book. I was a fan of Gedge since reading Eagle and the Raven in 2013, and I am currently working my way through Stargate. I picked this up after seeing on her website that she wanted to take a break from her usual heavy research approach and do something a little different, and upon reading the description it sounded like an intriguing read. I then saw the poor Goodreads reviews and wondered if I'd made the wrong choice.
Anyway I finished it in 2 days and found it to be unputdownable. It is quite ahead of its time in some ways, and in other ways it shows its age (in terms of how people would behave now, in 2026, upon finding out about crimes that have been committed etc). By ahead of its time, I think this is where the criticism for this book comes from. The main character does respond to events in what we may view as unusual ways. I actually interpreted the main character's actions much differently, as coming from a mixture of trauma, denial, psychological difficulty, grief, and total dissociation. In other words, trying to cope with things which cannot be coped with. There is a strong psychological layer to it all and I feel that ultimately, the book succeeds in its portrayal of a woman who is deeply vulnerable. The narrative is very non-judgemental towards her. You basically have to just "go along with it" at the same time as acknowledging that this might not end well. If you have ever tried to support a friend in an abusive relationship, you may understand.
There are also themes of the collective shadow and collective unconscious when you look deeper at the book, which is quite astounding, but the way it is presented has perhaps led to the criticism of the main character and her actions and her rationale for her actions. I don't want to say more for risk of spoilers. Basically, the book is way more intelligent than the reviews here suggest. If you want something different from your usual genre, from a very talented writer, you will probably enjoy this.
Are the characters flawed? Yes. Do they make poor choices sometimes? Yes. But approaching all of this through a lens of trauma-informed thinking really makes for a cracking read.
This novel would make an absolutely incredible gothic and psychological thriller on Netflix, as the characters despite their flaws are well-developed and any TV adaptation or movie could update the parts of the plot that need it for the 21st Century, but the main storyline is there and in tact and strong. It has stood the test of time. It is also very relevant to everything that is happening in the world today, with the MeToo movement and the scandals concerning billionaires that we see on our TV screens every day right now. It is a dark book, no doubt about it, so also prepare yourself for this. The darkness of the book at the end is handled very well and doesn't become satire or farce, as many books and shows do with this type of subject, which also adds further credit to the book.
Anyway I finished it in 2 days and found it to be unputdownable. It is quite ahead of its time in some ways, and in other ways it shows its age (in terms of how people would behave now, in 2026, upon finding out about crimes that have been committed etc). By ahead of its time, I think this is where the criticism for this book comes from. The main character does respond to events in what we may view as unusual ways. I actually interpreted the main character's actions much differently, as coming from a mixture of trauma, denial, psychological difficulty, grief, and total dissociation. In other words, trying to cope with things which cannot be coped with. There is a strong psychological layer to it all and I feel that ultimately, the book succeeds in its portrayal of a woman who is deeply vulnerable. The narrative is very non-judgemental towards her. You basically have to just "go along with it" at the same time as acknowledging that this might not end well. If you have ever tried to support a friend in an abusive relationship, you may understand.
There are also themes of the collective shadow and collective unconscious when you look deeper at the book, which is quite astounding, but the way it is presented has perhaps led to the criticism of the main character and her actions and her rationale for her actions. I don't want to say more for risk of spoilers. Basically, the book is way more intelligent than the reviews here suggest. If you want something different from your usual genre, from a very talented writer, you will probably enjoy this.
Are the characters flawed? Yes. Do they make poor choices sometimes? Yes. But approaching all of this through a lens of trauma-informed thinking really makes for a cracking read.
This novel would make an absolutely incredible gothic and psychological thriller on Netflix, as the characters despite their flaws are well-developed and any TV adaptation or movie could update the parts of the plot that need it for the 21st Century, but the main storyline is there and in tact and strong. It has stood the test of time. It is also very relevant to everything that is happening in the world today, with the MeToo movement and the scandals concerning billionaires that we see on our TV screens every day right now. It is a dark book, no doubt about it, so also prepare yourself for this. The darkness of the book at the end is handled very well and doesn't become satire or farce, as many books and shows do with this type of subject, which also adds further credit to the book.
February 19, 2019
An early novel.
June 24, 2019
I don't like horror stories, usually, but can still appreciate them if well written... and I found this one I just could not like the characters. Jessica's behaviour lacked logic.
April 6, 2016
Pauline Gedge is a wonderful writer, this book is a departure from her specialty of Ancient Egyptian Historical novels, and for me it was a difficult read.
Where I loved her Stargate(no relation to the TV series),this was hard to get through.
I felt it was confusing in the middle and at the end.
Where I loved her Stargate(no relation to the TV series),this was hard to get through.
I felt it was confusing in the middle and at the end.
April 4, 2015
I had read some of this author's writing based in Egypt, and enjoyed them. This is very different. Very dark. Well written, but I don't normally read this type of literature.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews