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A Fugue in Time
Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house in this masterful work of fiction from a New York Times–bestselling author. Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane is the last of his family to occupy the house at Number 99 Wiltshire Place in London. Now, in the early days of World War II, the elderly former general has been told that he must vacate the premises when the ninety-nine-year lease is up, leaving the only home he has ever known. But Sir Rolls and his longtime butler, Proutie, are not the only remaining residents. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow share the same space inside the old house, and every occupant from the past hundred years lives there Rolls’s ill-fated mother, Griselda; his father, the all-seeing “Eye”; his eight sisters and brothers. Even Rollo, the young boy Sir Rolls once was, continues to reside in Number 99, as does Lark, the adopted orphan whom he loved but let slip away. A century of a family’s history remains alive and vibrant within these walls, the events that defined their lives unfolding over and over again. But that living history is not ending quite yet, for the war is bringing a stranger from America to Number 99 Wiltshire Place to leave her indelible mark on it. A different kind of ghost story, Rumer Godden’s poignant, stylistically brilliant A Fugue in Time is a story rich in wonder, imagination, and heart—a favorite of the many devoted fans of the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede. This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1945
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About the author
Rumer Godden
153 books548 followersMargaret Rumer Godden was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably Black Narcissus in 1947 and The River in 1951.
A few of her works were co-written with her elder sister, novelist Jon Godden, including Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of the Goddens' childhood in a region of India now part of Bangladesh.
A few of her works were co-written with her elder sister, novelist Jon Godden, including Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of the Goddens' childhood in a region of India now part of Bangladesh.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
September 8, 2023
A fugue is a musical movement in which melodic lines run independently but also merge to create a harmony. In an amazingly adept and perfect way, Rumer Godden has created a fugue in her novel, telling individual stories, with individual voices, but layering them atop one another to show both the passage of time and the continuity of time, simultaneously.
Our main human character is Roland Ironmonger, an elderly retired soldier, who finds himself about to lose the lease on the family home the Ironmongers have occupied for the last one hundred years.
‘Even a little boy like you has a past, a present and a future. You were a baby, you are a boy, you will be a man.’ ‘And then dust,’ says Roly. ‘But I am always here, Lena. Like they say at school “Present.” I am always present so why not only one?’
I say he is our main “human” character, because the house itself is a character of the novel, holding the human history and echoing it back through shifts of past, present and future. Roland is Roly as a child, Rollo as a young man, and Rolls as an elderly gentleman, and his lives are lived concurrently through the auspices of the house.
In the house, the past is present.
It sounds complicated and strange, but it is done so skillfully that it is neither; it is seamless and natural. There are multiple symbols and themes: the plane tree outside the door that represents the family tree as well as the force that roots one to a specific place; the recurring number threes that recall to us the constant changing of time from past to present to future and back again; the chiming clocks that begin outside the house in the world at large and then narrow down to the chimes from the hallway, the bedrooms, the nursery, telling us that time is on the march whether it is acknowledged or not, and that it can be viewed from any given perspective, but it can never be reversed or life relived.
But … said Rolls looking at the picture. But I do remember, and I experience what happens; not only what happens when I was not there, but what was not there at all. What did not happen. What only might have been. Might have been. At the very words this new revivifying warmth crept into his veins again. He could not repress it. He had to let it come. The house is a repository of secrets, he excused himself. Then can’t mine repose here too?
It is these secrets, held by each of the characters, defining who they are behind the masks and roles they assume, that are revealed to us as the book progresses. Griselda, Selina, Rolls, Lark, Pelham, even Eye, are not exactly as they seem to the others, and the struggle is real for them between what they are expected to be, have been molded to be, and what they are.
It is a story about life, about loss, and about the nature of life itself. It begs the question of how much we are allowed to choose of the life we lead and how much is beyond our control. It is a story of generations, interactions and continuation beyond the self, through others.
Your death is a part of your life. Heads and tails on a coin that you spin every day; any day; not only this day. To be born and to live and to die is quite usual. Perfectly fair.
This book was so captivating for me that I stopped reading it two chapters in, went online and bought a Kindle copy so that I could mark the dozens of passages I wanted to preserve, and began it again. I have found in Rumer Godden another of those writers that I believe wrote just for me; one of those who speaks directly to my heart when she writes; one I want to share with the world and yet wonder if the world will be able to understand what I do when I read her words. I loved Greengage Summer and knew I wanted to read all she had written. This book exceeds Greengage Summer by miles. I am excited for what might lie ahead.
Our main human character is Roland Ironmonger, an elderly retired soldier, who finds himself about to lose the lease on the family home the Ironmongers have occupied for the last one hundred years.
‘Even a little boy like you has a past, a present and a future. You were a baby, you are a boy, you will be a man.’ ‘And then dust,’ says Roly. ‘But I am always here, Lena. Like they say at school “Present.” I am always present so why not only one?’
I say he is our main “human” character, because the house itself is a character of the novel, holding the human history and echoing it back through shifts of past, present and future. Roland is Roly as a child, Rollo as a young man, and Rolls as an elderly gentleman, and his lives are lived concurrently through the auspices of the house.
In the house, the past is present.
It sounds complicated and strange, but it is done so skillfully that it is neither; it is seamless and natural. There are multiple symbols and themes: the plane tree outside the door that represents the family tree as well as the force that roots one to a specific place; the recurring number threes that recall to us the constant changing of time from past to present to future and back again; the chiming clocks that begin outside the house in the world at large and then narrow down to the chimes from the hallway, the bedrooms, the nursery, telling us that time is on the march whether it is acknowledged or not, and that it can be viewed from any given perspective, but it can never be reversed or life relived.
But … said Rolls looking at the picture. But I do remember, and I experience what happens; not only what happens when I was not there, but what was not there at all. What did not happen. What only might have been. Might have been. At the very words this new revivifying warmth crept into his veins again. He could not repress it. He had to let it come. The house is a repository of secrets, he excused himself. Then can’t mine repose here too?
It is these secrets, held by each of the characters, defining who they are behind the masks and roles they assume, that are revealed to us as the book progresses. Griselda, Selina, Rolls, Lark, Pelham, even Eye, are not exactly as they seem to the others, and the struggle is real for them between what they are expected to be, have been molded to be, and what they are.
It is a story about life, about loss, and about the nature of life itself. It begs the question of how much we are allowed to choose of the life we lead and how much is beyond our control. It is a story of generations, interactions and continuation beyond the self, through others.
Your death is a part of your life. Heads and tails on a coin that you spin every day; any day; not only this day. To be born and to live and to die is quite usual. Perfectly fair.
This book was so captivating for me that I stopped reading it two chapters in, went online and bought a Kindle copy so that I could mark the dozens of passages I wanted to preserve, and began it again. I have found in Rumer Godden another of those writers that I believe wrote just for me; one of those who speaks directly to my heart when she writes; one I want to share with the world and yet wonder if the world will be able to understand what I do when I read her words. I loved Greengage Summer and knew I wanted to read all she had written. This book exceeds Greengage Summer by miles. I am excited for what might lie ahead.
August 8, 2015
This is so lovely; the story of a London house and the family who lived there, wrapped together quite beautifully.
The author explained what she did far better than I ever could.
“This novel was the first in which I used a theme that has always intrigued me, Dunne’s Experiment With Time, i.e., that time is not consecutive, divided into past, present and future, but that these are all co-existent if only we could see it: if you are in a boat on a river you can only see the stretch on which your boat is travelling – a picnic party on the bank perhaps: a kingfisher diving. What you traversed before, passing willows, a barge tied up, cows in a field, as far as you are concerned, is gone; what lies around the next corner – a lock working, a man fishing – is hidden but, were you up in an aeroplane, you could see all these at once – the willows, the barge, the cows, the picnic party, the diving kingfisher, the lock, the man fishing.
In 'A Fugue in Time' I have taken the part of being up in the aeroplane, seeing three generations of a family at once, all living in a house in London, their stories interweaving, as do themes in a fugue … “
That she did it, and that she did it so very well, says so much for her skill as an author.
The story opens in wartime London, where the elderly General Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane, K.C.B., D.S.O, is the last member of the family he was raised in left in the family home. He had been advised by his solicitor that the ninety-nine-year-lease of his home would expire in a just few weeks, and that the owners of the freehold were unwilling grant him a renewal or an extension. To Sir Rolls that was unthinkable; he knew that the house and the family. were inextricably linked.
Alone in his study, Sir Rolls was aware of the life of the house, and of the lives lived in the house. There was his mother, Griselda, who had seen so any possibilities in life before she was overwhelmed by the demands of family life; there was his father, who would always be known as “The Eye” because it seemed to his children that he saw and knew everything; there was his sister, Selina, who had tried to play the role of mother after Griselda’s death; and there was Lark, the orphan his father had brought into the household, who Selina had resented and Rolls had dearly loved.
Rolls hadn’t been able to hold on to Lark. He had blamed circumstances, but he came to realise that he should blame his own weakness and indecision. Lark had married an Italian and she lived for many years and died without ever coming back to her childhood home.
The story moves through all of this, and the way it does that is one of the things that makes this book so special. Though the author uses musical terms, the best way I can explain it is to say that she had painted a glorious artwork in which you can see a wealth of lovely details and well as a wonderful, complete picture.
In the hands of a less skilled author it might have been confusing, as family names repeated, as the places of cooks and butlers and others who kept the house going were passed on to younger members of their own families, but it wasn’t at all. The themes and strands of the story repeated, but each was distinctive and each had its own emotional power.
This is a book to touch the heart as well as the senses.
The story of the people is wrapped up in the house; in lovely swathes of description, and in glorious lists of every item – furniture, china, linen, glassware – that makes that house into a home, makes the picture complete.
There was, of course, a story in the present to be resolved.
Grizel, the granddaughter of Sir Rolls’s brother Pelham, came to London with the American Ambulance Force, and when she visited the house she felt that she come home. Pax, Lark’s nephew, came to the house a little later, recognising it from stories his aunt had told him. When they are drawn together it seems that there must, surely, be a solution to the problem of the lease; that the family and the house must continue together into the future.
That was maybe a little too neat; and a sign that the characters and their stories were secondary to the bigger story of the house and the family. I understand that, but I have to say it to explain why this book falls just a little short of perfection.
I loved it though; I know it will stay with me, and I am already wondering which of Rumer Godden’s books to pick up next ….
The author explained what she did far better than I ever could.
“This novel was the first in which I used a theme that has always intrigued me, Dunne’s Experiment With Time, i.e., that time is not consecutive, divided into past, present and future, but that these are all co-existent if only we could see it: if you are in a boat on a river you can only see the stretch on which your boat is travelling – a picnic party on the bank perhaps: a kingfisher diving. What you traversed before, passing willows, a barge tied up, cows in a field, as far as you are concerned, is gone; what lies around the next corner – a lock working, a man fishing – is hidden but, were you up in an aeroplane, you could see all these at once – the willows, the barge, the cows, the picnic party, the diving kingfisher, the lock, the man fishing.
In 'A Fugue in Time' I have taken the part of being up in the aeroplane, seeing three generations of a family at once, all living in a house in London, their stories interweaving, as do themes in a fugue … “
That she did it, and that she did it so very well, says so much for her skill as an author.
The story opens in wartime London, where the elderly General Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane, K.C.B., D.S.O, is the last member of the family he was raised in left in the family home. He had been advised by his solicitor that the ninety-nine-year-lease of his home would expire in a just few weeks, and that the owners of the freehold were unwilling grant him a renewal or an extension. To Sir Rolls that was unthinkable; he knew that the house and the family. were inextricably linked.
Alone in his study, Sir Rolls was aware of the life of the house, and of the lives lived in the house. There was his mother, Griselda, who had seen so any possibilities in life before she was overwhelmed by the demands of family life; there was his father, who would always be known as “The Eye” because it seemed to his children that he saw and knew everything; there was his sister, Selina, who had tried to play the role of mother after Griselda’s death; and there was Lark, the orphan his father had brought into the household, who Selina had resented and Rolls had dearly loved.
Rolls hadn’t been able to hold on to Lark. He had blamed circumstances, but he came to realise that he should blame his own weakness and indecision. Lark had married an Italian and she lived for many years and died without ever coming back to her childhood home.
The story moves through all of this, and the way it does that is one of the things that makes this book so special. Though the author uses musical terms, the best way I can explain it is to say that she had painted a glorious artwork in which you can see a wealth of lovely details and well as a wonderful, complete picture.
In the hands of a less skilled author it might have been confusing, as family names repeated, as the places of cooks and butlers and others who kept the house going were passed on to younger members of their own families, but it wasn’t at all. The themes and strands of the story repeated, but each was distinctive and each had its own emotional power.
This is a book to touch the heart as well as the senses.
The story of the people is wrapped up in the house; in lovely swathes of description, and in glorious lists of every item – furniture, china, linen, glassware – that makes that house into a home, makes the picture complete.
There was, of course, a story in the present to be resolved.
Grizel, the granddaughter of Sir Rolls’s brother Pelham, came to London with the American Ambulance Force, and when she visited the house she felt that she come home. Pax, Lark’s nephew, came to the house a little later, recognising it from stories his aunt had told him. When they are drawn together it seems that there must, surely, be a solution to the problem of the lease; that the family and the house must continue together into the future.
That was maybe a little too neat; and a sign that the characters and their stories were secondary to the bigger story of the house and the family. I understand that, but I have to say it to explain why this book falls just a little short of perfection.
I loved it though; I know it will stay with me, and I am already wondering which of Rumer Godden’s books to pick up next ….
September 7, 2023
"A Fugue in Time" is an experimental novel where Rumer Godden interweaves the lives of three generations of a family in a London house. It's similar to the way that themes in a fugue repeat and intertwine. The author pretends that she is in an airplane over the house watching everything that has happened during a 99-year lease of the home. The book is mostly written in the present tense, but it's not confusing after the reader knows when the various characters were born and died.
The characters are very well-written, especially the smart, talented female characters restrained by society's expectations. Griselda is presented in depth as a Victorian woman trapped by her role of the wife and the mother of a large family, but wanting to see the world beyond her family. Many of the servants are the young relatives of the older servants so there is continuity there too.
The large house is an important character - a solid shelter that has seen it all and knows everyone's memories and secrets. There is a garden with a plane tree whose roots run under the house. The youngest son, Rolls, thinks of himself as part of the plane tree with his roots also attached to the house. He's haunted by memories of what could have been, and wondering what will come next when the 99-year lease ends.
I enjoyed reading a book that plays with time in an experimental way. I've loved Rumer Godden's characterizations in her other books, and this was no exception. I'm planning on reading several more of her novels in the coming year.
The characters are very well-written, especially the smart, talented female characters restrained by society's expectations. Griselda is presented in depth as a Victorian woman trapped by her role of the wife and the mother of a large family, but wanting to see the world beyond her family. Many of the servants are the young relatives of the older servants so there is continuity there too.
The large house is an important character - a solid shelter that has seen it all and knows everyone's memories and secrets. There is a garden with a plane tree whose roots run under the house. The youngest son, Rolls, thinks of himself as part of the plane tree with his roots also attached to the house. He's haunted by memories of what could have been, and wondering what will come next when the 99-year lease ends.
I enjoyed reading a book that plays with time in an experimental way. I've loved Rumer Godden's characterizations in her other books, and this was no exception. I'm planning on reading several more of her novels in the coming year.
September 10, 2023
“He was dead, she was alive, but there was no difference between them in the house.”
I cannot imagine a novel more perfect for me. I’m not sure I can say exactly why, but it has something to do with it being about time and life and memory and connections, with a strong mystical quality, extremely evocative, and full of deeply beautiful feelings.
A house provides the framework for the story.
“'In me you exist,’” says the house.”
This London house has held multiple generations of the Dane family, from the mid-1800’s through to the story’s present, the time of World War II. We begin at this present with Roland, AKA Rolls, the now elderly son of Grizelda and John “The Eye” Ironmonger. The household has diminished to just Rolls and two servants, but the lease on the house is up, and now they must go. Before they do, however, we’re visited by the entire family, all of them who have called this place home. Their stories run together like the fugue of the title, voices from the past, present and future, coming together to create a harmonic whole.
If you’ve ever lived a long time in one house, particularly with multiple generations, you know how it can hold stories. Life can’t take place inside day after day, year after year, without it rubbing off a little, seeping into the walls and carpets. You are constantly surrounded by the former occupants, and by your former selves.
“In the house there are Roly and Rollo, as well as Rolls.”
This fugue writing style is experimental, but there are characters and plots and beginnings and endings, so it also feels very traditional. It’s a story about life, the breadth of it and how each of our lives move within the whole of life. And each life has a story, as all of ours do. There is birth and death and romance here, courage and jealousy and struggle.
This is my third of Godden’s novels, and I’ve found each of them so very different. I wish she was still alive. I would write her a letter expressing my immense gratitude to her for sticking with this unusual work. It couldn’t have been easy or without criticism, to pull off this experiment, this fugue of parallel stories. But it is completely successful in my eyes, the way she has artfully linked them together in rich, textured layers.
Novels, even those I love, don’t often strike me as works of art the way this one does. It shimmers as something unique and incredibly affecting, like music to me in that way, like a song I could play again and again and hear different things each time.
Bravo, Rumer Godden. Bravo!
I cannot imagine a novel more perfect for me. I’m not sure I can say exactly why, but it has something to do with it being about time and life and memory and connections, with a strong mystical quality, extremely evocative, and full of deeply beautiful feelings.
A house provides the framework for the story.
“'In me you exist,’” says the house.”
This London house has held multiple generations of the Dane family, from the mid-1800’s through to the story’s present, the time of World War II. We begin at this present with Roland, AKA Rolls, the now elderly son of Grizelda and John “The Eye” Ironmonger. The household has diminished to just Rolls and two servants, but the lease on the house is up, and now they must go. Before they do, however, we’re visited by the entire family, all of them who have called this place home. Their stories run together like the fugue of the title, voices from the past, present and future, coming together to create a harmonic whole.
If you’ve ever lived a long time in one house, particularly with multiple generations, you know how it can hold stories. Life can’t take place inside day after day, year after year, without it rubbing off a little, seeping into the walls and carpets. You are constantly surrounded by the former occupants, and by your former selves.
“In the house there are Roly and Rollo, as well as Rolls.”
This fugue writing style is experimental, but there are characters and plots and beginnings and endings, so it also feels very traditional. It’s a story about life, the breadth of it and how each of our lives move within the whole of life. And each life has a story, as all of ours do. There is birth and death and romance here, courage and jealousy and struggle.
This is my third of Godden’s novels, and I’ve found each of them so very different. I wish she was still alive. I would write her a letter expressing my immense gratitude to her for sticking with this unusual work. It couldn’t have been easy or without criticism, to pull off this experiment, this fugue of parallel stories. But it is completely successful in my eyes, the way she has artfully linked them together in rich, textured layers.
Novels, even those I love, don’t often strike me as works of art the way this one does. It shimmers as something unique and incredibly affecting, like music to me in that way, like a song I could play again and again and hear different things each time.
Bravo, Rumer Godden. Bravo!
October 3, 2023
"In me you exist,' says the house."
This is a book that really shouldn't work because of the overlapping time frames, but it does so seamlessly. Sometimes changing characters and generations within one paragraph or from one sentence to the next, I never had a problem knowing who or what was being described.
It's the story of 99 years in the life of one family at 99 Wiltshire Place in London, and the house becomes a character as well. We begin with the new marriage of John (The Eye) and Griselda Dane, hear about their 9 children and one foster child, Lark. But not a happy family saga, for there is a lot of sibling rivalry, frustration, tragedy and self sacrifice between the members of this family which transcends the generations. The big house sees it all, shelters them all, and bears silent witness.
Rolls, Rollo, Roly, depending on when we see him, is the last remaining Dane. He was the youngest child and is now 80. He meets Grizel, his unknown grand niece, when she comes to London from the U.S. to be an ambulance driver during the blitz, and she moves into the house and not only gets it's story, but feels the presence of the past inhabitants as well.
Rumer Godden has written another of her fabulous, entertaining and wise novels. I have really liked the several books of hers I've read so far, and still have quite a few to go.
This is a book that really shouldn't work because of the overlapping time frames, but it does so seamlessly. Sometimes changing characters and generations within one paragraph or from one sentence to the next, I never had a problem knowing who or what was being described.
It's the story of 99 years in the life of one family at 99 Wiltshire Place in London, and the house becomes a character as well. We begin with the new marriage of John (The Eye) and Griselda Dane, hear about their 9 children and one foster child, Lark. But not a happy family saga, for there is a lot of sibling rivalry, frustration, tragedy and self sacrifice between the members of this family which transcends the generations. The big house sees it all, shelters them all, and bears silent witness.
Rolls, Rollo, Roly, depending on when we see him, is the last remaining Dane. He was the youngest child and is now 80. He meets Grizel, his unknown grand niece, when she comes to London from the U.S. to be an ambulance driver during the blitz, and she moves into the house and not only gets it's story, but feels the presence of the past inhabitants as well.
Rumer Godden has written another of her fabulous, entertaining and wise novels. I have really liked the several books of hers I've read so far, and still have quite a few to go.
May 27, 2025
In this 1946 novel, relatively early in her writing career, Godden tells the history of the Dane family, who are coming to the end of its 99-year lease at the appropriately numbered house at 99 Wiltshire Place. Some comments on aspects of the novel:
STORYTELLING– The story’s primary setting is in the then-current WWII London. Godden tells the story of that timeframe interwoven with stream of consciousness flashbacks to previous events in the Dade family history. Much of the plot and character development occurs during these flashbacks to the past. The plot involves family and especially sibling dynamics, two romances and the importance of the Dade family survival. The Dane family consists of the father John, aka the Eye, his wife Griselda, and their ten children.
Out of the ten Dane children, only the oldest, Pelham, the daughter Selina and youngest Roland play vital roles. An orphan named Lark that the Eye brings into the family fold plays a key role as do the present-day characters of Lark’s nephew, Pax, and Pelham’s granddaughter Grizel.
The flashbacks come primarily through the present-day WWII remembrances of Roland known as Roly as a child, Rollo as a youth and young man and Rolls as the elder present-day Sir Roland. He is the only Dane family member currently residing at Wiltshire. However, many of the past events are also presented as memories existing within 99 Wiltshire Place itself.
The non-linear storytelling made the plot more disjointed but it also added a wondrously pleasing degree of mystery, expectation and discovery as past events key to understanding present day events are slowly revealed.
WRITING STYLE – I did not expect Godden to use such a modernist style with the stream of consciousness-based interweaving time frames. Yet Godden handled the style superbly. She shifts scenes between timeframes abruptly, yet somehow so smoothly the transitions seemed seamless. After struggling a bit at the start, I soon readily grasped the time frame within each shift. The style made the plot more fascinating and I often found myself hopefully awaiting the next time shift.
CHARACTERIZATION – The non-linear storytelling did make the character development a bit more difficult. I often felt like I had less information about each of the main characters than I would have liked. Also, seeing the characters, except for the present-day Rolls, Grizel and Pax, only through Wiltshire Place’s or Rolls’ memories gave them a spirit-like quality, existing only as apparitions parading around 99 Wiltshire Place. It was an odd characterization but somehow an effective one as by story’s end I found myself relating to each of these characters with a deep feeling for their internal conflicts and life choices.
SETTING – I left out one character; 99 Wiltshire Place. Yes, the Dane house plays a key role in the novel. I think all of the story events occurred either in the house itself or in the minds of a person who is in the house. Again, many of the flashback events seem to be memories within the house itself.
In the first two lines of the book, Godden informs the reader of the house’s importance:
“The house it seems, is more important than the characters. ‘In me you exist.’ Says the house.”
Godden’s conceit that the memories live on in 99 Wiltshire Place and not just in the characters deepened this story’s impact to me.
OVERALL - I thought the shifting timeframes storytelling raised the plot to a higher level, one also enhanced by the role played by 99 Wiltshire Place. I wouldn’t want to read many books with story structures like this one but, at this time and at its relatively brief length, this book made for a refreshingly different, fascinating and rewarding reading experience. I rate this as 4+ stars.
STORYTELLING– The story’s primary setting is in the then-current WWII London. Godden tells the story of that timeframe interwoven with stream of consciousness flashbacks to previous events in the Dade family history. Much of the plot and character development occurs during these flashbacks to the past. The plot involves family and especially sibling dynamics, two romances and the importance of the Dade family survival. The Dane family consists of the father John, aka the Eye, his wife Griselda, and their ten children.
Out of the ten Dane children, only the oldest, Pelham, the daughter Selina and youngest Roland play vital roles. An orphan named Lark that the Eye brings into the family fold plays a key role as do the present-day characters of Lark’s nephew, Pax, and Pelham’s granddaughter Grizel.
The flashbacks come primarily through the present-day WWII remembrances of Roland known as Roly as a child, Rollo as a youth and young man and Rolls as the elder present-day Sir Roland. He is the only Dane family member currently residing at Wiltshire. However, many of the past events are also presented as memories existing within 99 Wiltshire Place itself.
The non-linear storytelling made the plot more disjointed but it also added a wondrously pleasing degree of mystery, expectation and discovery as past events key to understanding present day events are slowly revealed.
WRITING STYLE – I did not expect Godden to use such a modernist style with the stream of consciousness-based interweaving time frames. Yet Godden handled the style superbly. She shifts scenes between timeframes abruptly, yet somehow so smoothly the transitions seemed seamless. After struggling a bit at the start, I soon readily grasped the time frame within each shift. The style made the plot more fascinating and I often found myself hopefully awaiting the next time shift.
CHARACTERIZATION – The non-linear storytelling did make the character development a bit more difficult. I often felt like I had less information about each of the main characters than I would have liked. Also, seeing the characters, except for the present-day Rolls, Grizel and Pax, only through Wiltshire Place’s or Rolls’ memories gave them a spirit-like quality, existing only as apparitions parading around 99 Wiltshire Place. It was an odd characterization but somehow an effective one as by story’s end I found myself relating to each of these characters with a deep feeling for their internal conflicts and life choices.
SETTING – I left out one character; 99 Wiltshire Place. Yes, the Dane house plays a key role in the novel. I think all of the story events occurred either in the house itself or in the minds of a person who is in the house. Again, many of the flashback events seem to be memories within the house itself.
In the first two lines of the book, Godden informs the reader of the house’s importance:
“The house it seems, is more important than the characters. ‘In me you exist.’ Says the house.”
Godden’s conceit that the memories live on in 99 Wiltshire Place and not just in the characters deepened this story’s impact to me.
OVERALL - I thought the shifting timeframes storytelling raised the plot to a higher level, one also enhanced by the role played by 99 Wiltshire Place. I wouldn’t want to read many books with story structures like this one but, at this time and at its relatively brief length, this book made for a refreshingly different, fascinating and rewarding reading experience. I rate this as 4+ stars.
September 21, 2023
Rumer Godden is always a joy to read but she really outdoes herself in the writing of this book!
It is about a family who has leased a house for 99 years, and the youngest son, now in his dotage, is told he must move out -- the lease is up! It is the only home he has ever known, and this is devastating news to him.
From that point on, it feels like the house is telling the story of the family, from the point of moving in to the present day. But you really need to be on your toes to realize which generation Godden is discussing. It feels like ghosts of the family are floating in and out of the story. There is an amazing aura surrounding the house and the characters in this book, and Godden does a wonderful job telling about how each character feels and reacts to situations. And she is a master of description, relating details about the house itself and its contents, gardens, and presentation. It's like you are there!
It is satisfying, in the end, to know how everything wraps up. It is a beautiful, beautifully-told, story! And I highly recommend it :)
It is about a family who has leased a house for 99 years, and the youngest son, now in his dotage, is told he must move out -- the lease is up! It is the only home he has ever known, and this is devastating news to him.
From that point on, it feels like the house is telling the story of the family, from the point of moving in to the present day. But you really need to be on your toes to realize which generation Godden is discussing. It feels like ghosts of the family are floating in and out of the story. There is an amazing aura surrounding the house and the characters in this book, and Godden does a wonderful job telling about how each character feels and reacts to situations. And she is a master of description, relating details about the house itself and its contents, gardens, and presentation. It's like you are there!
It is satisfying, in the end, to know how everything wraps up. It is a beautiful, beautifully-told, story! And I highly recommend it :)
February 9, 2024
If ever there was a title that perfectly summarized a book, this is it: a literary fugue. The word fugue connotes a chase or a flight (tempus fugit). Multiple time frames and multiple narratives seamlessly woven together, layered on top of one another as are the melodic lines and chord progressions in a Fugue. Miraculously, Rumer Godden made it work; It’s never confusing, simply mesmerizing. 80 year old Rolls Dane coexists with the child Roly and the young blade Rollo, along with all the other ghosts, in a house that itself becomes one of the important characters. Family; family tree; a plane tree; all of these symbolically overlap and merge into the fugue of time and lives and loves and loss. It’s a story that spans 99 years, the term of a lease, and is reflected in the address, 99 Wiltshire Place; even that name is replicated again and again, changing form as Wiltshire Square, Road, Crescent, Gardens. Even the clocks chiming the hours follow one another in a sequential sonority, year after year over succeeding generations as the Dane family grows, matures, scatters and dies off. Meanwhile, the house, like a basso continuo droning along in place, acquires new appurtenances as times change while retaining its 19th century character.
OK; so much for all of Rumer Godden’s literary brilliance but there’s a great deal more to this. Here we have wonderfully drawn characters. Godden’s characters are never bloodless — even the shrewish Selina, despite her scheming and bullying, is a damaged soul. She is in fact, as are we all, a product of her upbringing. The thoughtless cruelty that John “the Eye” Dane imposes on his wife and his offspring sets the pattern that Selina endeavors to impose upon the orphaned Lark. Rumer Godden’s novels often feature characters with a brutally rigid mindset that drives her plot. John Dane’s whim that impels him to demand that his wife provide him with nine children is just one indicator of both his mindset and his ethos. But it curtails Griselda’s life, brings Roly into existence and places Selina in a position of power. Both Selina’s jealousy of Lark and her determination to rule over the lives of her siblings impinge on Rollo’s fate by tipping the scales at a crucial point in his life.
In the end, behind all of Godden’s sleight-of-hand and the Dane family strife, this is really a love story. Despite everything that has transpired, Rolls and Lark know that they will always be in love. Rolls tells Grizel “I cheated myself of love. I was a fool. Don’t you be a fool. Be young! Be ardent!”
Now if only I can track down the rest of Rumer Godden’s novels …..
OK; so much for all of Rumer Godden’s literary brilliance but there’s a great deal more to this. Here we have wonderfully drawn characters. Godden’s characters are never bloodless — even the shrewish Selina, despite her scheming and bullying, is a damaged soul. She is in fact, as are we all, a product of her upbringing. The thoughtless cruelty that John “the Eye” Dane imposes on his wife and his offspring sets the pattern that Selina endeavors to impose upon the orphaned Lark. Rumer Godden’s novels often feature characters with a brutally rigid mindset that drives her plot. John Dane’s whim that impels him to demand that his wife provide him with nine children is just one indicator of both his mindset and his ethos. But it curtails Griselda’s life, brings Roly into existence and places Selina in a position of power. Both Selina’s jealousy of Lark and her determination to rule over the lives of her siblings impinge on Rollo’s fate by tipping the scales at a crucial point in his life.
In the end, behind all of Godden’s sleight-of-hand and the Dane family strife, this is really a love story. Despite everything that has transpired, Rolls and Lark know that they will always be in love. Rolls tells Grizel “I cheated myself of love. I was a fool. Don’t you be a fool. Be young! Be ardent!”
Now if only I can track down the rest of Rumer Godden’s novels …..
March 13, 2020
Fugue--a musical composition in which one or two themes are repeated or imitated by successively entering voices and contrapuntally developed in a continuous interweaving of the voice parts.
This is a perfect description of this lovely, complicated book. It is a minor entry in the Rumer Godden canon, written in 1945. It takes about forty pages to really see the pattern start to emerge from the writing, but once you pick it up, it is truly a beautiful story.
A Fugue in Time is the story of a London house and the family that lived in it for 99 years. As we meet Rollo, one of the main characters, he is being told that the 99-year lease is expiring and he will have to move. At eighty years of age, Rollo has many memories of living at 99 Wiltshire Place, but even he does not know all the secrets of the history of the house. When his American niece shows up and asks to stay because her military billet is unpleasant, Rollo is unwilling to let her stay. But Grizel's presence releases even more memories and is the key to the completion of the fugue.
Rumer Godden is one of my favorite authors. Her style of writing is elegant, precise, and luminous. I highly recommend this for lovers of literary fiction.
This is a perfect description of this lovely, complicated book. It is a minor entry in the Rumer Godden canon, written in 1945. It takes about forty pages to really see the pattern start to emerge from the writing, but once you pick it up, it is truly a beautiful story.
A Fugue in Time is the story of a London house and the family that lived in it for 99 years. As we meet Rollo, one of the main characters, he is being told that the 99-year lease is expiring and he will have to move. At eighty years of age, Rollo has many memories of living at 99 Wiltshire Place, but even he does not know all the secrets of the history of the house. When his American niece shows up and asks to stay because her military billet is unpleasant, Rollo is unwilling to let her stay. But Grizel's presence releases even more memories and is the key to the completion of the fugue.
Rumer Godden is one of my favorite authors. Her style of writing is elegant, precise, and luminous. I highly recommend this for lovers of literary fiction.
October 12, 2025
I had a mystical experience with this book. It’s an obscure title I found on AbeBooks.com and thought I would not easily be able to find a copy of I could hold in my hands before borrowing or buying. I felt strongly that this was the next book I would like to read, though. The next day, I stopped at a local thrift store and suddenly found this book in my hands. I was stunned. Not only is the 2013 copy one of the less popular titles by this author, but the copy I found in a California thrift store is a UK edition. I don’t know how or why this book came to me so readily, but I sat down to read it and finished it in one day. I recommend this method, because the book is divided into sections based on the passing of time in a single day: morning, noon, four o’clock, evening, and night. I was able to pace my reading along with these sections surprisingly well thought the day, which added to my immersion in the story. I also live in a house that is nearly 99 years old, so the setting of this story resonated and its characters filled my house for the day.
June 10, 2013
Such an interesting book, that's sort of about nothing and everything simultaneously (well, aren't all the best books like that?)
It manages to be both cosy and gossamer; almost claustrophobically stuck inside a house but at the same time it shimmers freely back and forth through past, present and future.
Also it's surprisingly very feminist for 1945. I don't think you'd write it any differently today!
This might actually be five stars, I can't quite decide. I think I need some distance from it.
It manages to be both cosy and gossamer; almost claustrophobically stuck inside a house but at the same time it shimmers freely back and forth through past, present and future.
Also it's surprisingly very feminist for 1945. I don't think you'd write it any differently today!
This might actually be five stars, I can't quite decide. I think I need some distance from it.
January 16, 2024
This is the story of a house. I like reading stories like this, stories of houses through time. This house has only one family and one hundred years, and Rumer Godden chooses to tell it in an unusual way, contrapuntally, each theme developed layered over one another. It is a difficult thing to do, and she does it well. The periods of time overlap but do not often get confused. Conversations between two characters at two different times will run concurrently without getting confused. Godden accomplishes this by having several of the characters be referred to by unique nicknames or appellations at different times of their lives.
I have been reading Rumer Godden books since I was a little girl and enjoyed her stories about dolls. The reason I only gave "A Fugue in Time" three stars is so many of her other books are so much better.
I have been reading Rumer Godden books since I was a little girl and enjoyed her stories about dolls. The reason I only gave "A Fugue in Time" three stars is so many of her other books are so much better.
July 31, 2024
What a strange and delightful book! It tells the story of a house that has sheltered three generations of the Dane family. The book opens during WWII while Sir Roland is looking back over his life and the century that his family has lived in the house at 99 Wiltshire Place.
A major character in the book is the house itself. It seems to hold the memories and conversations of all who have lived there. These voices sometimes talk to Roland, which may be disconcerting to some readers, but I found it intriguing. The story can also be confusing because it is not told in a linear fashion, but jumps back and forth between time frames.
Being musically challenged, I did not know the significance of the word fugue in the title, but other reviewers at Goodreads helped me see Godden’s genius in using it. Sara explains, “A fugue is a musical movement in which melodic lines run independently but also merge to create a harmony…. Godden has created a fugue in her novel, telling individual stories, with individual voices, but layering them atop one another to show both the passage of time and the continuity of time, simultaneously.”
This is a beautiful book about the high cost of loving. It must be savored rather than swallowed in one gulp.
A major character in the book is the house itself. It seems to hold the memories and conversations of all who have lived there. These voices sometimes talk to Roland, which may be disconcerting to some readers, but I found it intriguing. The story can also be confusing because it is not told in a linear fashion, but jumps back and forth between time frames.
Being musically challenged, I did not know the significance of the word fugue in the title, but other reviewers at Goodreads helped me see Godden’s genius in using it. Sara explains, “A fugue is a musical movement in which melodic lines run independently but also merge to create a harmony…. Godden has created a fugue in her novel, telling individual stories, with individual voices, but layering them atop one another to show both the passage of time and the continuity of time, simultaneously.”
This is a beautiful book about the high cost of loving. It must be savored rather than swallowed in one gulp.
December 14, 2017
I can't remember when I last got to the end of a book and felt that I must immediately read it again, but that's how I feel about this unique novel - though at only 176 pages (albeit war economy standard pages with rather more words per page than usual in the Michael Joseph first edition I'm reading) that's not a massive undertaking. By the way, the UK first edition has a beautiful dust jacket, which is far more interesting than that of the US first edition.
For the first ten or twenty pages I didn't really know what to make of "A Fugue in Time" (the novel's UK title) , and I must admit to thinking more than once that it was easy to see why it had been out of print for so long. I wondered whether Rumer Godden had had a rush of blood to the head after reading Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" with which it has some similarities of construction and of themes. However, gradually a story began to emerge, as did the author's habitual strengths: the ability to bring characters to life with only a sentence or two, and make you care for them and want to know what has happened/will happen to them. Add in an intriguing scenario where there is more than a whiff of mystery, only very gradually revealed, and you have a book that grows on a sympathetic reader powerfully.
"Take three tenses" is the US title, and is one of several phrases that recurs frequently throughout the book (another is "How do you pronounce Papocatepetl?"!) . The action constantly shifts between past, present and future, between the generations that live in 99 Wiltshire Place, the house that is in a sense the central character of the book. It's almost as though both the reader and the narrator are outside time. There's a dreamlike quality to the prose, which sometimes becomes little more than a soundscape or litany of the words that have been spoken in the house or the noises heard in it. "A Fugue in Time" would surely make a wonderful, if confusing, radio play. The reader has to pay close attention to the cues Rumer Godden gives us to alert us to sudden temporal changes - we may hear from Roly (the child), Rollo (the young blade) and Rolls (the retired general) in a single paragraph: in reality all are the same character at different stages of his long life.
I've long felt that Rumer Godden is a vastly underrated writer, perhaps partly because so much of her output deals with childhood as one of its major themes. But though she did write many children's books (which I wish I had read as a child), and many of her other books would now be categorised as "Young Adult" or "Teen" fiction, at her best she has the insight and universality of a great novelist. It's easy to imagine that in this book she has made her most conscious effort to write a literary novel, and to join her poetic voice to her storytelling one. Perhaps what must have been a lukewarm reception if the length of time it was out of print is anything to go by discouraged her from further experimentation, or perhaps it was simply overshadowed by the following year's "The River", which up until now I've regarded as her masterpiece. Like that novel "A Fugue in Time" was filmed (as "Enchantment" in 1948), but it has rarely been reprinted, though fortunately it is now available as a Virago Modern Classic. It is surely a worthy addition to the Virago canon, because this is most definitely a feminist novel, examining as it does the lives both outer and inner of a number of women across a century and more and the constraints placed upon them by society and marriage or spinsterhood. That's not to say the novel is in any way polemical: one of the things I most admire about Rumer Godden is her unwillingness to condemn even the least likeable of her characters to irredeemability, somehow or other she finds something to celebrate in every life - if ever she deputises for St Peter at the Pearly Gates heaven must have to make room for some very unexpected guests.
I don't lightly give five stars to a book, but in this case I feel they are fully justified - even though the novel has its faults. However, I really do think this is an amazing book, and one that certainly deserves both to be more widely read and to be reassessed by literary critics. I shall be looking out for 1948's "Enchantment", though I suspect I'll end up wishing it could be remade in a way that mirrors the novel's very unusual construction. I can't remember ever reading a book quite like this with its view from eternity - past, present and future incidents and conversations played out together. Perhaps it sprang from the same wartime zeitgeist that gave us "A matter of life and death" and "It's a wonderful life", and perhaps some people will find it dated or feel it offers spurious consolation. But I love it, and I think it's a novel that any budding writer can learn from. Few writers today would have the courage to expect so much from their readers.
As a post-script - it might be interesting to read this novel before or after Philip Hensher's "The Emperor Waltz" - another novel which attempts to translate a musical form into a novelistic one and to weave stories from different time periods into a coherent whole. Hensher's novel is altogether larger in scale both geographically and temporally (and in sheer length). But it is Godden who perhaps demands more from her reader and who succeeds in creating a work which is more than the sum of its parts.
For the first ten or twenty pages I didn't really know what to make of "A Fugue in Time" (the novel's UK title) , and I must admit to thinking more than once that it was easy to see why it had been out of print for so long. I wondered whether Rumer Godden had had a rush of blood to the head after reading Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" with which it has some similarities of construction and of themes. However, gradually a story began to emerge, as did the author's habitual strengths: the ability to bring characters to life with only a sentence or two, and make you care for them and want to know what has happened/will happen to them. Add in an intriguing scenario where there is more than a whiff of mystery, only very gradually revealed, and you have a book that grows on a sympathetic reader powerfully.
"Take three tenses" is the US title, and is one of several phrases that recurs frequently throughout the book (another is "How do you pronounce Papocatepetl?"!) . The action constantly shifts between past, present and future, between the generations that live in 99 Wiltshire Place, the house that is in a sense the central character of the book. It's almost as though both the reader and the narrator are outside time. There's a dreamlike quality to the prose, which sometimes becomes little more than a soundscape or litany of the words that have been spoken in the house or the noises heard in it. "A Fugue in Time" would surely make a wonderful, if confusing, radio play. The reader has to pay close attention to the cues Rumer Godden gives us to alert us to sudden temporal changes - we may hear from Roly (the child), Rollo (the young blade) and Rolls (the retired general) in a single paragraph: in reality all are the same character at different stages of his long life.
I've long felt that Rumer Godden is a vastly underrated writer, perhaps partly because so much of her output deals with childhood as one of its major themes. But though she did write many children's books (which I wish I had read as a child), and many of her other books would now be categorised as "Young Adult" or "Teen" fiction, at her best she has the insight and universality of a great novelist. It's easy to imagine that in this book she has made her most conscious effort to write a literary novel, and to join her poetic voice to her storytelling one. Perhaps what must have been a lukewarm reception if the length of time it was out of print is anything to go by discouraged her from further experimentation, or perhaps it was simply overshadowed by the following year's "The River", which up until now I've regarded as her masterpiece. Like that novel "A Fugue in Time" was filmed (as "Enchantment" in 1948), but it has rarely been reprinted, though fortunately it is now available as a Virago Modern Classic. It is surely a worthy addition to the Virago canon, because this is most definitely a feminist novel, examining as it does the lives both outer and inner of a number of women across a century and more and the constraints placed upon them by society and marriage or spinsterhood. That's not to say the novel is in any way polemical: one of the things I most admire about Rumer Godden is her unwillingness to condemn even the least likeable of her characters to irredeemability, somehow or other she finds something to celebrate in every life - if ever she deputises for St Peter at the Pearly Gates heaven must have to make room for some very unexpected guests.
I don't lightly give five stars to a book, but in this case I feel they are fully justified - even though the novel has its faults. However, I really do think this is an amazing book, and one that certainly deserves both to be more widely read and to be reassessed by literary critics. I shall be looking out for 1948's "Enchantment", though I suspect I'll end up wishing it could be remade in a way that mirrors the novel's very unusual construction. I can't remember ever reading a book quite like this with its view from eternity - past, present and future incidents and conversations played out together. Perhaps it sprang from the same wartime zeitgeist that gave us "A matter of life and death" and "It's a wonderful life", and perhaps some people will find it dated or feel it offers spurious consolation. But I love it, and I think it's a novel that any budding writer can learn from. Few writers today would have the courage to expect so much from their readers.
As a post-script - it might be interesting to read this novel before or after Philip Hensher's "The Emperor Waltz" - another novel which attempts to translate a musical form into a novelistic one and to weave stories from different time periods into a coherent whole. Hensher's novel is altogether larger in scale both geographically and temporally (and in sheer length). But it is Godden who perhaps demands more from her reader and who succeeds in creating a work which is more than the sum of its parts.
January 8, 2019
'The house, it seems, is more important than the characters. ‘In me you exist’,’ says the house.'
One of Rumer Godden's earlier novels - this was published in 1945 and tells the story of several generations of one family who have lived in the same London house for 99 years. The different time periods all blend together in this book as memories or ghosts arise in the characters mind's and the family changes from a late Victorian family with 9 children to the 1940s with only one of those children still in residence until they are joined by their great-niece from America. I find Godden's writing style very unique and very difficult to describe - all of her books are good but this was not her best and she revisits similar themes more successfully in [China Court] over a decade later. Still, I did enjoy this one.
One of Rumer Godden's earlier novels - this was published in 1945 and tells the story of several generations of one family who have lived in the same London house for 99 years. The different time periods all blend together in this book as memories or ghosts arise in the characters mind's and the family changes from a late Victorian family with 9 children to the 1940s with only one of those children still in residence until they are joined by their great-niece from America. I find Godden's writing style very unique and very difficult to describe - all of her books are good but this was not her best and she revisits similar themes more successfully in [China Court] over a decade later. Still, I did enjoy this one.
January 20, 2010
I had to force myself to plow through the detailed house, clothing and decor descriptions but had to admit their relevance to the characters and story (which is full of flashbacks and fast-forwards). This book treats over a century in the lives of members of the Dane family and develops interest in eight individuals and the roots and the results of their choices and attitudes. Most are Londoners and a valuable view of English mores and beliefs is one of this novel's strengths. I found some of the scenes of bereavement especially effective and also liked the author's profound support of faith and love in the face of seemingly fearsome circumstance. Published in 1945, I conjecture that more than a few baby-boomers may owe their existence to its deserved popularity ( it was made into the 1948 film Enchantment with Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes, Farley Granger and David Niven).
August 29, 2012
There is something about Rumor Godden. In high school, I watched the movie "Enchantment," which is based on this novel, and LOVED it. I was reminded on this movie a bit ago and looked into it. It turned out that it was written by Rumor Godden who wrote one of my favorite children's books (Holly and Ivy). I very much enjoyed this book and the way that Ms. Godden deals with time and characters.
Want to read
January 21, 2024Enchantment (1948)
July 13, 2021
Despite Rumer Godden being one of my favourite authors, this experimental novel did not quite work for me. She tries to have an overlay of three different time frames and sometimes in the same paragraph, which can get confusing.
December 31, 2015
The house itself is a main character and is described so well. There is such atmosphere. But - the time periods keep switching between generations without warning and I found that difficult to follow. It also meant I didn't really connect with the "human" characters.
November 11, 2025
The book's description begins like this: "Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house…" Yes, but it's not what we think when we think about haunting ghosts. There are no apparitions. There are no spooky encounters. These are ghosts of the mind, the ghosts of memories, the ghosts of what was and will never be again.
Written by Rumer Godden, this is a confusing book at first because the past and the present are depicted together. The reader must be alert to recognize which is which. Eventually, I easily figured out what was present and what was past because of the characters' names and actions. Until then, be prepared to be perplexed at times.
This is the story of a house as much as it is of the family who lived in it for nearly 100 years. Rolls (General Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane), the youngest child of nine who grew up in this grand mansion of a house located at 99 Wiltshire Place in London, is an old man now, and on a cold autumn day during the London Blitz of World War II he has received word that the 99-year lease on the house is expiring and will not be renewed as the house will be torn down. He must leave and take 99 years of upper class possessions with him. Pronto. He refuses to acquiesce to this and instead sits quietly remembering the lives of his parents, siblings, and many servants who were born here, resided here, and in some cases died here. Barging into his reverie of memories is the present in the form of a great-niece named Grizel, who has arrived from America to drive an ambulance on the streets of London during the war. And it is Grizel who also brings the future ghosts.
The stories of this family remind me a lot of "Downton Abbey" minus the huge land acreage. It's a time when ladies wore corsets and the servants toiled in the basement level with their work guided by ringing bells from the master and mistress.
The title is very creative. The word "fugue" means a composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts. This exactly describes what Rumer Godden has accomplished in this story.
This is an introspective novel about the importance and meaning of home with a labyrinthine plot that will transport you to a time and lifestyle of long ago, as well as the very real difficulties the survivors face when it all collapses. It's both fascinating and heartbreaking.
Written by Rumer Godden, this is a confusing book at first because the past and the present are depicted together. The reader must be alert to recognize which is which. Eventually, I easily figured out what was present and what was past because of the characters' names and actions. Until then, be prepared to be perplexed at times.
This is the story of a house as much as it is of the family who lived in it for nearly 100 years. Rolls (General Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane), the youngest child of nine who grew up in this grand mansion of a house located at 99 Wiltshire Place in London, is an old man now, and on a cold autumn day during the London Blitz of World War II he has received word that the 99-year lease on the house is expiring and will not be renewed as the house will be torn down. He must leave and take 99 years of upper class possessions with him. Pronto. He refuses to acquiesce to this and instead sits quietly remembering the lives of his parents, siblings, and many servants who were born here, resided here, and in some cases died here. Barging into his reverie of memories is the present in the form of a great-niece named Grizel, who has arrived from America to drive an ambulance on the streets of London during the war. And it is Grizel who also brings the future ghosts.
The stories of this family remind me a lot of "Downton Abbey" minus the huge land acreage. It's a time when ladies wore corsets and the servants toiled in the basement level with their work guided by ringing bells from the master and mistress.
The title is very creative. The word "fugue" means a composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts. This exactly describes what Rumer Godden has accomplished in this story.
This is an introspective novel about the importance and meaning of home with a labyrinthine plot that will transport you to a time and lifestyle of long ago, as well as the very real difficulties the survivors face when it all collapses. It's both fascinating and heartbreaking.
March 16, 2024
The house, it seems, is more important than the characters. 'In me you exist,'says the house.
For almost a hundred years, for ninety-nine years, it has enhanced, embraced and sheltered the family, but there is no doubt that it can go on without them. 'Well,' the family might have retorted, 'we can go on without you.'
'We existed before you, you see,' the family might have said to the house; and the house, in its tickings, its rustlings, its creakings as its beams grow hot, grow cold - as the ashes fall in its grates, as its doorbells ring, as the trains in passing underneath it vibrate in its walls, as footsteps run up and down the stairs- as dusters are shaken, carpets beaten, beds turned down and dishes washed-as windows are opened or shut, blinds drawn up, pulled down -as the tap runs and is silent, as the lavatory is flushed - as the piano is played and books are taken down from the shelf, and brushes picked up and then laid down again on the dressing-table, and flowers are arranged in a vase - as the medicine bottle is shaken; as, with infinite delicate care, the spillikins are lifted in the children's game - as the mice run under the wainscot - the house might steadfastly reply, 'I know! I know. All the same, in me you exist.'
I was thinking about my home as I read these words, the house where I live, which has been in the family for ninety years and in which four generations have already lived, and about everything that binds me to it.
Rumer Godden tells the story of a house, and of a family, the Danes, intertwining past and present stories, and the present is the future of the past: “Take three tenses” says Selina to Roly (and it is also the subtitle of the book ), “Past, present and future” and we have present, past and future in Roly who becomes Rollo and then Rolls and sir Roland but in the story it is now one, now the other. Births and deaths, departures and returns follow one another in the house that watches, welcomes, mourns. The story moves continuously back and forth in time, tales of distant and present mornings, then of noons, and evenings, but Rumer Godden makes so that you can never lose the thread and little by little the stories and lives are reconstructed, a little piece at a time. Beautiful book.
For almost a hundred years, for ninety-nine years, it has enhanced, embraced and sheltered the family, but there is no doubt that it can go on without them. 'Well,' the family might have retorted, 'we can go on without you.'
'We existed before you, you see,' the family might have said to the house; and the house, in its tickings, its rustlings, its creakings as its beams grow hot, grow cold - as the ashes fall in its grates, as its doorbells ring, as the trains in passing underneath it vibrate in its walls, as footsteps run up and down the stairs- as dusters are shaken, carpets beaten, beds turned down and dishes washed-as windows are opened or shut, blinds drawn up, pulled down -as the tap runs and is silent, as the lavatory is flushed - as the piano is played and books are taken down from the shelf, and brushes picked up and then laid down again on the dressing-table, and flowers are arranged in a vase - as the medicine bottle is shaken; as, with infinite delicate care, the spillikins are lifted in the children's game - as the mice run under the wainscot - the house might steadfastly reply, 'I know! I know. All the same, in me you exist.'
I was thinking about my home as I read these words, the house where I live, which has been in the family for ninety years and in which four generations have already lived, and about everything that binds me to it.
Rumer Godden tells the story of a house, and of a family, the Danes, intertwining past and present stories, and the present is the future of the past: “Take three tenses” says Selina to Roly (and it is also the subtitle of the book ), “Past, present and future” and we have present, past and future in Roly who becomes Rollo and then Rolls and sir Roland but in the story it is now one, now the other. Births and deaths, departures and returns follow one another in the house that watches, welcomes, mourns. The story moves continuously back and forth in time, tales of distant and present mornings, then of noons, and evenings, but Rumer Godden makes so that you can never lose the thread and little by little the stories and lives are reconstructed, a little piece at a time. Beautiful book.
November 14, 2022
A Fugue in Time (also known as Take Three Tenses) tells the story of the Dane family in three generations. Take the Fugue seriously; there is little transition between the different timelines, and the sense is that the past and present are happening together.
It reminded me a bit of Catherine Adel West's Saving Ruby King, with its omniscient perspective of the house (in Ruby King it's a church with a real voice). A very interesting idea that Godden has evidently explored elsewhere, in China Court. It didn't work for me because I wasn't invested in the characters, but I could tell the storytelling method would have worked for me if I had been invested. I love multiple timelines, and often like the feeling of being a bit lost in the story. And I am used to Godden's personal style and lack of transitions; she uses them effectively for between-the-lines character development.
I kept thinking A Fugue in Time would be better told on film. In 1948 it was made into the film Enchantment, which I am mildly interested in viewing. Ultimately I didn't find the story or characters that compelling, but the way the novel is told invites creative visual storytelling. If there had been an ominous tone to this novel, Hitchcock could have made a masterpiece of it.
A Fugue in Time was recommended to me on a late autumn reading list. It does fit well with the season, and somehow feels right in the season of early sunsets. It got me thinking about my personal favorite reads for this time of year. Still Life by Louise Penny, Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout, and The Distant Hours by Kate Morton are some of my favorites for the gloominess of late autumn. The feelings evoked for me by this time of year also fit well with the world of New Moon in L. M. Montgomery's Emily books.
Content warnings: traumatic childbearing ; mention of domestic abuse
It reminded me a bit of Catherine Adel West's Saving Ruby King, with its omniscient perspective of the house (in Ruby King it's a church with a real voice). A very interesting idea that Godden has evidently explored elsewhere, in China Court. It didn't work for me because I wasn't invested in the characters, but I could tell the storytelling method would have worked for me if I had been invested. I love multiple timelines, and often like the feeling of being a bit lost in the story. And I am used to Godden's personal style and lack of transitions; she uses them effectively for between-the-lines character development.
I kept thinking A Fugue in Time would be better told on film. In 1948 it was made into the film Enchantment, which I am mildly interested in viewing. Ultimately I didn't find the story or characters that compelling, but the way the novel is told invites creative visual storytelling. If there had been an ominous tone to this novel, Hitchcock could have made a masterpiece of it.
A Fugue in Time was recommended to me on a late autumn reading list. It does fit well with the season, and somehow feels right in the season of early sunsets. It got me thinking about my personal favorite reads for this time of year. Still Life by Louise Penny, Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout, and The Distant Hours by Kate Morton are some of my favorites for the gloominess of late autumn. The feelings evoked for me by this time of year also fit well with the world of New Moon in L. M. Montgomery's Emily books.
Content warnings: traumatic childbearing ; mention of domestic abuse
July 25, 2014
What a unique book! A love story, a story of second chances, a story of an old man reviewing his life while Word War II rages, a story of a family - all told from the point of view of a house, the house that old man stands to lose because the lease is about to expire. Rollo is almost the last of his generation, and has come back home after an army career. He slips in and out of the present, and we readers follow him. Godden's greatest strengths, IMHO, are character and setting, and she does a wonderful job in presenting us with a family full of strong and flawed personalities. You end up empathizing with characters you don't necessarily like. The time frame ranges from the late 19th century to the 1950s, and the story is both open-ended and complete. If you like Godden's other books, you'll enjoy this one.
October 7, 2013
It is a long time since I read one of Rumer Godden's novels, but as soon as I started this one I was back in the place she always takes me. I don't know how she does it, but there is a sense of the mystical, and an otherworldliness. Maybe it is the "collision of England and India" as her writing has been described.
This was a lovely little story, we move back and forwards in time as a family's history takes shape. Once the characters are introduced it is easier to keep track of where the author is going, but this adds to the charm of the book.
This was a lovely little story, we move back and forwards in time as a family's history takes shape. Once the characters are introduced it is easier to keep track of where the author is going, but this adds to the charm of the book.
August 31, 2022
What an unusual book! I was capitivated by it and sad when it ended. Plus I wish there was a sequel because I don't know for sure what happened next. I hope Grixel and Pax lived happily ever after in the house which may be the main character in the story.
I do know that I need to re-read Black Narcissus and In the House of Brede, the two books that introduced me to Rumer Godden.
I do know that I need to re-read Black Narcissus and In the House of Brede, the two books that introduced me to Rumer Godden.
October 20, 2020
Rumer Godden's prose is beautiful, but this story was boring with unlikeable characters. It was hard to relate to a mother who doesn't like her children. It was also confusing with changes in time periods continuously.
July 13, 2021
3 Stars
I loved the idea of this story, but found parts of it tedious and confusing.
I loved the idea of this story, but found parts of it tedious and confusing.
September 4, 2007
Intricately woven tale in three time periods. Rumer Godden is just always high on my list.
November 20, 2024
What a beautiful book. A Fugue in Time centers around three generations of a family who lived/live/are going to live in the same house, and despite them being years apart, Godden tells their stories simultaneously, gorgeously interweaving the different temporal strands. In doing this she is responding to J. W. Dunne's ideas of time, specifically the notion that the linear experience of time isn't a fundamental necessity but rather something determined by our limited perspective, and that all time is always present in a way that we aren't immediately equipped to see. And as far as good literature goes, this is definitely the best response to Dunne that I've read so far. (Apparently Godden employs this idea again later on in China Court with even more different generations? I'm excited to read that at some point.)
Anyway, the atmosphere in this book is just so wistful and beautiful. This is a novel of quiet, aching incompleteness -- whether that's due to past regrets and missed opportunities, an uncertain and potentially thwarted future, or a stifling present that is nonetheless putting out feelers of vague yearnings, maybe for love, or for beautiful things, or for poetry, or for faraway places. Godden sums up all these desires as expressions of a 'poetic nostalgia', but it's really a sort of Sehnsucht. All these objects of desire are the exact same examples C. S. Lewis gives in his preface to The Pilgrim's Regress when he talks about how Sehnsucht often hides behind more material substitute longings. Should all these things be achieved, the underlying desire would still remain unsatisfied because it is unsatisfiable -- but also paradoxically satisfactory in itself. To (probably) paraphrase Lewis, to have it is a want, and to want it is to have it.
The yearnings in Fugue behave in a similar way. One character feels the presence of his lost lover most strongly when he is left alone and she is most firmly absent, and he seeks out these moments, simultaneously lonely and rich with a different sort of closeness and companionship. There's also the image of the garden, which recurs nearly every time the characters' longings are invoked -- a literal place that's always there physically, but also obviously imbued with a kind of ethereal visionary quality, where the full weight and elusive significance of what it means to them perpetually escapes.
And Rumer Godden writes all of this so well?! There's something about the prose here, maybe not so much on the individual sentence level but about the way the sentences flow together and the way that flow shifts. It's gorgeous. It's more than pretty storytelling, but it doesn't go too far into the more coldly experimental and alienating forms of modernist writing either. Godden is such an excellent writer. I don't know why she isn't talked about more often.
So yeah. Absolutely loved it. Honestly can't wait to read more of her.
Anyway, the atmosphere in this book is just so wistful and beautiful. This is a novel of quiet, aching incompleteness -- whether that's due to past regrets and missed opportunities, an uncertain and potentially thwarted future, or a stifling present that is nonetheless putting out feelers of vague yearnings, maybe for love, or for beautiful things, or for poetry, or for faraway places. Godden sums up all these desires as expressions of a 'poetic nostalgia', but it's really a sort of Sehnsucht. All these objects of desire are the exact same examples C. S. Lewis gives in his preface to The Pilgrim's Regress when he talks about how Sehnsucht often hides behind more material substitute longings. Should all these things be achieved, the underlying desire would still remain unsatisfied because it is unsatisfiable -- but also paradoxically satisfactory in itself. To (probably) paraphrase Lewis, to have it is a want, and to want it is to have it.
The yearnings in Fugue behave in a similar way. One character feels the presence of his lost lover most strongly when he is left alone and she is most firmly absent, and he seeks out these moments, simultaneously lonely and rich with a different sort of closeness and companionship. There's also the image of the garden, which recurs nearly every time the characters' longings are invoked -- a literal place that's always there physically, but also obviously imbued with a kind of ethereal visionary quality, where the full weight and elusive significance of what it means to them perpetually escapes.
And Rumer Godden writes all of this so well?! There's something about the prose here, maybe not so much on the individual sentence level but about the way the sentences flow together and the way that flow shifts. It's gorgeous. It's more than pretty storytelling, but it doesn't go too far into the more coldly experimental and alienating forms of modernist writing either. Godden is such an excellent writer. I don't know why she isn't talked about more often.
So yeah. Absolutely loved it. Honestly can't wait to read more of her.
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