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The River
Harriet is between two worlds. Her sister is no longer a playmate, her brother is still a child. The comforting rhythm of her Indian childhood - the noise of the jute works, the colourful festivals that accompany each season and the eternal ebb and flow of the river on its journey to the Bay of Benghal - is about to be shattered. She must learn how to reconcile the jagged edges of beginnings and ends ..."The River" is Rumer Godden's beautiful tribute to India and childhood, made into a film by Jean Renoir. And in a preface for this novel she explains how the classic tale came to be written. "So intense, so quietly demanding of attention, that at the time there will be nothing in your thoughts but a small girl in India, and the people and places that were her world" - "Saturday Review". "Compassionate wisdom and serence understanding ...with each book she writes Miss Godden's position as one of the finest of English novelists becomes more secure" - Orville Prescott.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
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About the author
Rumer Godden
153 books553 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 148 reviews
July 10, 2017
3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.
Rumer Godden's powers of description are so good she made me homesick for a place I've never been, and nostalgic for a childhood I never experienced. A novelette about a season in Harriet's life in India when she makes the transition from child to "real person" status.
Rumer Godden's powers of description are so good she made me homesick for a place I've never been, and nostalgic for a childhood I never experienced. A novelette about a season in Harriet's life in India when she makes the transition from child to "real person" status.
November 21, 2020
2.5 stars
This is the first work I have read by Rumer Godden. She was an Anglo-Indian writer who spent a good deal of her childhood in India and lived there as an adult. She left when India gained independence. In her writing she often used experiences from her own childhood and this novel is no exception. Born in 1907, Godden was in India at the height of Empire. Although she could be critical of the British, she also felt they did a great deal of good. When Nehru said, “My quarrel with the British is that they left a land of poverty-stricken wrecks” Godden leapt to the defence of the British. She seemed to confuse individual acts of charity and goodness with the mechanisms of imperialism.
This is a fairly brief novel and is really about the end of childhood. Harriet is the focus of the novel and she is approaching puberty. Her older sister is no longer a playmate and her younger brother she feels is still a child. There are lots of beginnings and ends. The world for Harriet is limited and is mainly the large house and garden with her siblings and nanny. Her parents are a little distant and her mother is pregnant. There are Indian servants around, but it is the interior world of the end of a childhood that is central. The domestic staff are the only way the children learn of the culture of India. There has been a recent war (it is not clear which). A wounded soldier is staying nearby, (Captain John) and he plays a central role for the two older girls and is an object of fascination. The garden and its surroundings do feel very much like a Garden of Eden. There is even a real serpent and a river running through. Gooden does capture some of the disconnectedness of childhood and the changes from seeming very young and then quite grown up. This is an idyll, but real life intrudes with jealousy, death and burgeoning sexuality. I have a vague recollection of Jean Renoir’s 1951 film of this, but really don’t remember how closely the plot was followed.
The colonial backdrop is really only a canvas to hold a very Eurocentric plot. The human element of the canvas seems to be irrelevant and the focus is the climate, vegetation and animal life. There is no real plot (not necessarily a problem), but most of all there is no sense that anything in particular is going in in the outside world (wars, riots, famine, the push for independence). It isn’t possible to completely avoid the imperial backdrop as this novel tries to do. There are also a couple of short stories at the end where Godden tries to write from the point of view of the indigenous population. These descend into sentimentality and are patronising: talk about primitive spectacle and the imperial gaze!
This is the first work I have read by Rumer Godden. She was an Anglo-Indian writer who spent a good deal of her childhood in India and lived there as an adult. She left when India gained independence. In her writing she often used experiences from her own childhood and this novel is no exception. Born in 1907, Godden was in India at the height of Empire. Although she could be critical of the British, she also felt they did a great deal of good. When Nehru said, “My quarrel with the British is that they left a land of poverty-stricken wrecks” Godden leapt to the defence of the British. She seemed to confuse individual acts of charity and goodness with the mechanisms of imperialism.
This is a fairly brief novel and is really about the end of childhood. Harriet is the focus of the novel and she is approaching puberty. Her older sister is no longer a playmate and her younger brother she feels is still a child. There are lots of beginnings and ends. The world for Harriet is limited and is mainly the large house and garden with her siblings and nanny. Her parents are a little distant and her mother is pregnant. There are Indian servants around, but it is the interior world of the end of a childhood that is central. The domestic staff are the only way the children learn of the culture of India. There has been a recent war (it is not clear which). A wounded soldier is staying nearby, (Captain John) and he plays a central role for the two older girls and is an object of fascination. The garden and its surroundings do feel very much like a Garden of Eden. There is even a real serpent and a river running through. Gooden does capture some of the disconnectedness of childhood and the changes from seeming very young and then quite grown up. This is an idyll, but real life intrudes with jealousy, death and burgeoning sexuality. I have a vague recollection of Jean Renoir’s 1951 film of this, but really don’t remember how closely the plot was followed.
The colonial backdrop is really only a canvas to hold a very Eurocentric plot. The human element of the canvas seems to be irrelevant and the focus is the climate, vegetation and animal life. There is no real plot (not necessarily a problem), but most of all there is no sense that anything in particular is going in in the outside world (wars, riots, famine, the push for independence). It isn’t possible to completely avoid the imperial backdrop as this novel tries to do. There are also a couple of short stories at the end where Godden tries to write from the point of view of the indigenous population. These descend into sentimentality and are patronising: talk about primitive spectacle and the imperial gaze!
July 12, 2015
A novella about an English child growing up in India, beautifully written and full of evocative description of life in that country. There is no plot and really only one event of any significance. The theme of the book is growing up as experienced by the main character, Harriet, who is absolutely charming. The main interest of the book is the beautiful way it is written. I have only read a few works by Rumer Godden but I will be looking out for more.
October 7, 2018
Adaptada al cine por Jean Renoir en 1951, El río es una de las obras más conocidas de Rumer Godden, prolífica escritora británica que se crió junto a sus tres hermanas en la remota India colonial, donde su padre trabajaba para una compañía naviera. El río nace precisamente como un homenaje a esa infancia crepuscular en la que uno adquiere la sensación de lo que se avecina, pero aún no es capaz de delimitar sus contornos.
Harriet, la pequeña protagonista de El río, se halla abandonada en el tránsito de la niñez hacia la vida adulta. Al contrario que su hermano Bogey, Harriet ya no disfruta con los pasatiempos inocentes y despreocupados de antaño. Sin embargo, las complicadas inquietudes amorosas de su hermana Bea todavía le resultan indescifrables. Asediada por un millón de preguntas para las que nadie a su alrededor parece tener respuesta, la despierta y vivaracha Harriet se sumerge en un mar de incertidumbre que conforma el eje narrativo del relato.
La llegada a casa del capitán John, un soldado convaleciente que se recupera de sus heridas tanto físicas como emocionales, dispara la curiosidad insaciable de Harriet, poeta en ciernes, quien no duda en acribillar a su interlocutor con toda clase de impertinencias a las que John contesta casi siempre con su aridez característica. A pesar de su buena voluntad y la atípica amistad que surge entre ambos, esta infructífera insistencia de Harriet solo conduce a la más alienante de las frustraciones. Con mano de narradora experta, Rumer Godden captura de manera fascinante los amargos sinsabores del paso a la madurez. Para la escritora británica, crecer no es tanto un simple cambio como un auténtico umbral que separa la vida de la muerte. Un proceso en el que dejamos la inocencia atrás para toda la eternidad.
El río, con sus evocadoras imágenes y su absorbente atmósfera cargada de cambios, es una historia absolutamente entrañable que nos ayuda a comprender el significado de dicha transformación sin ahogarnos en la tristeza ni la melancolía. Su bien estudiada concisión, lejos de restarle intensidad al relato, acentúa el carácter efímero e inaprensible del hermoso —y en ocasiones cruel— retrato que Rumer Godden consigue plasmar con apabullante exquisitez entre las páginas de El río.
Harriet, la pequeña protagonista de El río, se halla abandonada en el tránsito de la niñez hacia la vida adulta. Al contrario que su hermano Bogey, Harriet ya no disfruta con los pasatiempos inocentes y despreocupados de antaño. Sin embargo, las complicadas inquietudes amorosas de su hermana Bea todavía le resultan indescifrables. Asediada por un millón de preguntas para las que nadie a su alrededor parece tener respuesta, la despierta y vivaracha Harriet se sumerge en un mar de incertidumbre que conforma el eje narrativo del relato.
La llegada a casa del capitán John, un soldado convaleciente que se recupera de sus heridas tanto físicas como emocionales, dispara la curiosidad insaciable de Harriet, poeta en ciernes, quien no duda en acribillar a su interlocutor con toda clase de impertinencias a las que John contesta casi siempre con su aridez característica. A pesar de su buena voluntad y la atípica amistad que surge entre ambos, esta infructífera insistencia de Harriet solo conduce a la más alienante de las frustraciones. Con mano de narradora experta, Rumer Godden captura de manera fascinante los amargos sinsabores del paso a la madurez. Para la escritora británica, crecer no es tanto un simple cambio como un auténtico umbral que separa la vida de la muerte. Un proceso en el que dejamos la inocencia atrás para toda la eternidad.
El río, con sus evocadoras imágenes y su absorbente atmósfera cargada de cambios, es una historia absolutamente entrañable que nos ayuda a comprender el significado de dicha transformación sin ahogarnos en la tristeza ni la melancolía. Su bien estudiada concisión, lejos de restarle intensidad al relato, acentúa el carácter efímero e inaprensible del hermoso —y en ocasiones cruel— retrato que Rumer Godden consigue plasmar con apabullante exquisitez entre las páginas de El río.
September 9, 2016
The River is a coming of age novella set in India. Harriet, the daughter of a jute factory manager, is just on the cusp of growing up--one moment a child, the next thinking thoughts and asking questions that would challenge many an adult. The time is perhaps during World War II, but as Godden says in the introductory paragraphs, it could be this war, or the war before that, any war, any place. There is a timeless quality about the setting, a garden by the edge of a river. Like the garden of Eden it has a tree--a great cork tree--and it also has a snake.
In the opening pages we meet Harriet, who longs to be special, to be something great in the world. She writes poetry and misses her sister Bea, who is already in her teens, beautiful and swiftly growing away. Harriet, left on her own, tries playing with her younger brother but Bogey is more interested in ants and the snake than any games Harriet might want to play. Victoria, the youngest of the siblings is too young to be much company, either. So Harriet dreams, writes in her secret book and spends long hours communing with her cork tree and the river.
Into this garden comes a man--a soldier, an amputee who had been tortured as a prisoner of war and managed to escape the enemy but not the wounds to his body and spirit. Captain John finds healing in the garden and in the company of the children. And perhaps there is more....Harriet notices how often, and how carefully, John looks at Bea.
The story unfolds over one winter as the garden blooms with the cooling weather. Rumer Godden has a kind of genius for taking us inside the minds of children. She also has a gift for lyrical descriptions of nature. The slow, gentle story of Harriet's growing up is well done and the darker undercurrents keep up enough suspense that I raced my way towards the finish perhaps too quickly to really savor the poetry.
Three and a half stars. Not quite as strong as The Greengage Summer or An Episode of Sparrows or Godden's other India book The Peacock Spring, but still well worth a read.
Content rating G. Some mild discussion of puberty and one rather terrifying event but overall a clean read.
In the opening pages we meet Harriet, who longs to be special, to be something great in the world. She writes poetry and misses her sister Bea, who is already in her teens, beautiful and swiftly growing away. Harriet, left on her own, tries playing with her younger brother but Bogey is more interested in ants and the snake than any games Harriet might want to play. Victoria, the youngest of the siblings is too young to be much company, either. So Harriet dreams, writes in her secret book and spends long hours communing with her cork tree and the river.
Into this garden comes a man--a soldier, an amputee who had been tortured as a prisoner of war and managed to escape the enemy but not the wounds to his body and spirit. Captain John finds healing in the garden and in the company of the children. And perhaps there is more....Harriet notices how often, and how carefully, John looks at Bea.
The story unfolds over one winter as the garden blooms with the cooling weather. Rumer Godden has a kind of genius for taking us inside the minds of children. She also has a gift for lyrical descriptions of nature. The slow, gentle story of Harriet's growing up is well done and the darker undercurrents keep up enough suspense that I raced my way towards the finish perhaps too quickly to really savor the poetry.
Three and a half stars. Not quite as strong as The Greengage Summer or An Episode of Sparrows or Godden's other India book The Peacock Spring, but still well worth a read.
Content rating G. Some mild discussion of puberty and one rather terrifying event but overall a clean read.
November 9, 2025
I picked this up because I was inspired by my friend Melody’s latest Substack post (Mirrored Longings—it’s excellent!) to pick up a short work of fiction. It was a nice change after a month of long Victober reads. The introduction for the Virago edition from 2025 uses the word impressionistic for the novel, and I like that a lot. It’s like an Impressionist painting. The colors and setting are vibrant; Harriet’s world is full of scents and sights and sounds. There is a strong sense of being. Pre-teen Harriet is so very much herself even as she is torn between her fading childhood world of absorbed play and the coming adult world of reality. There is a real tragedy and a real birth. But it’s all slightly hazy too. There is the soothing beauty and rhythm of the prose itself as it glides by so effortlessly. There is the ever-present river in the narrative that absorbs both life and death and keeps on flowing. It’s such an interesting effect.
I can see this being a novel I revisit many times. Harriet is one of those sensitive, precocious children I love to read about. Her relationship with her siblings is captured so well. Captain John and Nan are dear characters, perfect for Harriet’s curious, questioning mind and warm heart.
I can see this being a novel I revisit many times. Harriet is one of those sensitive, precocious children I love to read about. Her relationship with her siblings is captured so well. Captain John and Nan are dear characters, perfect for Harriet’s curious, questioning mind and warm heart.
November 7, 2025
Somehow I got this confused with Godden's The Dark Horse. Not the same premise at all but the same author. Ah well!
The River is about Harriet, a pre-teen, and her family, who live in India in quite the religiously diverse household. (There was quite some time between Godden writing this novel, becoming interested in the Catholic Church, and converting, though I could tell she had sympathies with Catholicism!) The relationship between Harriet and Bea reminded me of Little Women in many ways, though Godden leaves most things unspoken (including the reason I put this on my "Menarche" shelf, which is pretty much honorary for this title; the conversation between mother and daughters is abruptly cut off by the narrator). The River has a totally different setting and tone, and Harriet and Bea are younger than Meg and Jo, but I find thematic resonances.
I loved the character of Captain John; I'd read a much longer book about him! Harriet is an aspiring writer, and that was a great part of the story. Valerie, the snotty neighbor that Harriet dislikes, must have been disliked by the typesetter of my copy (published in 1949) because her name was misspelled several times as Valierie. That gave me a good giggle.
This is one of those books that is deceptively short, but in which so much goes on! The image of the river, the themes of life and death and maturation, and the richly detailed setting leave me with a lot to think about. Very enjoyable Rumer Godden for me!
Content warnings: child death
The River is about Harriet, a pre-teen, and her family, who live in India in quite the religiously diverse household. (There was quite some time between Godden writing this novel, becoming interested in the Catholic Church, and converting, though I could tell she had sympathies with Catholicism!) The relationship between Harriet and Bea reminded me of Little Women in many ways, though Godden leaves most things unspoken (including the reason I put this on my "Menarche" shelf, which is pretty much honorary for this title; the conversation between mother and daughters is abruptly cut off by the narrator). The River has a totally different setting and tone, and Harriet and Bea are younger than Meg and Jo, but I find thematic resonances.
I loved the character of Captain John; I'd read a much longer book about him! Harriet is an aspiring writer, and that was a great part of the story. Valerie, the snotty neighbor that Harriet dislikes, must have been disliked by the typesetter of my copy (published in 1949) because her name was misspelled several times as Valierie. That gave me a good giggle.
This is one of those books that is deceptively short, but in which so much goes on! The image of the river, the themes of life and death and maturation, and the richly detailed setting leave me with a lot to think about. Very enjoyable Rumer Godden for me!
Content warnings: child death
November 30, 2025
En el postfacio, escrito por la propia autora, Godden deja entrever que le desagradó que la adaptación que el francés Jean Renoir efectuó en 1951 tuviera escasa relación con el relato que ella traza en esta novelita, que según aclara en ese mismo postfacio, fue fruto de la inspiración, aunque a mí me parece que tiene bastantes elementos construidos para poder expresar esa visión melosa que, cómo pensó Héraclito, equipara el curso de los ríos con los cursos de la existencia humana, con toda su vida alrededor, con sus constantes ciclos, dónde todo cambia y sin embargo se parece al mismo tiempo.
Personalmente admito que la adaptación cinematográfica es de las que menos me ha gustado de Jean Renoir, cosa que no ha evitado que me pareciera buena idea el leer una novela tan breve. También tenía la idea que, de la misma forma que las imágenes cinematográficas ofrece puntos que la palabra escrita nunca podrá alcanzar, también la palabra escrita permite puntualizaciones y precisiones que quedan aplastadas frente al embeleso de las imágenes. En ese sentido las descripciones que realiza Godden de sus recuerdos de infancia en la India tienen un aire más personal, los detalles escogidos adquieren cierta tonalidad particular y que, al ser contrastados con los otros pasajes, se conjuntan y adquieren una agradable visión poética.
El haber visto antes la adaptación cinematográfica y después haber hallado su fuente original también me ha permitido comprender los presagios que la autora introduce entorno al hecho más dramático de la narración. Hay muchas serpientes, señales de peligros, referencias a la muerte, detalles que pueden pasar por alto cuando los lees por primera vez, así que supongo que la novela está pensada para ser leída varias veces, la única forma de poder alcanzar toda su dimensión como narración lírica.
Si bien supongo que un indio no lo verá con los mismos ojos, de la misma forma que tampoco les gusta Kipling, dado que la novelita también es una visión melosa y ensimismada del colonialismo británico, lo cierto es que también encontramos una mirada que observa como ese ciclo vital afecta a dos hermanas: Bea, la mayor y que ya está a las puertas de la vida adulta, y Harriet, que justo se está desarrollando y abandonando la infancia. Numerosas reflexiones entorno a los cambios del cuerpo, los cambios de hábitos, las diferencias de percepción del mundo infantil y el mundo adulto que se encajan en un panorama más amplio, en el cual las vidas humanas se desarrollan comunicándose con la naturaleza, los bosques y los jardines de la India, y sobre todo con el río, un gran río asiático, con sus propios sonidos e imágenes particulares, sus propios habitantes y secretos sólo accesibles para quien invierte su tiempo en sus riveras.
Al inicio de la novela las hermanas estudian las declinaciones del latín para amor y guerra (amo y bellum), que sin duda son las claves de la novelita, pues en su escueto espacio se da cabida tanto a ese ciclo de escala menor, el del crecimiento de las dos hermanas, y otro mayor, que es del de la vida y la muerte. Porque en El río hay muerte y alumbramiento, noche y día, comienza con un festival para celebrar la llegada del invierno y finaliza cuando florece la primavera, los ciclos de las estaciones contrastan con la vejez de los edificios religiosos, y el curso de las aguas jamás se detiene, sirviendo de marco para que los constantes e incontables barcos de vapor realicen sus travesías.
Todo eso me parece bien, es quizás lo que a grandes rasgos me ha gustado. Pero luego la relación entre las dos hermanas y su particular e incómodo acercamiento al capitán John, soldado superviviente de la Gran Guerra, ya no me dice gran cosa, en verdad me resultaron superfluas, pero claro, una novela trata de personas y por lo tanto son necesarias si autora se proponía escribir una novela poética acerca de su infancia. En todo caso me parece que no me ha marcado apenas. Si bien, pasados casi veinte años desde que la vi sigo recordando escenas e imágenes de la adaptación de Jean Renoir, en cambio me parece que la novelita de Godden caerá pronto en el saco del olvido.
Personalmente admito que la adaptación cinematográfica es de las que menos me ha gustado de Jean Renoir, cosa que no ha evitado que me pareciera buena idea el leer una novela tan breve. También tenía la idea que, de la misma forma que las imágenes cinematográficas ofrece puntos que la palabra escrita nunca podrá alcanzar, también la palabra escrita permite puntualizaciones y precisiones que quedan aplastadas frente al embeleso de las imágenes. En ese sentido las descripciones que realiza Godden de sus recuerdos de infancia en la India tienen un aire más personal, los detalles escogidos adquieren cierta tonalidad particular y que, al ser contrastados con los otros pasajes, se conjuntan y adquieren una agradable visión poética.
El haber visto antes la adaptación cinematográfica y después haber hallado su fuente original también me ha permitido comprender los presagios que la autora introduce entorno al hecho más dramático de la narración. Hay muchas serpientes, señales de peligros, referencias a la muerte, detalles que pueden pasar por alto cuando los lees por primera vez, así que supongo que la novela está pensada para ser leída varias veces, la única forma de poder alcanzar toda su dimensión como narración lírica.
Si bien supongo que un indio no lo verá con los mismos ojos, de la misma forma que tampoco les gusta Kipling, dado que la novelita también es una visión melosa y ensimismada del colonialismo británico, lo cierto es que también encontramos una mirada que observa como ese ciclo vital afecta a dos hermanas: Bea, la mayor y que ya está a las puertas de la vida adulta, y Harriet, que justo se está desarrollando y abandonando la infancia. Numerosas reflexiones entorno a los cambios del cuerpo, los cambios de hábitos, las diferencias de percepción del mundo infantil y el mundo adulto que se encajan en un panorama más amplio, en el cual las vidas humanas se desarrollan comunicándose con la naturaleza, los bosques y los jardines de la India, y sobre todo con el río, un gran río asiático, con sus propios sonidos e imágenes particulares, sus propios habitantes y secretos sólo accesibles para quien invierte su tiempo en sus riveras.
Al inicio de la novela las hermanas estudian las declinaciones del latín para amor y guerra (amo y bellum), que sin duda son las claves de la novelita, pues en su escueto espacio se da cabida tanto a ese ciclo de escala menor, el del crecimiento de las dos hermanas, y otro mayor, que es del de la vida y la muerte. Porque en El río hay muerte y alumbramiento, noche y día, comienza con un festival para celebrar la llegada del invierno y finaliza cuando florece la primavera, los ciclos de las estaciones contrastan con la vejez de los edificios religiosos, y el curso de las aguas jamás se detiene, sirviendo de marco para que los constantes e incontables barcos de vapor realicen sus travesías.
Todo eso me parece bien, es quizás lo que a grandes rasgos me ha gustado. Pero luego la relación entre las dos hermanas y su particular e incómodo acercamiento al capitán John, soldado superviviente de la Gran Guerra, ya no me dice gran cosa, en verdad me resultaron superfluas, pero claro, una novela trata de personas y por lo tanto son necesarias si autora se proponía escribir una novela poética acerca de su infancia. En todo caso me parece que no me ha marcado apenas. Si bien, pasados casi veinte años desde que la vi sigo recordando escenas e imágenes de la adaptación de Jean Renoir, en cambio me parece que la novelita de Godden caerá pronto en el saco del olvido.
May 6, 2016
This novella creates an unforgettable combination of unique personalities and sublime conversations among them. But centered in all is Harriet. Harriet who is at the cusp of girlhood/womanhood's brink. Her sister, Bea, is a focus but also had, for me, a retreating and nearly spectral aspect toward connections. Her brother is one of the two "littles" (Vickie a round cherub is the other) and this leaves Harriet with a cork tree, her favorite place in a "hole" and knowing that it will all soon change. And far more quickly then she would desire.
There are other main characters, and one who has been core injured in the war. And he looks at Bea and Harriet is jealous of that attention. He is now recuperating in the "Red House" which is used for the assistants in Harriet's father's jute business.
The River, the physical nature of surrounding florid India drips from every leaf and nook of plantings during this Winter season. All is described to a taste, aroma, blinding visual degree. During both the Feast of Lights (Indian) and Christmas (European) - the family has company and happy family times. Yet it leaves Harriet hanging on a brink and her Mother awaiting a new baby in just a few months.
Cycles of life in all of its mixtures. Mixtures of growth and change. Unwanted but eventual as the karma in a fortune telling token of melted foil "game" played at the holiday party.
Innocent of ignorance toward the body also forced to be lost- with the traumatic guilty hurt for a tragedy pushing the growth toward adulthood to burst the bud.
Outstanding for the exact moments of poignancy which are depicted here! And the brilliant throbbing living environment of the gardens hides true reality, of course.
Almost from the first page, I did realize I had read this many, many years ago. And yet went on to read it again. At this age I understand Nan completely. Before, in middle age, I thought her cold and distant.
Rumer Godden writes of her girlhood India during the first half of the 20th century using the same descriptions in similar words and phrases as in her other Indian placed novels. But parts are always added of deeper detail and exchange and turned aspect. So if you read more than 2 or 3, you recognize "home".
There are other main characters, and one who has been core injured in the war. And he looks at Bea and Harriet is jealous of that attention. He is now recuperating in the "Red House" which is used for the assistants in Harriet's father's jute business.
The River, the physical nature of surrounding florid India drips from every leaf and nook of plantings during this Winter season. All is described to a taste, aroma, blinding visual degree. During both the Feast of Lights (Indian) and Christmas (European) - the family has company and happy family times. Yet it leaves Harriet hanging on a brink and her Mother awaiting a new baby in just a few months.
Cycles of life in all of its mixtures. Mixtures of growth and change. Unwanted but eventual as the karma in a fortune telling token of melted foil "game" played at the holiday party.
Innocent of ignorance toward the body also forced to be lost- with the traumatic guilty hurt for a tragedy pushing the growth toward adulthood to burst the bud.
Outstanding for the exact moments of poignancy which are depicted here! And the brilliant throbbing living environment of the gardens hides true reality, of course.
Almost from the first page, I did realize I had read this many, many years ago. And yet went on to read it again. At this age I understand Nan completely. Before, in middle age, I thought her cold and distant.
Rumer Godden writes of her girlhood India during the first half of the 20th century using the same descriptions in similar words and phrases as in her other Indian placed novels. But parts are always added of deeper detail and exchange and turned aspect. So if you read more than 2 or 3, you recognize "home".
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April 6, 2020— ¿Hacerse mayor duele? — preguntó Harriet .
Rumer Godden y Harriet, la protagonista de esta novelita, me han conquistado desde el minuto uno.
La primera, por su manera de evocar, de hacerte partícipe de los olores y colores de la India, con una prosa sencilla, poética y bella; la segunda, por su inteligencia, ternura, -en más de un momento me han dado ganas de abrazarla muy fuerte- y esa mirada tan especial e inocente del mundo que la rodea.
Sentirse identificada con ella, sus pensamientos y dudas ha sido inevitable, más si cabe, en estos tiempos de retiro hogareño. Y la verdad, es que ha sido un gustazo enorme tropezar casi por casualidad -como ocurre con los instantes bonitos- con este precioso y entrañable homenaje a la infancia que, por supuesto, ya forma parte de mi Century of books.
Como apunte adicional os cuento que en 1951 Jean Renoir realizó la adaptación cinematográfica de 'El Río', por si os animáis; yo, ya la tengo reservada para verla estos días.
El mundo gira y gira...
da vueltas en su eje.
El sol sale, la luna te mira,
caen las hojas, el brote florece.
El mundo gira y gira,
cae la noche, la luz se desvanece,
todo empieza y todo termina.
February 26, 2021
Harriet's river was a great slowly flowing mile-wide river between banks of mud and white sand, with fields flat to the horizon, jute fields and rice fields under a blue weight of sky. 'If there is any space in me,' Harriet said, when she was grown up, 'it is from that sky.'
'How beautiful it is,' said Harriet. Its beauty penetrated into the heat and the ache of the hollowness inside her. It had a quiet unhurriedness, a time beat that was infinitely soothing to Harriet. 'You can't stop days or rivers,' not stop them, and not hurry them. Her cheeks grew cool and the ferment in her heart grew quieter too, more slow.
This short novel, hardly more than a novella really, is intensely atmospheric - almost more like a rich fever-dream. Some of that has to do with the author's powers of description. Flowers, trees, animals, insects, the sounds and sights of the river, the sky: colour, scent, sound.
They lived in a the Big House in a big garden on the river with the tall flowering cork tree by their front steps. It was their world, complete. Up to this winter it had been completely happy.
The narrator is Harriet, the 2nd of four children - dreamy yet observant, a girl on the cusp of adolescence. Harriet already knows herself to be a writer, and she is both the centre of this story and a spinner of her own stories. (From what I've read of Rumer Godden's life, I suspect she drew on her own childhood experiences to create both the setting and the character of Harriet.)
It's a coming-of-age story in the sense that a tragedy will force Harriet to pass from her childish innocence to a more self-aware stage of experience. Just as in literal birth, which also takes place in the novel, change is accompanied by pain.
At the beginning of the book, Harriet and her older sister Bea are practising their Latin: the declension and conjunction of 'love' and 'war'. It's very much a foreshadowing of the events of the novel. The setting is Dhaka, Bangladesh; although Harriet knows no other home, the reader will be keenly aware that this colonial 'idyll' will not last much longer. Although the year is never explicitly stated, a young man named Captain John is recovering at their home from years of being a prisoner-of-war. It's obviously somewhere near the tail end of World War II and the colonial age of Britain's rule over the Indian sub-continent. Harriet's father is something high up at 'The Works' - a huge jute processing factory which is on the river, just adjacent to their own 'Big House'. His work is part of the sounds and the traffic of the river.
'Puff-wait-puff' sounded the escape steam from the Works, and the water ran calmly in the river.
I was completely immersed in the hypnotic rhythms of this story. It's a beautifully philosophical novel, full of symbols and metaphors, but gracefully so. 4.5 stars
November 14, 2017
El segundo libro que leo de Rumer Godden y cada vez me maravillo más con la prosa de esta mujer.
"Estaba el olor a las flores velludas y redonditas de los espinos a pleno sol, y el olor a alcantarilla destapada, y a orina, al aceite de coco untado en una reluciente cabellera negra, a aceite de mostaza para cocinar y al humo azul de las boñigas usada como combustible; era un olor semejante al sol: más vivo y más intenso que cualquier cosa de Occidente, para nosotros el olor a la India"
"El despertar a la vida de una niña educada en la India que, gracias a la exquisita delicadeza y sabiduría de la autora, logra captar la elusiva y vacilante naturaleza de la infancia" The New Yorker, 1946
Ahora espero ver la adaptación de Jean Renoir.
"Estaba el olor a las flores velludas y redonditas de los espinos a pleno sol, y el olor a alcantarilla destapada, y a orina, al aceite de coco untado en una reluciente cabellera negra, a aceite de mostaza para cocinar y al humo azul de las boñigas usada como combustible; era un olor semejante al sol: más vivo y más intenso que cualquier cosa de Occidente, para nosotros el olor a la India"
"El despertar a la vida de una niña educada en la India que, gracias a la exquisita delicadeza y sabiduría de la autora, logra captar la elusiva y vacilante naturaleza de la infancia" The New Yorker, 1946
Ahora espero ver la adaptación de Jean Renoir.
June 24, 2018
La ternura de la infancia, la belleza de la India, el descubrirse, crecer, aprender a nacer y a morir. Este libro es un canto a la infancia, a la vida.
December 31, 2018
Subtle, atmospheric writing which captures the inquisitive nature of childhood with wonderful ease. Thoughtful, skilled and moving. A tender gem.
August 2, 2011
Rumer Godden had a long and prolific writing career, but her centenary last year seemed to pass unmarked. If you are not familiar with her then you have missed one of the few truly great British novelists of the twentieth century.
The River, which was later filmed by Jean Renoir, is a very short and, in parts, sad book, but in many ways typical of Rumer Godden's work: set in India, the main characters children, the theme growing up, and how to be perceived by adults as a person rather than a child. It is hard to think of another writer who can so well convey what it is like to be one of her characters, and who describe scenes and events so vividly. One modern writer she can possibly be compared with is Alexendar McCall Smith - like him she is a writer who always wants to understand why people are the way they are, and who never condemns others. Her writing has a delicacy and subtlety sadly lacking in most modern authors.
March 18, 2019
Beautifully written, The River reminded me of the river in Jayber Crow or Peace like a River, it is a metaphor for change, slow change that happens to all of us.
The River is somewhat a coming of age, in a sense of the girls are at the age transitioning from girlshood to womanhood. More then that, it is about transformation and how we need die to self in order to be reborn and fully live .
The River is somewhat a coming of age, in a sense of the girls are at the age transitioning from girlshood to womanhood. More then that, it is about transformation and how we need die to self in order to be reborn and fully live .
February 10, 2020
Na 't Hooge Nest wist ik niet zo goed wat te lezen. (Het lijkt wel of ze me bij de NBD vergeten zijn, maar dat laat ik even zo, vind het wel relaxed.) Het gevolg is dat mijn Currently Reading lijst nu op 91 titels staat. Ik was al bezig in the Garden of Evening Mists, en heus, het is prachtig. Interessant gegeven, boeiende personages, poëtische stijl. Toch liet ik me maar wat graag afleiden met Daddy Longlegs, een oud meisjesboek dat geheel aan mij voorbijgegaan was. En trouwens, het tweede deel van de Lockwood-serie begon ook fijn. Dear Enemy, het vervolg op Daddy Longlegs, kon me lang niet zo bekoren. Niets kon me bekoren, bah!
Dan grijpt men terug op een oude liefde. Rumer Godden, welke kende ik nog niet? The River.
Eergisteravond begonnen, gisteravond gehuild en gehuiverd en luidop gezegd: Godallemachtig, wat is dit mooi.
Het is maar een dun boek, en het verhaal is zo simpel. Een jaartje in het leven van een Engelse familie in India. Focus ligt bij Harriet, de op een na oudste dochter. Grote zus Bea is het spelen voorbij, en zelf is Harriet eigenlijk een beetje te oud geworden voor broertje Bogey, en klein zusje Victoria leeft in haar eigen fantasiewereldje.
Harriet droomt ervan om schrijfster te worden, af en toe borrelen er gedichten op die groter zijn dan zijzelf. Captain John, een gewonde oorlogsveteraan (het verhaal speelt ten tijde van de Eerste Wereldoorlog) die veel bij hen over de vloer komt, is eigenlijk de enige die haar zieleroerselen een beetje duiden kan, en dat helpt hem op zijn beurt ook weer om over zijn trauma's heen te komen.
Het verhaal begint met de twee zusjes die met Latijnse vervoegingen bezig zijn: bellum en amare. Liefde en oorlog. Daar breekt Harriet zich het hoofd over. Liefde en oorlog, geboorte en dood. En de rivier absorbeert alles en houdt nooit op met stromen. Ze wonen aan de rivier, vlakbij de jutefabriek.
Het verhaal wordt voorafgegaan door een lange inleiding, waarin Rumer Godden uit de doeken doet hoe autobiografisch dit verhaal is. Op één ding na: ik had geen broertje dat door een cobra gedood werd.
En daar breek ik mij nu nog steeds het hoofd over.
Ze heeft dat niet voor niets vermeld. Het werkt door tijdens het lezen. Je ziet de haviken in de lucht en denkt … foute boel. Bogey is altijd de insecten en andere beesten in de tuin aan 't bestuderen, en drukt Harriet op het hart dat ze niks mag zeggen over de cobra die hij gezien heeft. Ze vertelt over begrafenissen die ze gezien heeft.
De kennis beïnvloedt hoe je leest, hoe je meekijkt, -voelt, -luistert, -ruikt, -denkt met Harriet.
En toch kreeg ik kippenvel toen het echt gebeurde.
Godallemachtig, wat is dit mooi.
Dan grijpt men terug op een oude liefde. Rumer Godden, welke kende ik nog niet? The River.
Eergisteravond begonnen, gisteravond gehuild en gehuiverd en luidop gezegd: Godallemachtig, wat is dit mooi.
Het is maar een dun boek, en het verhaal is zo simpel. Een jaartje in het leven van een Engelse familie in India. Focus ligt bij Harriet, de op een na oudste dochter. Grote zus Bea is het spelen voorbij, en zelf is Harriet eigenlijk een beetje te oud geworden voor broertje Bogey, en klein zusje Victoria leeft in haar eigen fantasiewereldje.
Harriet droomt ervan om schrijfster te worden, af en toe borrelen er gedichten op die groter zijn dan zijzelf. Captain John, een gewonde oorlogsveteraan (het verhaal speelt ten tijde van de Eerste Wereldoorlog) die veel bij hen over de vloer komt, is eigenlijk de enige die haar zieleroerselen een beetje duiden kan, en dat helpt hem op zijn beurt ook weer om over zijn trauma's heen te komen.
Het verhaal begint met de twee zusjes die met Latijnse vervoegingen bezig zijn: bellum en amare. Liefde en oorlog. Daar breekt Harriet zich het hoofd over. Liefde en oorlog, geboorte en dood. En de rivier absorbeert alles en houdt nooit op met stromen. Ze wonen aan de rivier, vlakbij de jutefabriek.
Het verhaal wordt voorafgegaan door een lange inleiding, waarin Rumer Godden uit de doeken doet hoe autobiografisch dit verhaal is. Op één ding na: ik had geen broertje dat door een cobra gedood werd.
En daar breek ik mij nu nog steeds het hoofd over.
Ze heeft dat niet voor niets vermeld. Het werkt door tijdens het lezen. Je ziet de haviken in de lucht en denkt … foute boel. Bogey is altijd de insecten en andere beesten in de tuin aan 't bestuderen, en drukt Harriet op het hart dat ze niks mag zeggen over de cobra die hij gezien heeft. Ze vertelt over begrafenissen die ze gezien heeft.
De kennis beïnvloedt hoe je leest, hoe je meekijkt, -voelt, -luistert, -ruikt, -denkt met Harriet.
En toch kreeg ik kippenvel toen het echt gebeurde.
Godallemachtig, wat is dit mooi.
March 24, 2019
Hace unos años compré una edición de este libro en una sección de saldos a un euro. No esperaba nada y me encontré con una joya. En aquel momento creo que estaba descatalogado y lo regalé. Podía haber buscado entre los libros de segundo mano, quizás hasta lo hice, pero también es cierto que me olvidé de él, de la compra de un nuevo ejemplar en realidad, no del libro en sí. Hace unos días vi que Acantilado lo había publicado de nuevo y no pude resistir la tentación, ni de comprarlo ni de leerlo, y eso que lo abrí con un poquito de miedo. El recuerdo era tan grato que temía que hubiera enmascarado la realidad. Pero no. Esta segunda lectura ha sido tan grata como la primera.
En esta nueva edición me he encontrado con que el prefacio, ahora es postfacio, decisión acertadísima. Los comentarios de la autora que en la edición de Roca funcionaban como prólogo, son muy interesantes, pero dan detalles que es delicioso descubrir a medida que se lee.
En esta nueva edición me he encontrado con que el prefacio, ahora es postfacio, decisión acertadísima. Los comentarios de la autora que en la edición de Roca funcionaban como prólogo, son muy interesantes, pero dan detalles que es delicioso descubrir a medida que se lee.
December 23, 2025
Found a copy for 1$ at a bookstore in Brooklyn. I had memories of reading this as a child (I remembered best the one big thing that happens and the snotty girl neighbor). A really nice read about growing up as an English girl in India but mostly describing her inner thoughts and the garden in which her imagination runs wild.
December 17, 2019
Aunque en un principio me costó un poco entrar, luego la atmósfera me capturó.
Pero desde luego si he de quedarme con algo, es con los diálogos y las relfexiones de la narradora sobre su entorno y las personas que la rodean.
Creo que es un libro que plasma imágenes en tu cabeza mientras lees de una manera fascinante, pero sobre todo te deja la impronta de los personajes que lo habitan.
No le pongo 5 estrellas porque no me ha llegado a calar del todo y en muchos momentos, me he sentido más fuera que dentro de la historia. Pero sin duda lo recomiendo. Se disfruta.
Pero desde luego si he de quedarme con algo, es con los diálogos y las relfexiones de la narradora sobre su entorno y las personas que la rodean.
Creo que es un libro que plasma imágenes en tu cabeza mientras lees de una manera fascinante, pero sobre todo te deja la impronta de los personajes que lo habitan.
No le pongo 5 estrellas porque no me ha llegado a calar del todo y en muchos momentos, me he sentido más fuera que dentro de la historia. Pero sin duda lo recomiendo. Se disfruta.
September 30, 2017
Today, I was wondering while reading this book, that if the description in a book is good (in this book, it is so so good) and if a book has so much of subtle heart into it, like this book, then, we start caring about the characters and the events and the places and everything, as if a deep, soft, subtle, existential connection has been made between our soul and the soul of the writer, as if, the river of our soul is delighted with all the gentle, soft and sweet touches which the book offers. Such is the effect of this little gem like book on me. It sweetly and tenderly penetrated me. And everytime I pick it up, I feel the joy of inhaling a sweet fragrance and I feel the tender depths of the sound of waves of a river. I have read many books by many authors but this book is special, will always have a special place reserved in my heart.
January 28, 2019
This wasn't an enjoyable read. The characters were irritating and annoying and I couldn't feel any connection to them. Through most of the book, I couldn't sense any genuine kindness. In the afterward, it said it held humor but I didn't laugh anywhere in the book. The writing was choppy, too.
June 27, 2018
Some really beautiful and lyrical language, but not much in the way of plot.
September 8, 2024
A rather lovely and touching read, The River is a beautifully written love letter to India and to adolescence and to all that comes with it. It’s very sweet and the way it explores feelings of alienation and a young girl’s experiences feels very true to life.
May 17, 2015
This novel (novella really – even bulked out with short stories, an introduction and a preface it’s still barely 200 pages) explores childhood, and specifically that moment when you wake up from the idyll of innocence and start to see the rest of the world and understand that growing up means change.
At the start of the book Harriet is the classic middle child (though she’s actually the second of four, but Victoria is still very young) – caught between her terribly sensible older sister Bea and her wild younger brother Bogey. She is at once eager to grow up, and purely, blissfully happy with her life in the big house with the big garden backing on to a wide river teeming with life. She writes in a notebook that she hides in the cork tree that is indisputably hers, and absorbs all the details of the world around her.
See my full review: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/reprints-i...
At the start of the book Harriet is the classic middle child (though she’s actually the second of four, but Victoria is still very young) – caught between her terribly sensible older sister Bea and her wild younger brother Bogey. She is at once eager to grow up, and purely, blissfully happy with her life in the big house with the big garden backing on to a wide river teeming with life. She writes in a notebook that she hides in the cork tree that is indisputably hers, and absorbs all the details of the world around her.
See my full review: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/reprints-i...
October 16, 2024
Starts out slow - leisurely paced - but it absorbs and absorbs until you're completely immersed. The story of a pre-pubescent English girl growing up in Bengal during the second world war. It's a coming of age story. The writing is luminous. There is great sorrow, joy and angst. This a short novel - under two hundred pages - and yet it doesn't skimp on story. This is for fans of A Passage to India and Heat and Dust - and Godden is the author of Black Narcissus.
December 13, 2009
This book was very short and very vivid. A book about a young girl living and growing up in India and the tragedy that befalls her family. As with all of Godden's books, you truly grow to love and cherish the characters she brings to life with her prose. I found myself wishing Icould flash forward and find out what happens to this family 10 years later...
March 13, 2018
I think that when you read the book it isn't very good and moves very slow. If you read in between the lines it becomes rather dark like how Captain John spends time with the children a lot. In this closer to the middle Harriet starts to understand becoming a woman and the responsibilities of it. Overall i wouldn't read this book again or recommend it but it isn't the worst book
September 4, 2022
‘it is too hard to be a person. you don’t only have to go on and on. you have to be — You have to be tall as well’
well u know what rumer godden u make a point and sometimes i just don’t want to be tall
this had two short stories at the end too, the first was called the red doe and the second the black ram, the black ram was very sad, didn’t like jassoof having to leave the injured goat on the snowy mountain so he didn’t freeze to death too, actually very awful. red doe was about someone killing a doe n feeling all weird about it and then getting married
anyway the river:
good, sad, i liked it. tldr is basically big bad snakes and siblings and poems. idk how old captain john was but was giving slightly nonce vibes i reckon. interesting this was snake heavy as me n my mum were having a conversation about snakes in india last week and how seriously everyone took them, my ma once put a toy snake in my grandads suitcase and he took it outside to kill before he realised it was made of rubber. makes the point of that if ur in rural india and get bitten by a big sup then that’s curtains for u rlly isn’t it. liked the bit about growing up and having to make peace in urself about that and how relationships between siblings change and adjust as they all grow and change
well u know what rumer godden u make a point and sometimes i just don’t want to be tall
this had two short stories at the end too, the first was called the red doe and the second the black ram, the black ram was very sad, didn’t like jassoof having to leave the injured goat on the snowy mountain so he didn’t freeze to death too, actually very awful. red doe was about someone killing a doe n feeling all weird about it and then getting married
anyway the river:
good, sad, i liked it. tldr is basically big bad snakes and siblings and poems. idk how old captain john was but was giving slightly nonce vibes i reckon. interesting this was snake heavy as me n my mum were having a conversation about snakes in india last week and how seriously everyone took them, my ma once put a toy snake in my grandads suitcase and he took it outside to kill before he realised it was made of rubber. makes the point of that if ur in rural india and get bitten by a big sup then that’s curtains for u rlly isn’t it. liked the bit about growing up and having to make peace in urself about that and how relationships between siblings change and adjust as they all grow and change
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