What do you think?
Rate this book
Green Dolphin Country
A haunting love story set in the Channel Islands and New Zealand in the 19th century.
William Ozanne, whose hypnotic, masculine presence made two sisters adore him with all their heart... The two beautiful daughters of a wealthy merchant of the Channel Islands fall in love with the same man, are very diferent. Marianne, the eldest sister is brilliant, passionate, and moody, by whom William was both fascinated and repelled... And Marguerite, the younger sister is pretty, dreamy and quietly, whom William adored.
The sisters had both loved him for years. He has gone abroad to seek his fortune to New Zealand. Now they were waiting for him to return from his journeys and claim his bride. But drunkenly he addresses his proposal to the wrong sister.
Though the book is fiction, and the characters not portraits, it is based on fact. A stunning tale of loss and self-sacrifice, it is truly one of the most memorable love stories of the last century.
William Ozanne, whose hypnotic, masculine presence made two sisters adore him with all their heart... The two beautiful daughters of a wealthy merchant of the Channel Islands fall in love with the same man, are very diferent. Marianne, the eldest sister is brilliant, passionate, and moody, by whom William was both fascinated and repelled... And Marguerite, the younger sister is pretty, dreamy and quietly, whom William adored.
The sisters had both loved him for years. He has gone abroad to seek his fortune to New Zealand. Now they were waiting for him to return from his journeys and claim his bride. But drunkenly he addresses his proposal to the wrong sister.
Though the book is fiction, and the characters not portraits, it is based on fact. A stunning tale of loss and self-sacrifice, it is truly one of the most memorable love stories of the last century.
752 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1944
211 people are currently reading
3799 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Goudge
64 books891 followersElizabeth Goudge was an English author of novels, short stories and children's books.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 406 reviews
May 29, 2019
4.5★
While there is a lot wrong with this book, there is so much that is right!
The Le Pastourel sisters, growing up in the picturesque town of St Pierre in Guernsey,
are separated by more than the five year age gap. Marguerite is sweet, sunny & good natured, Marianne is highly intelligent, passionate and strong willed. Both become infatuated with newcomer,William. Does a handsome face and boundless good nature make him a worthy choice for either sister? What follows are events that are just crazy and far fetched - but Miss Goudge says this novel is based on a true story. So the fantastic can happen.
I think Marianne is one of the best fictional female characters ever. She is ahead of her time without looking like Miss Goudge wrote a twentieth century woman and dropped her in the nineteenth century. She is deeply flawed and totally believable. William eventually grows into The racist terms (which I don't remember from previous reads when I was young, but they would have been in my parents' old copy) I don't enjoy but accept them as a product of the time.
Which shows I am a big, fat hypocrite because I found much of the New Zealand part of the story very uncomfortable reading! When Goudge has So yes, didn't really enjoy part three.
But , in the end Miss Goudge pulls all the strands of her narrative together really well with her familiar themes of love and redemption. I was moved to tears and can give this epic tale no less than 4.5★
My editions original cover;
I know it is the same as the cover on my parents' copy, because a fragment has been used as a bookmark. The illustrator quite obviously has reversed the sisters' characters!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
While there is a lot wrong with this book, there is so much that is right!
The Le Pastourel sisters, growing up in the picturesque town of St Pierre in Guernsey,
are separated by more than the five year age gap. Marguerite is sweet, sunny & good natured, Marianne is highly intelligent, passionate and strong willed. Both become infatuated with newcomer,William. Does a handsome face and boundless good nature make him a worthy choice for either sister? What follows are events that are just crazy and far fetched - but Miss Goudge says this novel is based on a true story. So the fantastic can happen.
I think Marianne is one of the best fictional female characters ever. She is ahead of her time without looking like Miss Goudge wrote a twentieth century woman and dropped her in the nineteenth century. She is deeply flawed and totally believable. William eventually grows into The racist terms (which I don't remember from previous reads when I was young, but they would have been in my parents' old copy) I don't enjoy but accept them as a product of the time.
Which shows I am a big, fat hypocrite because I found much of the New Zealand part of the story very uncomfortable reading! When Goudge has So yes, didn't really enjoy part three.
But , in the end Miss Goudge pulls all the strands of her narrative together really well with her familiar themes of love and redemption. I was moved to tears and can give this epic tale no less than 4.5★
My editions original cover;
I know it is the same as the cover on my parents' copy, because a fragment has been used as a bookmark. The illustrator quite obviously has reversed the sisters' characters!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
May 23, 2018
A long time ago, when I made the transition from junior to senior member of the library, my mother steered me towards a number of authors whose books she loved and that she thought I might love too. I read some of them then, I read some of them later, but it was years before I began to read Elizabeth Goudge, who I knew was a particular favourite.
Her books didn't appeal to me at all back in the day, and when their author fell out of fashion and her books disappeared from the library shelves I forgot all about her. I can’t remember how or where I found her again, but I’m very pleased that I did.
I'm also pleased that I didn't read her all those years ago, because I think that the qualities that make her an interesting writer are better appreciated with a little age and experience, with an awareness that life is short and may take unexpected and difficult turns.
I always liked the look of 'Green Dolphin Country', but because it was such a very big book I picked up others first. This year though, when I was looking for a book to read on Elizabeth Gouge's birthday, I decided that its time had come; and I had a lovely few days caught up with the story, the characters, the world, through nearly half a century.
The story opens on one of the Channel Islands - the author has given the fictional name of St. Pierre - in the middle of the 19th century. Two very different sisters were growing up there. Marianne was sixteen, she was dark and lacking in beauty, she had a passionate temper and she was bright and curious about everything the world had to offer. Too bright and too curious for the age and the place where she lived. Eleven year-old Marguerite was fair and pretty, she was vivacious, she loved her life, her home and her family, and she wanted nothing more than happiness for the people she loved and the world around her.
The courses of both their lives begin to change when a newly widowed doctor and his thirteen year-old son, William, come home to the island. Marianne is quick to see something happening, to investigate and to make friends; Marguerite follows a little more cautiously, and makes an equally good but quite different impression.
Marianne plans to win William as her own; but it is clear to everyone except her that he sees her as a friend - maybe the sibling he never had - and that Marguerite is the girl he loves - and will always love - above all others. She isn't a fool by any means. Knowing that she wasn't a beauty and that she couldn't match the feminine ideal of her time Marianne set about becoming the most chic, the most witty of her social circle and she succeeded; she just couldn't understand that there were some things that she could never change, that never could be changed.
William joined that Royal Navy, and he tried to secure his future with Marguerite before he sailed away, but circumstances - and a little manipulation from Marianne - resulted in him leaving before he had said many of the things he had intended to say. When he was ashore in the Far East William was tricked and robbed and couldn't reach his ship before it sailed. That meant that he was AWOL from the Navy, and that he would be arrested if he travelled back home. He was extremely lucky to meet someone he knew, and to be offered the chance travel to a small colony in New Zealand to build a new life.
Over the course of the next few years William established himself, and then he was able to write home to ask the girl he loved to sail across the world to be his bride. He was tired, he had been drinking, he had a great deal to say, and somehow he wrote the name Marianne when he had written to write Marguerite ....
It sounds improbable, but this twist in the tale was inspired by a real-life story in which exactly the same thing happened!
Marianne travelled to New Zealand with no idea at all that she was not expected; Marguerite was left at home struggling to understand what had happened; and William waited with no idea at all he had sent for the wrong girl.
That is just the beginning of a wonderfully rich tale of love and adventure in times and places where the world was undergoing great change. I had worried that it would be a tale of a great love lost, but of course in Elizabeth Goudge's hands it was much more than that: it was a story that illustrated that the journey to grace so often begins by accepting that we may not be able to have what we want most and by finding strength to do what we must.
There are lessons about loyalty and friendship, about the depth and complexity of marriage, about the human spirit in the darkest and happiest of times, and the emotional and spiritual lives of the characters at the centre of the story were illuminated so very well.
Marianne is at the centre of the story, and she a very difficult character to like. Her spirit is wonderful, but she was manipulative, she could see no point of view but her own, and there were some lessons that it seemed she could never quite learn. I couldn't ever say that I liked her, but I could understand who she was and why she spoke and acted as she did, and I believed in her; as I did in William and Marguerite.
There is a wonderful supporting cast whose stories are woven around the stories of those three, and that did much to make the world in this book live and breathe.
Elizabeth Goudge wrote that she never travelled to New Zealand, and that she researched as much as she could and imagined the rest. I suspect that she imagined too much, that many of the pictures she has drawn were not true to life, but for the purposes of her story I think that they work.
She wrote so beautifully. I loved the descriptive prose that drew me so close to her characters and allowed me to see the places they saw and the world that they lives in so very clearly. It also served to control the pace, to allow time to absorb the human emotions that are the lifeblood of this book. It is a big book but I find myself wising that it could have been bigger, that I could have stayed longer and seen more. I would have like rather more time with Marguerite, though I do understand why New Zealand was the main focus of the story.
I couldn't see how there could be a right ending, but there was, and it was so utterly right – emotionally and spiritually – that there was a smile on my face and there were tears in my eyes.
Her books didn't appeal to me at all back in the day, and when their author fell out of fashion and her books disappeared from the library shelves I forgot all about her. I can’t remember how or where I found her again, but I’m very pleased that I did.
I'm also pleased that I didn't read her all those years ago, because I think that the qualities that make her an interesting writer are better appreciated with a little age and experience, with an awareness that life is short and may take unexpected and difficult turns.
I always liked the look of 'Green Dolphin Country', but because it was such a very big book I picked up others first. This year though, when I was looking for a book to read on Elizabeth Gouge's birthday, I decided that its time had come; and I had a lovely few days caught up with the story, the characters, the world, through nearly half a century.
The story opens on one of the Channel Islands - the author has given the fictional name of St. Pierre - in the middle of the 19th century. Two very different sisters were growing up there. Marianne was sixteen, she was dark and lacking in beauty, she had a passionate temper and she was bright and curious about everything the world had to offer. Too bright and too curious for the age and the place where she lived. Eleven year-old Marguerite was fair and pretty, she was vivacious, she loved her life, her home and her family, and she wanted nothing more than happiness for the people she loved and the world around her.
The courses of both their lives begin to change when a newly widowed doctor and his thirteen year-old son, William, come home to the island. Marianne is quick to see something happening, to investigate and to make friends; Marguerite follows a little more cautiously, and makes an equally good but quite different impression.
Marianne plans to win William as her own; but it is clear to everyone except her that he sees her as a friend - maybe the sibling he never had - and that Marguerite is the girl he loves - and will always love - above all others. She isn't a fool by any means. Knowing that she wasn't a beauty and that she couldn't match the feminine ideal of her time Marianne set about becoming the most chic, the most witty of her social circle and she succeeded; she just couldn't understand that there were some things that she could never change, that never could be changed.
William joined that Royal Navy, and he tried to secure his future with Marguerite before he sailed away, but circumstances - and a little manipulation from Marianne - resulted in him leaving before he had said many of the things he had intended to say. When he was ashore in the Far East William was tricked and robbed and couldn't reach his ship before it sailed. That meant that he was AWOL from the Navy, and that he would be arrested if he travelled back home. He was extremely lucky to meet someone he knew, and to be offered the chance travel to a small colony in New Zealand to build a new life.
Over the course of the next few years William established himself, and then he was able to write home to ask the girl he loved to sail across the world to be his bride. He was tired, he had been drinking, he had a great deal to say, and somehow he wrote the name Marianne when he had written to write Marguerite ....
It sounds improbable, but this twist in the tale was inspired by a real-life story in which exactly the same thing happened!
Marianne travelled to New Zealand with no idea at all that she was not expected; Marguerite was left at home struggling to understand what had happened; and William waited with no idea at all he had sent for the wrong girl.
That is just the beginning of a wonderfully rich tale of love and adventure in times and places where the world was undergoing great change. I had worried that it would be a tale of a great love lost, but of course in Elizabeth Goudge's hands it was much more than that: it was a story that illustrated that the journey to grace so often begins by accepting that we may not be able to have what we want most and by finding strength to do what we must.
There are lessons about loyalty and friendship, about the depth and complexity of marriage, about the human spirit in the darkest and happiest of times, and the emotional and spiritual lives of the characters at the centre of the story were illuminated so very well.
Marianne is at the centre of the story, and she a very difficult character to like. Her spirit is wonderful, but she was manipulative, she could see no point of view but her own, and there were some lessons that it seemed she could never quite learn. I couldn't ever say that I liked her, but I could understand who she was and why she spoke and acted as she did, and I believed in her; as I did in William and Marguerite.
There is a wonderful supporting cast whose stories are woven around the stories of those three, and that did much to make the world in this book live and breathe.
Elizabeth Goudge wrote that she never travelled to New Zealand, and that she researched as much as she could and imagined the rest. I suspect that she imagined too much, that many of the pictures she has drawn were not true to life, but for the purposes of her story I think that they work.
She wrote so beautifully. I loved the descriptive prose that drew me so close to her characters and allowed me to see the places they saw and the world that they lives in so very clearly. It also served to control the pace, to allow time to absorb the human emotions that are the lifeblood of this book. It is a big book but I find myself wising that it could have been bigger, that I could have stayed longer and seen more. I would have like rather more time with Marguerite, though I do understand why New Zealand was the main focus of the story.
I couldn't see how there could be a right ending, but there was, and it was so utterly right – emotionally and spiritually – that there was a smile on my face and there were tears in my eyes.
February 27, 2020
I read Green Dolphin Street as a group read with the Retro Reads crowd. I had such high hopes because I've loved the other two historical fiction novels I read by Elizabeth Goudge, but this one landed with kind of a thud.
Marianne and Marguerite are two sisters, daughters of a wealthy merchant, who live on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Marianne, who is five years older than Marguerite, is intelligent but mercurial, and not as conventionally lovely or as well-behaved as her younger sister. They both fall in love with William, who's not in their social class but is a compelling personality. They all hang out together as they grow up but, predictably, it's Marguerite that William falls in love with.
William leaves Guernsey to go to New Zealand to seek his fortune, planning to bring Marguerite there once he's settled and doing well. But he's drunk the night he writes the fateful proposal letter, and accidentally mixes up the sisters' names and asks Marianne to come to NZ to marry him. (The author claimed this part was based on a factual story.) Marianne is elated; Marguerite deeply dejected. And William, when he sees which sister shows up on the boat months later, doesn't know how to undo his mistake. This is back in Victorian days, when you just didn't do that kind of thing.
Green Dolphin Street follows their lives and adventures together. There are some harrowing times with the Maori natives, and here Goudge's normally fine sensibilities let her down. It's dated and, to say the least, racially insensitive. This book was written in 1944, and if you can't make allowances for outdated social attitudes, you'll be offended.
Between that and the Drama (with a capital D) between William and the sisters, , this just wasn't a book I found appealing. Elizabeth Goudge was a talented author, but I'd definitely recommend The Dean's Watch or The Scent of Water over this one.
A soft 3 stars.
Marianne and Marguerite are two sisters, daughters of a wealthy merchant, who live on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Marianne, who is five years older than Marguerite, is intelligent but mercurial, and not as conventionally lovely or as well-behaved as her younger sister. They both fall in love with William, who's not in their social class but is a compelling personality. They all hang out together as they grow up but, predictably, it's Marguerite that William falls in love with.
William leaves Guernsey to go to New Zealand to seek his fortune, planning to bring Marguerite there once he's settled and doing well. But he's drunk the night he writes the fateful proposal letter, and accidentally mixes up the sisters' names and asks Marianne to come to NZ to marry him. (The author claimed this part was based on a factual story.) Marianne is elated; Marguerite deeply dejected. And William, when he sees which sister shows up on the boat months later, doesn't know how to undo his mistake. This is back in Victorian days, when you just didn't do that kind of thing.
Green Dolphin Street follows their lives and adventures together. There are some harrowing times with the Maori natives, and here Goudge's normally fine sensibilities let her down. It's dated and, to say the least, racially insensitive. This book was written in 1944, and if you can't make allowances for outdated social attitudes, you'll be offended.
Between that and the Drama (with a capital D) between William and the sisters, , this just wasn't a book I found appealing. Elizabeth Goudge was a talented author, but I'd definitely recommend The Dean's Watch or The Scent of Water over this one.
A soft 3 stars.
April 3, 2014
Baby, I finished the book, and I'm sorry you weren't here with me for the ending. It ended as well as it began, but, like real life, with some sadness picked up along the journey that we have to carry with us.
I want to trumpet as much as I can the greatness of this book. Truly a forgotten classic. At times I thought I was reading Dickens. I don't know why this book isn't huge. You can see by the ratings it's good - having an average rating above 4 is no easy feat on goodreads.
I'm not sure I want to tell you much about the book - it was wonderful for me not knowing anything about it except a recommendation that it was good, and letting it sell me on itself.
It's a period piece - set in the 1830's (written in the 1940's) in the British Empire, and it's the story of a few lives that intertwine. Sounds staid, but isn't.
Please seek it out and enjoy it.
April 24, 2019
Where to start...... Well I suppose the first time while looking up books based on classic movies I have seen, I came across Elizabeth Goudge's Green Dolphin Street which I put on my to read list but hoping a Kindle edition would be available, alas it did and years later decide to read it now. I will add in my spoiler section differences between the movie and the novel, that might ruin the story, if you decide to read this wonderful story. Though the movie was based on the novel, besides the general premise and following the storyline throughout but in my opinion, it is like night and day. If you could have continual soliloquies which would be impossible for an enjoyable movie and brought underling themes to be crystal clear, you might get closer to the pure majestic beautiful of this treasured novel. As I was reading I knew it would become a favorite but at the end I knew it would go on my ultimate favorite shelf here at Goodreads.
What made the movie and book so different besides what I have already stated? How can Lana Turner play a Marianne Patourel, when in the book Marianne is plain? In the movie you could make her the more believable because you leave that fact out and you put an honest Donna Reed in for Marguerite Patourel. This fact changes the whole story on film and the book deals with far greater issues because of that fact. Then add the disparaging timeline of the movie which had the characters remain fairly young whereas in the book, 16-68 age year span brings a whole new set of complications which indeed makes this book a gem.
Did I enjoy the book less since I knew the movie plot? Absolutely not!! The two are so different in my mind that every page I turned I was either shocked or amazed.
Is the movie worth seeing? Yes! I have seen it several times and look forward to seeing it again at some point!
Now onto the book, this is a work of historical fiction which I will add some quotes to explain what Elizabeth Goudge wanted her readers to know before starting her novel. There also is also in the 2015 edition an editor's note warning some insensitivity that modern readers might take offense. I saw this an expected continual use of words not in today's vocabulary but unfortunately said at times but I really can't remember a word so if used it was rare in this story. In reference to the colonization of that time, I think Goudge did a fair job trying to bring both sides forward with regards to the story. I did not highlight the warning but thought I throw it out there.
About the author,
"ELIZABETH Goudge, born at the turn of the 20th century in England, was a gifted writer whose own life is reflected in most of the stories she wrote. Her father was an Anglican rector who taught theological courses in various cathedral cities across the country, eventually accepting a Professorship of Divinity at Oxford. The many moves during her growing-up years provided settings and characters that she developed and described with great care and insight. Elizabeth’s maternal grandparents lived in the Channel Islands, and she loved her visits there. Eventually several of her novels were set in that charming locale. Her mother, a semi-invalid for much of her life, urged Elizabeth to attend The Art College for training as a teacher, and she appreciated the various crafts she learned. She said it gave her the ability to observe things in minute detail and stimulated her imagination. Elizabeth’s first writing attempts were three screenplays which were performed in London as a charity fund-raiser. She submitted them to a publisher who told her to go away and write a novel. “We are forever in his debt,” writes one of her biographer."
"Though this book is fiction, and the characters are not portraits, it is based on fact. That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after the lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her name with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable; yet it happened. And in real life also the man held his tongue about his mistake and made a good job of his marriage."
"The Convent of Notre Dame du Castel has no existence in actual fact, though it is true that monks from Mont-Saint-Michel crossed the sea in their frail little boat and founded a hermitage on the island of Guernsey. Le Creux des Fâïes exists today, and the footprints of the fairy Abbesses are still to be found imprinted on the rock, and Marie-Tape-Tout still guides fishermen home. To all lovers of New Zealand it will be immediately obvious that the writer has never been there, and I most humbly ask their pardon for the many mistakes I must have made."
I have a massive amount of highlights which you can see under my highlights and note section, if interested.
I have never read a book that brought so many extreme turbulence of opinions on so many characters than in this story. From the get go I rooted for one to feel extreme dislike soon after, some I would dislike or like in pairs but then after change my mind again, maybe liking one and then disliking the rest. In their actions, words and inner feelings known to only themselves and the reader. This went on to the very end which at times I felt so into the story, which I am generally immersed, that I felt emotional discomfort. Strange, I know but that is my way as I read sometimes.
Some other main characters, I kept a strong like throughout and that I did not waiver.
-Captain O'Hara
-Nat
-Doctor Ozanne
-Tai Haruru
-Veronique
-Samuel Kelly
This is a romance but quite a different one in that satisfaction is not always apparent and references to future and past lives to make one whole, though not even fully discussed, still present for the reader to make their own conclusions.
The colonization of New Zealand and the struggles with that brought the Maori in a fair light which has the reader rooting for them as well as the settlers, excepting certain barbaric practices which I will leave this whole part at that. I found the historical part as interesting as the main plot.
The missionary mission to bring Christianity and the whole religious discussion and storyline, I found fascinating and knowing the author's history.
How important is success and appearances to life? Is there a medium or does that success help fulfil others desires to help mankind?
Can a person change themselves and be different without an effect on their happiness and inner being?
The love we desire and the reality of how others love us is different than we love them. Duty to love where love is not present but trying to make it work in its own way.
Human desires and inability to reach them brings reality to this love story. Selfish, selflessness and a combination is brought to the picture. Feelings that should be not present in some brings almost a shock of sorts, or at least to me.
There is just so much there which makes life not so easy but a continual course of reevaluating all around. You just have to read this to know what I am saying which the movie could not even touch.
The short of it- Two young sisters meet a young boy, William whose father just arrived back to his Island home of his birth and things are for ever changed for all three.
I keep thinking, I have seen the movie what can a book offer? Everything and much, much more!!!💖💜💕💖💜💙💕💚
Old time radio link from Lux Radio Theater September 19, 1949
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...
💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 SPOILER ALERT
💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻
In the movie Marguerite is not a nun but soon to be after William and Marianne come back to the island. Marguerite is solemn but in the book she has been a nun for many years and old. She does not deny that she thinks of past love of William and in the movie no love is told between Marguerite and William but William says he only loves Marianne. The daughter in the book grows up to be married with kids and a whole section of a doomed possible marriage that William and John stop. Tai expresses his love to Marianne but she loves William but in the book she wants Tai to come with them down south and thinks of him always though she loves William.
In the book
I was amazed at some of Marguerite's thoughts and later she admits to her sister when they are both being honest and apologizing. Some characters have good and bad which kept me searching for how I wanted this story to end. I liked Marianne and dislikes her as I did William, as well as the honest to a point Marguerite. Why did William keep lying to Marianne so that she would be happy but she could tell something was off and her domineering self brought down her pride when he had not chosen her. But though he loved Marguerite why did he write Marianne's name instead, even though drunk was there more to this? Did he have a feeling that she had done so much throughout her life for him, though selfish in whole because she loved him, that he being lazy needed her more than his true love? I think he loved her in the end but in a quite different way but still a way that was what Marianne always desired from him. I could keep going but I leave it here.
What made the movie and book so different besides what I have already stated? How can Lana Turner play a Marianne Patourel, when in the book Marianne is plain? In the movie you could make her the more believable because you leave that fact out and you put an honest Donna Reed in for Marguerite Patourel. This fact changes the whole story on film and the book deals with far greater issues because of that fact. Then add the disparaging timeline of the movie which had the characters remain fairly young whereas in the book, 16-68 age year span brings a whole new set of complications which indeed makes this book a gem.
Did I enjoy the book less since I knew the movie plot? Absolutely not!! The two are so different in my mind that every page I turned I was either shocked or amazed.
Is the movie worth seeing? Yes! I have seen it several times and look forward to seeing it again at some point!
Now onto the book, this is a work of historical fiction which I will add some quotes to explain what Elizabeth Goudge wanted her readers to know before starting her novel. There also is also in the 2015 edition an editor's note warning some insensitivity that modern readers might take offense. I saw this an expected continual use of words not in today's vocabulary but unfortunately said at times but I really can't remember a word so if used it was rare in this story. In reference to the colonization of that time, I think Goudge did a fair job trying to bring both sides forward with regards to the story. I did not highlight the warning but thought I throw it out there.
About the author,
"ELIZABETH Goudge, born at the turn of the 20th century in England, was a gifted writer whose own life is reflected in most of the stories she wrote. Her father was an Anglican rector who taught theological courses in various cathedral cities across the country, eventually accepting a Professorship of Divinity at Oxford. The many moves during her growing-up years provided settings and characters that she developed and described with great care and insight. Elizabeth’s maternal grandparents lived in the Channel Islands, and she loved her visits there. Eventually several of her novels were set in that charming locale. Her mother, a semi-invalid for much of her life, urged Elizabeth to attend The Art College for training as a teacher, and she appreciated the various crafts she learned. She said it gave her the ability to observe things in minute detail and stimulated her imagination. Elizabeth’s first writing attempts were three screenplays which were performed in London as a charity fund-raiser. She submitted them to a publisher who told her to go away and write a novel. “We are forever in his debt,” writes one of her biographer."
"Though this book is fiction, and the characters are not portraits, it is based on fact. That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after the lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her name with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable; yet it happened. And in real life also the man held his tongue about his mistake and made a good job of his marriage."
"The Convent of Notre Dame du Castel has no existence in actual fact, though it is true that monks from Mont-Saint-Michel crossed the sea in their frail little boat and founded a hermitage on the island of Guernsey. Le Creux des Fâïes exists today, and the footprints of the fairy Abbesses are still to be found imprinted on the rock, and Marie-Tape-Tout still guides fishermen home. To all lovers of New Zealand it will be immediately obvious that the writer has never been there, and I most humbly ask their pardon for the many mistakes I must have made."
I have a massive amount of highlights which you can see under my highlights and note section, if interested.
I have never read a book that brought so many extreme turbulence of opinions on so many characters than in this story. From the get go I rooted for one to feel extreme dislike soon after, some I would dislike or like in pairs but then after change my mind again, maybe liking one and then disliking the rest. In their actions, words and inner feelings known to only themselves and the reader. This went on to the very end which at times I felt so into the story, which I am generally immersed, that I felt emotional discomfort. Strange, I know but that is my way as I read sometimes.
Some other main characters, I kept a strong like throughout and that I did not waiver.
-Captain O'Hara
-Nat
-Doctor Ozanne
-Tai Haruru
-Veronique
-Samuel Kelly
This is a romance but quite a different one in that satisfaction is not always apparent and references to future and past lives to make one whole, though not even fully discussed, still present for the reader to make their own conclusions.
The colonization of New Zealand and the struggles with that brought the Maori in a fair light which has the reader rooting for them as well as the settlers, excepting certain barbaric practices which I will leave this whole part at that. I found the historical part as interesting as the main plot.
The missionary mission to bring Christianity and the whole religious discussion and storyline, I found fascinating and knowing the author's history.
How important is success and appearances to life? Is there a medium or does that success help fulfil others desires to help mankind?
Can a person change themselves and be different without an effect on their happiness and inner being?
The love we desire and the reality of how others love us is different than we love them. Duty to love where love is not present but trying to make it work in its own way.
Human desires and inability to reach them brings reality to this love story. Selfish, selflessness and a combination is brought to the picture. Feelings that should be not present in some brings almost a shock of sorts, or at least to me.
There is just so much there which makes life not so easy but a continual course of reevaluating all around. You just have to read this to know what I am saying which the movie could not even touch.
The short of it- Two young sisters meet a young boy, William whose father just arrived back to his Island home of his birth and things are for ever changed for all three.
I keep thinking, I have seen the movie what can a book offer? Everything and much, much more!!!💖💜💕💖💜💙💕💚
Old time radio link from Lux Radio Theater September 19, 1949
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...
💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 SPOILER ALERT
💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻
In the movie Marguerite is not a nun but soon to be after William and Marianne come back to the island. Marguerite is solemn but in the book she has been a nun for many years and old. She does not deny that she thinks of past love of William and in the movie no love is told between Marguerite and William but William says he only loves Marianne. The daughter in the book grows up to be married with kids and a whole section of a doomed possible marriage that William and John stop. Tai expresses his love to Marianne but she loves William but in the book she wants Tai to come with them down south and thinks of him always though she loves William.
In the book
I was amazed at some of Marguerite's thoughts and later she admits to her sister when they are both being honest and apologizing. Some characters have good and bad which kept me searching for how I wanted this story to end. I liked Marianne and dislikes her as I did William, as well as the honest to a point Marguerite. Why did William keep lying to Marianne so that she would be happy but she could tell something was off and her domineering self brought down her pride when he had not chosen her. But though he loved Marguerite why did he write Marianne's name instead, even though drunk was there more to this? Did he have a feeling that she had done so much throughout her life for him, though selfish in whole because she loved him, that he being lazy needed her more than his true love? I think he loved her in the end but in a quite different way but still a way that was what Marianne always desired from him. I could keep going but I leave it here.
June 4, 2019
Marianne y Marguerite viven en la preciosa isla de Guernsey.
A simple vista nadie podría jurar que son hermanas, pues Marguerite es una joven rubia de carácter dulce y alegre, mientras que Marianne es morena, ambiciosa, algo egoísta y demasiado inteligente para el ideal femenino victoriano.
Una mañana, su pequeño y pacífico mundo se revoluciona con la llegada de un nuevo habitante a la isla, el joven William Ozonne.
Lo que en un principio es solo una profunda amistad infantil pronto se convierte en un triángulo amoroso. Este se romperá cuando William entre como marino en la Armada Real y deba embarcarse.
Sin embargo, lo que debería haber sido una separación temporal, se convierte en definitiva tras un terrible suceso. William se ve obligado a permanecer en la recién colonizada Nueva Zelanda y nadie en Guernsey conoce su paradero.
Después de años sin noticias una carta llega a la casa de las hermanas. En la misiva, William se declara a una de ellas y le pide que se reuna con él en la lejana colonia para convertirla en su esposa.
Pero cuando meses más tarde el chico espera en el muelle a su futura y deseada mujer, descubre con horror que ante él aparece la hermana equivocada.
¿Qué consecuencias puede tener un error (tontísimo) en la vida de tres personas? Pues encontraréis la respuesta en las casi 700 páginas de esta bellísima novela.
Todos los ingredientes de esas grandes historias de aventuras a la antigua usanza están en este libro: amor, un barco legendario, peligros y aventuras en países desconocidos... Para mi ha sido un concentrado de todo lo que me hace soñar y viajar lejos con tan solo abrir un libro.
He soñado cuando el Delfín verde desplegaba sus velas blancas para hacerse a la mar y me he maravillado ante la grandeza de los paisajes neozelandeses.
Si encima a estos paisajes sublimes les sumamos personajes entrañables que los habiten, el placer de la lectura como podéis suponer se multiplica. Aquí no estamos ante simples caricaturas; los personajes son profundamente humanos, con sus virtudes y sus flaquezas.
Todos son inolvidables y más porque la autora les hace moverse entre la realidad que viven, el recuerdo de sus respectivas infancias y las leyendas y cuentos que les acompañaron. Todo el relato desprende magia, y las leyendas normandas y polinesias no hacen sino acrecentar esa impresión.
Una y otra vez William habla, a lo largo de los 40 años en los que le acompañamos, del País del delfín verde. Ese país de ensueño que siendo niño en Guernsey, junto a Margueritte y Marianne, imaginó alcanzar algún día. Un sitio donde vivir mil aventuras después de haber surcado los mares. Pero la vida, como tantas veces, se interpone entre los sueños matando algunos y haciendo surgir nuevos a cada paso. Eso es lo que nos muestra la novela, lo que la vida hace con nuestras ilusiones.
Guernsey simboliza así la isla de la niñez, de la esperanza, del amor de William y de las dos hermanas y Nueva Zelanda es la isla de los sacrificios, de la lucha por salir adelante y de la búsqueda de un nuevo futuro.
Si os gustan las historias pausadas, plagadas de bellas descripciones y con un toque de nostalgia infantil, estoy segura de que os encantará esta novela.
A simple vista nadie podría jurar que son hermanas, pues Marguerite es una joven rubia de carácter dulce y alegre, mientras que Marianne es morena, ambiciosa, algo egoísta y demasiado inteligente para el ideal femenino victoriano.
Una mañana, su pequeño y pacífico mundo se revoluciona con la llegada de un nuevo habitante a la isla, el joven William Ozonne.
Lo que en un principio es solo una profunda amistad infantil pronto se convierte en un triángulo amoroso. Este se romperá cuando William entre como marino en la Armada Real y deba embarcarse.
Sin embargo, lo que debería haber sido una separación temporal, se convierte en definitiva tras un terrible suceso. William se ve obligado a permanecer en la recién colonizada Nueva Zelanda y nadie en Guernsey conoce su paradero.
Después de años sin noticias una carta llega a la casa de las hermanas. En la misiva, William se declara a una de ellas y le pide que se reuna con él en la lejana colonia para convertirla en su esposa.
Pero cuando meses más tarde el chico espera en el muelle a su futura y deseada mujer, descubre con horror que ante él aparece la hermana equivocada.
¿Qué consecuencias puede tener un error (tontísimo) en la vida de tres personas? Pues encontraréis la respuesta en las casi 700 páginas de esta bellísima novela.
Todos los ingredientes de esas grandes historias de aventuras a la antigua usanza están en este libro: amor, un barco legendario, peligros y aventuras en países desconocidos... Para mi ha sido un concentrado de todo lo que me hace soñar y viajar lejos con tan solo abrir un libro.
He soñado cuando el Delfín verde desplegaba sus velas blancas para hacerse a la mar y me he maravillado ante la grandeza de los paisajes neozelandeses.
Si encima a estos paisajes sublimes les sumamos personajes entrañables que los habiten, el placer de la lectura como podéis suponer se multiplica. Aquí no estamos ante simples caricaturas; los personajes son profundamente humanos, con sus virtudes y sus flaquezas.
Todos son inolvidables y más porque la autora les hace moverse entre la realidad que viven, el recuerdo de sus respectivas infancias y las leyendas y cuentos que les acompañaron. Todo el relato desprende magia, y las leyendas normandas y polinesias no hacen sino acrecentar esa impresión.
Una y otra vez William habla, a lo largo de los 40 años en los que le acompañamos, del País del delfín verde. Ese país de ensueño que siendo niño en Guernsey, junto a Margueritte y Marianne, imaginó alcanzar algún día. Un sitio donde vivir mil aventuras después de haber surcado los mares. Pero la vida, como tantas veces, se interpone entre los sueños matando algunos y haciendo surgir nuevos a cada paso. Eso es lo que nos muestra la novela, lo que la vida hace con nuestras ilusiones.
Guernsey simboliza así la isla de la niñez, de la esperanza, del amor de William y de las dos hermanas y Nueva Zelanda es la isla de los sacrificios, de la lucha por salir adelante y de la búsqueda de un nuevo futuro.
Si os gustan las historias pausadas, plagadas de bellas descripciones y con un toque de nostalgia infantil, estoy segura de que os encantará esta novela.
July 21, 2009
This is my all time favorite book. Good luck finding a copy, though. It is out of print. I checked it out from the Orem Library but it has since gone missing. I bought a used copy off of Amazon.
Interesting fact--this book was made into a movie in the 40s, I think, staring Donna Read, Lana Turner, Van Heflen. It has some early cinematographic attempts at portraying an earthquake. It is reasonable good.
I read it first in the 90s but reread it about a year ago. Still as good as I remember it. Don't expect a quick and easy read. The characters are complex and it covers a long period of time.
Basic plot is of two sisters, both in love with one man. He favors the younger sister but when alone and drunk in New Zealand, he writes a letter asking the older sister to come to New Zealand and marry him. (Their names were similar.) Now what does he do? Read the book and find out.
Interesting fact--this book was made into a movie in the 40s, I think, staring Donna Read, Lana Turner, Van Heflen. It has some early cinematographic attempts at portraying an earthquake. It is reasonable good.
I read it first in the 90s but reread it about a year ago. Still as good as I remember it. Don't expect a quick and easy read. The characters are complex and it covers a long period of time.
Basic plot is of two sisters, both in love with one man. He favors the younger sister but when alone and drunk in New Zealand, he writes a letter asking the older sister to come to New Zealand and marry him. (Their names were similar.) Now what does he do? Read the book and find out.
November 1, 2025
Poco más de dos meses con esta novela. Un triángulo amoroso, una odisea que lleva a los protagonistas hasta Nueva Zelanda. Hay aventuras en barco, personajes pintorescos y entrañables. Me parece que es demasiado largo, hay partes que se podrían haber cortado. Este tipo de novela está difícil que se publique en la actualidad y una nueva traducción está difícil por lo extensa.
September 15, 2010
As soon as Marianne sets her eyes on William Ozanne, after his father finally returns to his birthplace, she also sets her cap for him. From that very moment she realizes that she is meant for him, and that she would mold him into exactly the man she wants him to be. However, her sister Marguerite falls in love with him as well, a pure, giving love that asks for nothing in return. After emigrating to New Zealand to make a new life for himself as an adult, he writes home to ask his love to join him in the New World -- except he mixes up the names of the sisters. What follows is a hard look of what it means to give up everything to make someone else happy, and how one can find peace and happiness in return. And finally at the end, the one who had thought she had lost it all years and years ago, and had been living a lie all this time, realizes instead that she's been given an incredible gift -- and it is the making of her.
This book is very long, true. There were parts that dragged a bit, but I think it was necessary to fully flesh out each and every character. There are so many people, and each one is a completely three-dimensional character, not simply cameos that flash upon the scene and are as quickly gone again. The writing is a little high-flown and romantic, but for me it gave the book an almost soft-focus feeling as I read it.
Beautiful book, and one definitely worth sticking with.
This book is very long, true. There were parts that dragged a bit, but I think it was necessary to fully flesh out each and every character. There are so many people, and each one is a completely three-dimensional character, not simply cameos that flash upon the scene and are as quickly gone again. The writing is a little high-flown and romantic, but for me it gave the book an almost soft-focus feeling as I read it.
Beautiful book, and one definitely worth sticking with.
February 14, 2020
It's been a week since I finished this book, and even now, I'm still unsure of how to go about writing this review. My thoughts are not concrete. I continue to find myself mulling over all the intricacies of the characters, and pondering the heavy questions they themselves pondered over. I waiver between liking the story and liking it immensely. It's moving, thought-provoking and invokes self-reflection.
This book has strong character portraits, with the caste often asking deep spiritual and philosophical questions about God, having a relationship with God, religion, love, salvation, merit, worth, even martyrdom. The plot's main premise is the caste's querying pursuits for salvation, love and peace. Though the conclusions drawn should be taken with a grain of salt, and some I disagree with entirely, the philosophical questions stressed in the story are good ones and worth a little mental floss. And the questions will by no means shatter your faith; they are more for soul-searching. Readers will more likely than not take away these two things: I do not want to be Marianne; not in thought or action, or in attitude, so I'll be careful to watch my personality tendencies and keep them in check and inline. I do not want to make Marguerite's one mistake.
Regarding Goudge's style: she's a literary genius. It reads smoothly and beautifully due to her exquisite word texture. I can not say enough on this score! There are lush descriptions of places, people and ideas; areas which she dwells in often, lulling the plot. And Goudge, at least with this work, nailed the art of characterization. I have not read such vividly "real" people in quite some time.
If you decide to read this book, don't read the descriptions and don't read the introductory pages in the book - go right to the first chapter. In my opinion, they give too much away. I would have liked the shock of not knowing ahead of time where the story was going. So for a quick synopsis:
When Marianne LePatourel meets William Ozanne in the 1830s on an island in the English Channel, she sets her heart on him. However, her sister Marguerite falls in love with him too. And so begins this sweeping novel that takes the characters on dramatic adventures from childhood through old age, on land and at sea, and from the Channel Islands to China to the New Zealand frontier.
Cleanliness:
Profanity
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 82 Incidents: d*mned, d*mn, h*ll, d*mnably
Religious Profanities - 49 Incidents: God, god-d*mned, Lord, Good Gracious, mercy of heaven, God bless my soul, heaven knows, my goodness, Faith, thank God, in the name of God, Mother of God, for goodness sake, for heaven's sake, for God's sake, God knows, good God, God help him. (By gad, begod, begorra are used numerous times throughout the book.)
Scatological Terms - 9 Incidents: bl**dy
Derogatory Terms - 14 Incidents: n*gg*rs, *ss, Ch*nk, J*p
Sexual Content
Lust - 6 Incidents: Character description: "She ought now to have been rounding out a little into the contours of womanhood, yet her body remained as thin and brown as it had always been." "William thought, as he watched her wonderingly from the door. Something possessed her, something divine that men would always worship, the selflessness of woman who givers her body to man to ensure his immortality on the earth, as divine Demeter bares her bosom to the sun and rain that the seed within it may have life. William's heart constricted painfully as he looked at the transfigured girl ... and his throat felt tight and his eyes hot as the flame of desire surged for the first time through his body." A married woman thinks briefly about a man she once loved. "Even so had Edmond and Sophie once leaned upon the harbor wall. In her passionate sympathy for her daughter, Sophie could feel the pressure of William's body against her own, and the trembling of her nerves made answer. She was her daughter at this moment. Her hands stole down beside her as though to feel for William's and her desperate happiness seemed wrapping itself about her body like a flame." When a man decides to move away, he tells a married woman that he has loved her for years. He takes her in his arms and kisses her. She does not struggle and they both feel as if they had once been together in some other life. They feel as if they were made for each other. But she says she is her husband's and he agrees (which is why he decided to move away). He departs and they never see each other again, and the woman recollects this scene a couple of times. "Marianne; her clothes were too smart for a farmer's wife, and she captivated the men with them at the rare local festivities with a thoroughness that was not seemly in a woman of her age."
Making Out/Sex - 6 Incidents: A young boy and girl kiss several times. A young woman kisses a young man quickly good bye. A naive young man is tricked by a young woman. She gets him drunk, sleeps with him and robs him. No sensual details are given. A man tenderly kisses his wife-to-be. They kiss several times throughout the book - not sensually descriptive. A young lady finds a man's kisses unsatisfying. He kisses her several times and takes her into a conservatory after a dance to propose (it is noted that he had done this before for that "love-making behind the potted plants." She is not sure of him or his character and so is torn within herself. Between a husband and wife: He caressed her as though he were a young and ardent lover, kissing her forehead and her wet eyelids, her lips and her hair. He had never kissed her like this before."
Sexual Miscellaneous - 12 Incidents: The word "breast" and "bosom" are used several times to mean chest or heart. The word "sex" is used a few times to mean gender. A mother complains of her daughter's too revealing neckline. Dancing is mentioned a few times throughout the books and there are several dances the characters attend. Mentions half naked women working in coal mines.
Mentions sailors, stowaways or mutineers sometimes washing up on shore naked. A few times it is mentioned that the natives were half naked. A woman clasps a letter to her breast and then pushes it inside her dress. A husband tells his wife to undress in order to put on a disguise. "But a quick glance showed Tai Haruru that her breast had not been cut by the flints. She was not a widow." "Her bosom was like a large black sofa." "It was white stain, fitting like a sheath over her breasts and into the curve of her waist, then breaking over the hips into a cascade of frills and flounces.. and the next was very low indeed."
Conversation Topics - 5 Incidents: This book has strong character portraits, with the caste often asking deep spiritual and philosophical questions about God, having a relationship with God, religion, love, salvation, merit, worth, martyrdom; as well as showing the caste's querying pursuits for redemption, love and peace by various means. Mentions alcohol throughout the book. At one time a main character is an alcoholic. Various men smoke throughout the book and mentions snuff.
Mentions sailor and Maori tattoos often. There is some discussion about the Maori customs of cannibalism, cutting, suicides if a spouse died, head shrinking, spirits, and there is a scene with a faked seance.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
This book has strong character portraits, with the caste often asking deep spiritual and philosophical questions about God, having a relationship with God, religion, love, salvation, merit, worth, even martyrdom. The plot's main premise is the caste's querying pursuits for salvation, love and peace. Though the conclusions drawn should be taken with a grain of salt, and some I disagree with entirely, the philosophical questions stressed in the story are good ones and worth a little mental floss. And the questions will by no means shatter your faith; they are more for soul-searching. Readers will more likely than not take away these two things: I do not want to be Marianne; not in thought or action, or in attitude, so I'll be careful to watch my personality tendencies and keep them in check and inline. I do not want to make Marguerite's one mistake.
Regarding Goudge's style: she's a literary genius. It reads smoothly and beautifully due to her exquisite word texture. I can not say enough on this score! There are lush descriptions of places, people and ideas; areas which she dwells in often, lulling the plot. And Goudge, at least with this work, nailed the art of characterization. I have not read such vividly "real" people in quite some time.
If you decide to read this book, don't read the descriptions and don't read the introductory pages in the book - go right to the first chapter. In my opinion, they give too much away. I would have liked the shock of not knowing ahead of time where the story was going. So for a quick synopsis:
When Marianne LePatourel meets William Ozanne in the 1830s on an island in the English Channel, she sets her heart on him. However, her sister Marguerite falls in love with him too. And so begins this sweeping novel that takes the characters on dramatic adventures from childhood through old age, on land and at sea, and from the Channel Islands to China to the New Zealand frontier.
Cleanliness:
Profanity
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 82 Incidents: d*mned, d*mn, h*ll, d*mnably
Religious Profanities - 49 Incidents: God, god-d*mned, Lord, Good Gracious, mercy of heaven, God bless my soul, heaven knows, my goodness, Faith, thank God, in the name of God, Mother of God, for goodness sake, for heaven's sake, for God's sake, God knows, good God, God help him. (By gad, begod, begorra are used numerous times throughout the book.)
Scatological Terms - 9 Incidents: bl**dy
Derogatory Terms - 14 Incidents: n*gg*rs, *ss, Ch*nk, J*p
Sexual Content
Lust - 6 Incidents: Character description: "She ought now to have been rounding out a little into the contours of womanhood, yet her body remained as thin and brown as it had always been." "William thought, as he watched her wonderingly from the door. Something possessed her, something divine that men would always worship, the selflessness of woman who givers her body to man to ensure his immortality on the earth, as divine Demeter bares her bosom to the sun and rain that the seed within it may have life. William's heart constricted painfully as he looked at the transfigured girl ... and his throat felt tight and his eyes hot as the flame of desire surged for the first time through his body." A married woman thinks briefly about a man she once loved. "Even so had Edmond and Sophie once leaned upon the harbor wall. In her passionate sympathy for her daughter, Sophie could feel the pressure of William's body against her own, and the trembling of her nerves made answer. She was her daughter at this moment. Her hands stole down beside her as though to feel for William's and her desperate happiness seemed wrapping itself about her body like a flame." When a man decides to move away, he tells a married woman that he has loved her for years. He takes her in his arms and kisses her. She does not struggle and they both feel as if they had once been together in some other life. They feel as if they were made for each other. But she says she is her husband's and he agrees (which is why he decided to move away). He departs and they never see each other again, and the woman recollects this scene a couple of times. "Marianne; her clothes were too smart for a farmer's wife, and she captivated the men with them at the rare local festivities with a thoroughness that was not seemly in a woman of her age."
Making Out/Sex - 6 Incidents: A young boy and girl kiss several times. A young woman kisses a young man quickly good bye. A naive young man is tricked by a young woman. She gets him drunk, sleeps with him and robs him. No sensual details are given. A man tenderly kisses his wife-to-be. They kiss several times throughout the book - not sensually descriptive. A young lady finds a man's kisses unsatisfying. He kisses her several times and takes her into a conservatory after a dance to propose (it is noted that he had done this before for that "love-making behind the potted plants." She is not sure of him or his character and so is torn within herself. Between a husband and wife: He caressed her as though he were a young and ardent lover, kissing her forehead and her wet eyelids, her lips and her hair. He had never kissed her like this before."
Sexual Miscellaneous - 12 Incidents: The word "breast" and "bosom" are used several times to mean chest or heart. The word "sex" is used a few times to mean gender. A mother complains of her daughter's too revealing neckline. Dancing is mentioned a few times throughout the books and there are several dances the characters attend. Mentions half naked women working in coal mines.
Mentions sailors, stowaways or mutineers sometimes washing up on shore naked. A few times it is mentioned that the natives were half naked. A woman clasps a letter to her breast and then pushes it inside her dress. A husband tells his wife to undress in order to put on a disguise. "But a quick glance showed Tai Haruru that her breast had not been cut by the flints. She was not a widow." "Her bosom was like a large black sofa." "It was white stain, fitting like a sheath over her breasts and into the curve of her waist, then breaking over the hips into a cascade of frills and flounces.. and the next was very low indeed."
Conversation Topics - 5 Incidents: This book has strong character portraits, with the caste often asking deep spiritual and philosophical questions about God, having a relationship with God, religion, love, salvation, merit, worth, martyrdom; as well as showing the caste's querying pursuits for redemption, love and peace by various means. Mentions alcohol throughout the book. At one time a main character is an alcoholic. Various men smoke throughout the book and mentions snuff.
Mentions sailor and Maori tattoos often. There is some discussion about the Maori customs of cannibalism, cutting, suicides if a spouse died, head shrinking, spirits, and there is a scene with a faked seance.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
January 13, 2021
Green Dolphin Country
by Elizabeth Goudge
Author Elizabeth Goudge was a favorite of my mother’s. I was introduced at an early age to her writings, and by the time I left for college, had read most of her books, and haven’t looked back. Busy, of course, with other projects and life cycles. Quarantine has changed some of that, and so a revisit to Elizabeth Goudge has her back in my reading list, thanks to retro reading groups.
This read can and should be categorized as a romance, which normally would knock it off my lists. But, my fellow readers, I had forgotten what a good story this is. It is the one of the best, if not the best, love story! It finds solutions for the hopeless, and brings reconciliation over the long timeline that spreads across generations, life and death, continents, cultures and spiritual leanings.
There are two sisters – one is a bossy powergirl, and the other a whimsical free spirit. There are parents aplenty, servants, a handsome boy, ship’s captain and devoted crew, doctor, Maoris, a million year old parrot (seems to be!), and missionaries. The setting is in the Channel Islands and New Zealand. Since it is over many years, besides love tucked in regular life, there are lots of deaths of all sorts, threatened cannibalism, marriages, babies, nuns and convents, native gods and territorial battles, clipper ships and sooooo many fancy dresses. The time period is mid-nineteenth century.
When I first opened my recently acquired old copy of this book, as my choosing mind battled between this book and another, I found this note opposite the table of contents:
Though this book is fiction, and the characters not portraits, it is based on fact. That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after the lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her name with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable; yet it happened. And in real life also the man held his tongue about this mistake and made a good job of his marriage.
The Convent of Notre Dame du Castel has no existence in actual fact, though it is true that monks from Mont Saint Michel crossed the sea in their frail little boats and founded a hermitage on the island of Guernsey. Le Creux des Faies exists today, and the footprints of the fairy Abbesses are still to be found imprinted on the rock, and Marie-Tape-Tout still guides fisherman home.
To all lovers of New Zealand it will be immediately obvious that the writer has never been there, and she most humbly asks their pardon for the many mistakes she must have made. She would also like to acknowledge her debt to “old New Zealand” by F. E. Maning.
What can be more compelling than that note? I couldn't resist. My choice was made. I read on. If anything has caught your attention here, I encourage you to pursue the path ahead. It is a great read.
by Elizabeth Goudge
Author Elizabeth Goudge was a favorite of my mother’s. I was introduced at an early age to her writings, and by the time I left for college, had read most of her books, and haven’t looked back. Busy, of course, with other projects and life cycles. Quarantine has changed some of that, and so a revisit to Elizabeth Goudge has her back in my reading list, thanks to retro reading groups.
This read can and should be categorized as a romance, which normally would knock it off my lists. But, my fellow readers, I had forgotten what a good story this is. It is the one of the best, if not the best, love story! It finds solutions for the hopeless, and brings reconciliation over the long timeline that spreads across generations, life and death, continents, cultures and spiritual leanings.
There are two sisters – one is a bossy powergirl, and the other a whimsical free spirit. There are parents aplenty, servants, a handsome boy, ship’s captain and devoted crew, doctor, Maoris, a million year old parrot (seems to be!), and missionaries. The setting is in the Channel Islands and New Zealand. Since it is over many years, besides love tucked in regular life, there are lots of deaths of all sorts, threatened cannibalism, marriages, babies, nuns and convents, native gods and territorial battles, clipper ships and sooooo many fancy dresses. The time period is mid-nineteenth century.
When I first opened my recently acquired old copy of this book, as my choosing mind battled between this book and another, I found this note opposite the table of contents:
Though this book is fiction, and the characters not portraits, it is based on fact. That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after the lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her name with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable; yet it happened. And in real life also the man held his tongue about this mistake and made a good job of his marriage.
The Convent of Notre Dame du Castel has no existence in actual fact, though it is true that monks from Mont Saint Michel crossed the sea in their frail little boats and founded a hermitage on the island of Guernsey. Le Creux des Faies exists today, and the footprints of the fairy Abbesses are still to be found imprinted on the rock, and Marie-Tape-Tout still guides fisherman home.
To all lovers of New Zealand it will be immediately obvious that the writer has never been there, and she most humbly asks their pardon for the many mistakes she must have made. She would also like to acknowledge her debt to “old New Zealand” by F. E. Maning.
What can be more compelling than that note? I couldn't resist. My choice was made. I read on. If anything has caught your attention here, I encourage you to pursue the path ahead. It is a great read.
September 20, 2024
2024 - A reread, read for the Elizabeth Goudge Book Club. Even though I read this both ways on a flight, it still took me the unusual time of a week to read – it’s dense in the very best meaning of the word. Dated depictions don’t detract from the beauty of love, forgiveness, and repentance, though they do make you cringe
2012 - A dear friend's recent mission is to loan me all of Elizabeth Goudge's books, and I'm definitely up for the task. This is an amazing read, wonderful characters, fantastic plot, and just a delight all the way around.
It's not a quick read as each paragraph is packed with details, brilliant writing, and good, meaty dialogue. The only thing that keeps it from being a five star read is that it starts a bit slow.
2012 - A dear friend's recent mission is to loan me all of Elizabeth Goudge's books, and I'm definitely up for the task. This is an amazing read, wonderful characters, fantastic plot, and just a delight all the way around.
It's not a quick read as each paragraph is packed with details, brilliant writing, and good, meaty dialogue. The only thing that keeps it from being a five star read is that it starts a bit slow.
August 4, 2024
Green Dolphin Street (also called Green Dolphin Country) is more of a mixed bag for me than some other Goudge novels had been; the spiritual journey of the main character was longer and more arduous. Perhaps because we can all see ourselves in the self-deceiving Marianne. There are some lovely passages, but I do feel that Goudge was held back by her lack of firsthand experience in New Zealand, and I would have loved to see much more of Marguerite in her convent life. Goudge effectively shows how colonization deforms colonizers like Marianne, though Goudge makes some poor word choices along the way. Though I sometimes wanted to tear my hair out at certain portions, the arc of the story is long and there are many treasures along its path.
June 18, 2025
A wonderful book!
It's 1840 in the Channel Islands. Two sisters, Marianne and Marguerite, fall in love with the same young man, William Ozanne.
I won't say which one he chooses, but I can say that this novel is no fluffy romance. Instead it’s about the high cost of loving. The original title was “Green Dolphin Country,” which was more appropriate because each character in the book is yearning to find their own “country”, the place where they feel most at home. Some look for this in the love of another person. Others seek it in adventurous places. But all of them learn that this longed-for fulfillment comes at a very high price – death to self.
Elizabeth Goudge is a master at this type of story.
It's 1840 in the Channel Islands. Two sisters, Marianne and Marguerite, fall in love with the same young man, William Ozanne.
I won't say which one he chooses, but I can say that this novel is no fluffy romance. Instead it’s about the high cost of loving. The original title was “Green Dolphin Country,” which was more appropriate because each character in the book is yearning to find their own “country”, the place where they feel most at home. Some look for this in the love of another person. Others seek it in adventurous places. But all of them learn that this longed-for fulfillment comes at a very high price – death to self.
Elizabeth Goudge is a master at this type of story.
February 13, 2013
This book is an absolute gem. I have read it COUNTLESS times and each time I read it again I fall into the world in its pages and find it hard to come out on the last page. The characters make you fall in love with them, or hate them... this sounds like a fairly generic statement but rarely do I feel anything when reading a book, this one was most certainly an exception. Marianne, marguerite ... so much could be said about them, I feel that the emotions of the characters was expressed PERFECTLY. This book stays beside my bed, its hard to find these days and it is one of my prized possessions.
June 5, 2023
Green Dolphin Country has everything that makes a book worth reading! The characters are wonderfully complex and endearing. The plot moves at a good clip and involves moments of action, danger, and beautiful romance. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, and there are gems of wisdom scattered throughout. A perfect read.
January 5, 2025
One of those absorbing, enchanting books that pulls you in completely. I enjoyed reading with abandon—yes, literal abandon of normal life!—in the first few days after Christmas.
It's hard for me to focus my thoughts, because in an epic book like this one there's so much to say—so many excellences, as well as a few annoyances, to describe—and any evaluation feels a bit adrift from not knowing any other works of the author. But here are some outstanding excellences, according to me...
More adeptly than any author I can think of, Goudge lets the reader see through the eyes of a multiplicity of characters: not just the two heroines and hero, but parents, offspring, even several friends. I usually find this sort of flipflopping between points of view tedious—typically I have my favorite characters and don't enjoy reading from less-beloved perspectives—but in this book the shifting perspective was (almost always, except in a part that seemed to drag on) riveting. It must be Goudge's genius as novelist that she can invite us so successfully into a variety of experiences that all feel both authentic and sympathetic. I lived many different lives while reading, and although it was emotionally exhausting to do so, I might also argue that such a thing is the ultimate experience to have with a novel.
It was fascinating, not to mention personally instructive, to see how very differently the same place, event, or idea can be perceived by different people—these differences of perception always seeming totally plausible and stemming from previously established differences of character or experience. I'm walking away with a fresh appreciation for why people come to different conclusions or love of different things...which has always been a bit difficult for me to grasp!
In a way that reminded me of C. S. Lewis's fiction, Green Dolphin Street offers a literary incarnation—a beautiful, story-driven exploration—of abstract tenets of Christianity. And actually, this exploration is what seems to be central to the book; it's a story where prayer, salvation, sanctification, worship, and Scripture's power to pierce the soul are main ingredients, just as much as the Channel Island and New Zealand settings or the motif of the love triangle. God is on every page, quite literally, but never gratuitously, because his pursuit of the characters, and their apprehension of him, becomes the focal point. It's another of those outstanding, explicitly Christian works of fiction that I would class alongside Gilead, Kristin Lavransdatter and Aurora Leigh, where characters are constantly and consciously grappling with what the Gospel means to their life. (Of course, there are other types of outstanding Christian fiction, where the struggle is less explicit, and the redemptive themes have to be pulled out: a different kind of book altogether.)
My main annoyance with the book was with one of the main characters. I much enjoyed her portrayal and found her entirely relatable. Because of how much I loved her, and how much I saw myself in her, I kept wanting her to find more peace as she grew older—I wanted her to have some victory over her besetting sins, to become more sanctified in this particular area—and I felt her early portrayal, and the direction the story was going, promised this. But nope—the struggle against ambition, greed, and discontent turned out to be a lifelong struggle, though at many points it seemed that turns of fortune would turn the tide. It felt like one of those books (like Gone with the Wind) where a character repeatedly wrecks her chances of happiness, except this book, with its theological framework, seemed to promise something different.
The external features of the novel were absolutely exquisite: the style, the evocation of place (especially the portions set on the Island), the sensitive and creative descriptions of nature, the historical underpinnings (the fashion historian in me rejoiced at all the—scrupulously accurate—description of clothing from 1840 to the 1870s), the sheer Englishness.
There is much more I could say. But to wrap up, it feels like every part of me got something out of this book: the reader, the writer, the lover of beauty, the person, the Christian, the woman, the wife, the mother.
It's hard for me to focus my thoughts, because in an epic book like this one there's so much to say—so many excellences, as well as a few annoyances, to describe—and any evaluation feels a bit adrift from not knowing any other works of the author. But here are some outstanding excellences, according to me...
More adeptly than any author I can think of, Goudge lets the reader see through the eyes of a multiplicity of characters: not just the two heroines and hero, but parents, offspring, even several friends. I usually find this sort of flipflopping between points of view tedious—typically I have my favorite characters and don't enjoy reading from less-beloved perspectives—but in this book the shifting perspective was (almost always, except in a part that seemed to drag on) riveting. It must be Goudge's genius as novelist that she can invite us so successfully into a variety of experiences that all feel both authentic and sympathetic. I lived many different lives while reading, and although it was emotionally exhausting to do so, I might also argue that such a thing is the ultimate experience to have with a novel.
It was fascinating, not to mention personally instructive, to see how very differently the same place, event, or idea can be perceived by different people—these differences of perception always seeming totally plausible and stemming from previously established differences of character or experience. I'm walking away with a fresh appreciation for why people come to different conclusions or love of different things...which has always been a bit difficult for me to grasp!
In a way that reminded me of C. S. Lewis's fiction, Green Dolphin Street offers a literary incarnation—a beautiful, story-driven exploration—of abstract tenets of Christianity. And actually, this exploration is what seems to be central to the book; it's a story where prayer, salvation, sanctification, worship, and Scripture's power to pierce the soul are main ingredients, just as much as the Channel Island and New Zealand settings or the motif of the love triangle. God is on every page, quite literally, but never gratuitously, because his pursuit of the characters, and their apprehension of him, becomes the focal point. It's another of those outstanding, explicitly Christian works of fiction that I would class alongside Gilead, Kristin Lavransdatter and Aurora Leigh, where characters are constantly and consciously grappling with what the Gospel means to their life. (Of course, there are other types of outstanding Christian fiction, where the struggle is less explicit, and the redemptive themes have to be pulled out: a different kind of book altogether.)
My main annoyance with the book was with one of the main characters. I much enjoyed her portrayal and found her entirely relatable. Because of how much I loved her, and how much I saw myself in her, I kept wanting her to find more peace as she grew older—I wanted her to have some victory over her besetting sins, to become more sanctified in this particular area—and I felt her early portrayal, and the direction the story was going, promised this. But nope—the struggle against ambition, greed, and discontent turned out to be a lifelong struggle, though at many points it seemed that turns of fortune would turn the tide. It felt like one of those books (like Gone with the Wind) where a character repeatedly wrecks her chances of happiness, except this book, with its theological framework, seemed to promise something different.
The external features of the novel were absolutely exquisite: the style, the evocation of place (especially the portions set on the Island), the sensitive and creative descriptions of nature, the historical underpinnings (the fashion historian in me rejoiced at all the—scrupulously accurate—description of clothing from 1840 to the 1870s), the sheer Englishness.
There is much more I could say. But to wrap up, it feels like every part of me got something out of this book: the reader, the writer, the lover of beauty, the person, the Christian, the woman, the wife, the mother.
May 11, 2016
I came away from this novel...vaguely confused. In some ways I enjoyed it very much, and in others I was left with a sensation of, "Ha ha, wait, what?" Therefore, the thing to do is clearly to take a page out of Cait's playbook and make lists (and anyway, lists are more fun to read).
Thumbs-up!
1. Despite the fact that there was so much of it that I did, admittedly, skim through a few paragraphs here and there, the descriptions are beautiful. Whether talking about the Channel island or New Zealand, or England or China, Goudge paints the landscape through the eyes of the characters and makes it its own character in the novel -- one of the most important characters, in fact. And it's breathtaking.
2. The story arcs are fantastic. I almost never read books that follow the the protagonist(s) from childhood to old age -- they always sound a bit dull, honestly -- but I was fascinated by the evolution of the very different physical and yet very similar spiritual lives of Marianne, Marguerite, and William. (Marianne's totally not pleasant, but she's still, in my opinion, the most interesting and engaging character. William annoyed me.) One of the aspects of the story I admired most was Goudge's awesome use of repetition: I love the way she "recycles" the same phrase or even paragraph to emphasize the connections between different characters.
3. It's engaging. Again, a story that follows three characters through almost their whole lives doesn't sound particularly great to me, but while Green Dolphin Street is a) pretty long and b) heavy on descriptive passages and c) more about spiritual journeys than catastrophes and dramatic events (there are catastrophes and dramatic events, they're just not the focus, in my opinion), it still pulled me in. I wanted to keep reading; I wanted to know how the characters' struggles and relationships would or would not be resolved. Many of their trials rang true with me, and I was invested in their stories. The lumber-business bits in New Zealand were the best.
Thumbs...down? Sideways?
1. "You probably found the theology confusing because it was confused." This is a book suffused with a mystical/pietistic perspective on life, and while much of it is quite beautiful and has elements of truth, I honestly felt that the core message was unrealistic and unbiblical. I could have misunderstood it, but that was the sensation I took away. Christ is mentioned a few times in His role as suffering Savior, but He was not, as I saw it, central to the salvation of the characters. Indeed, the characters seemed to be "saved" through their relationships with other characters -- either the giving or receiving of some kind of "sacrificial love." In one case a character even God Himself often seemed to be nothing more personal than a mysterious force in the background. Of course, in large measure the novel seems to be allegorical, but the message struck a wrong note. Sacrificial love toward one another is important, but ultimately we don't save ourselves by giving up everything for another person. Green Dolphin Street seemed to me to go far astray on this point.
2. Sometimes the characters left me doing the "huh what?" thing. Like, Tai Haruru. He was a fascinating figure and his story arc, too, was interesting; however, I thought from his first introduction that he was much older than William and Marianne. Thus
There are more likes than dislikes, then. It's just that the dislikes were very large ones, not just minor points that appeared here and there but could be dismissed; the spiritual message covered the whole of the story, and while it had some biblical points, I was ultimately uncomfortable with where it went.
Thumbs-up!
1. Despite the fact that there was so much of it that I did, admittedly, skim through a few paragraphs here and there, the descriptions are beautiful. Whether talking about the Channel island or New Zealand, or England or China, Goudge paints the landscape through the eyes of the characters and makes it its own character in the novel -- one of the most important characters, in fact. And it's breathtaking.
2. The story arcs are fantastic. I almost never read books that follow the the protagonist(s) from childhood to old age -- they always sound a bit dull, honestly -- but I was fascinated by the evolution of the very different physical and yet very similar spiritual lives of Marianne, Marguerite, and William. (Marianne's totally not pleasant, but she's still, in my opinion, the most interesting and engaging character. William annoyed me.) One of the aspects of the story I admired most was Goudge's awesome use of repetition: I love the way she "recycles" the same phrase or even paragraph to emphasize the connections between different characters.
3. It's engaging. Again, a story that follows three characters through almost their whole lives doesn't sound particularly great to me, but while Green Dolphin Street is a) pretty long and b) heavy on descriptive passages and c) more about spiritual journeys than catastrophes and dramatic events (there are catastrophes and dramatic events, they're just not the focus, in my opinion), it still pulled me in. I wanted to keep reading; I wanted to know how the characters' struggles and relationships would or would not be resolved. Many of their trials rang true with me, and I was invested in their stories. The lumber-business bits in New Zealand were the best.
Thumbs...down? Sideways?
1. "You probably found the theology confusing because it was confused." This is a book suffused with a mystical/pietistic perspective on life, and while much of it is quite beautiful and has elements of truth, I honestly felt that the core message was unrealistic and unbiblical. I could have misunderstood it, but that was the sensation I took away. Christ is mentioned a few times in His role as suffering Savior, but He was not, as I saw it, central to the salvation of the characters. Indeed, the characters seemed to be "saved" through their relationships with other characters -- either the giving or receiving of some kind of "sacrificial love." In one case a character even God Himself often seemed to be nothing more personal than a mysterious force in the background. Of course, in large measure the novel seems to be allegorical, but the message struck a wrong note. Sacrificial love toward one another is important, but ultimately we don't save ourselves by giving up everything for another person. Green Dolphin Street seemed to me to go far astray on this point.
2. Sometimes the characters left me doing the "huh what?" thing. Like, Tai Haruru. He was a fascinating figure and his story arc, too, was interesting; however, I thought from his first introduction that he was much older than William and Marianne. Thus
There are more likes than dislikes, then. It's just that the dislikes were very large ones, not just minor points that appeared here and there but could be dismissed; the spiritual message covered the whole of the story, and while it had some biblical points, I was ultimately uncomfortable with where it went.
July 9, 2011
This book was referred to me by my dear college roomie Diane, who was killed in an auto accident this past January. She happened to randomly mention it in one of our few Facebook exchanges. I decided to request it from the library and received a 1944 edition (possible 1st edition). It was a very interesting read. Although a fictional storyline it is based on the true experience of a man in the 1800's, writing to the father of his childhood sweetheart, asking that she be allowed to join him as wife in a new country, but he accidentally writes her sister's name, and it is the "wrong" sister who is sent. This is *not* a Hallmark movie story - it delves into character development, personality flaws and conflicts, romantic love, wrought love, etc. Much of the second half of the book was set in mid-century New Zealand, as it was being developed by euro-settlers, with some related, violent clashes in the storyline. It was often slow, but I found it thought-provoking. Perhaps I chose and finished it mainly because of Di's recommendation, but I'm glad I chose something off my literary beaten path.
October 19, 2019
GDC is probably one of the most perfect novels I’ve ever read, simply because it fulfills every element a really good novel should:
1) descriptions of settings that take you there so you really see and feel them: “The tumbled wet roofs of Green Dolphin Street gleamed like silver, and over them the emptied rain clouds had thinned to a sheen of silver grey shot through with gold, with here and there a sort of lake of unclouded sky the colour of aquamarine."
2) descriptions of multi-dimensional characters that brings them to life, and for whom the reader has genuine empathy: “the fatal ease with which she enjoyed herself led her to enjoy things which no well-brought-up child should enjoy.” Or: “She had that transparent honesty and purity and serenity that like clear water flooding over the bed of a stream washes away uncleanness and makes fresh and divinely lovely all that is seen though its own transparency.”
3) prose that thrills, and which is a pleasure to read, over and over, aloud or silently: “Pinnacles and bastions and towers of grey granite fell away below them, grand and terrrible, though softened by the wheeling white wings of gulls and by patches of turf between the rocks where withered heather and bracken took on almost the colour of flame beneath the sun…”
4) psychological and inter-personal depth: “She could imagine William deliberately doing what he knew might wreck his life simply to be kind.” or “He flirted, too, with a bland impartiality that was almost godlike. For he like women as women, whether they were pretty or plain.”
5) a deep conflict that threatens to destroy: “But there was the dark night. Very slowly she became conscious of it, and then she found that she was hugging it to her, wrapping herself in it as though it were a cloak to hide her in this hour of her humiliation.”
6) redemption: “there are more sorts of love than one, and the love he had given to her was just as worth having as the love he had given to M.”
7) a satisfying closure (and here, my dear friends, I will only reveal that the ending meets the beginning like the finishing lines of a circle: beautifully, artfully and sincerely.)
8) a pleasure read again and again. Yes, it is one of those.
1) descriptions of settings that take you there so you really see and feel them: “The tumbled wet roofs of Green Dolphin Street gleamed like silver, and over them the emptied rain clouds had thinned to a sheen of silver grey shot through with gold, with here and there a sort of lake of unclouded sky the colour of aquamarine."
2) descriptions of multi-dimensional characters that brings them to life, and for whom the reader has genuine empathy: “the fatal ease with which she enjoyed herself led her to enjoy things which no well-brought-up child should enjoy.” Or: “She had that transparent honesty and purity and serenity that like clear water flooding over the bed of a stream washes away uncleanness and makes fresh and divinely lovely all that is seen though its own transparency.”
3) prose that thrills, and which is a pleasure to read, over and over, aloud or silently: “Pinnacles and bastions and towers of grey granite fell away below them, grand and terrrible, though softened by the wheeling white wings of gulls and by patches of turf between the rocks where withered heather and bracken took on almost the colour of flame beneath the sun…”
4) psychological and inter-personal depth: “She could imagine William deliberately doing what he knew might wreck his life simply to be kind.” or “He flirted, too, with a bland impartiality that was almost godlike. For he like women as women, whether they were pretty or plain.”
5) a deep conflict that threatens to destroy: “But there was the dark night. Very slowly she became conscious of it, and then she found that she was hugging it to her, wrapping herself in it as though it were a cloak to hide her in this hour of her humiliation.”
6) redemption: “there are more sorts of love than one, and the love he had given to her was just as worth having as the love he had given to M.”
7) a satisfying closure (and here, my dear friends, I will only reveal that the ending meets the beginning like the finishing lines of a circle: beautifully, artfully and sincerely.)
8) a pleasure read again and again. Yes, it is one of those.
November 16, 2018
4.5 Stars (maybe even 5)
Even though I've heard great things about Elizabeth Goudge for years, this is the first book of hers that I've read. But it won't be the last - I plan to read more soon. She's a great story teller and wordsmith, and even though one character infuriated me at times, I loved this book.
Favorite quotes:
"It's not what you expected" he asked softly and mockingly. "Freedom? Scope? Satisfaction of love and ambition? You thought that here you'd have them all, eh? Life's much the same, my dear, wherever you live it."
"Huddled under the last of the trees, the forest with its darkness and dangers behind them, they stood and looked out at the fair prospect as Christian and Hopeful, worn by their travels, must have looked out over that valley where ran the river of the water of life."
"The sea was turquoise blue, spread all over with diamond-crested ripples, and the sky overhead was blue, too, with small clouds like pink sea shells sailing along on it because it was so early in the morning."
"Marianne had restricted the acreage of looking glass in her daughter's room lest vanity be encouraged, but in her own she saw her reflection at every turn.... It was very necessary that one should, at her age, she considered. When a woman is fifty-six years old and for twenty-four years has endured the rigors of pioneering in a new country, she is no longer in any danger of vanity when she looks in the glass, but she needs to see herself from every angle if her façade of dignity is to be equally impressive to the beholder whether he beholds from north, south, east, or west."
"... for he understood now that love is not love at all until it has paid the price."
Even though I've heard great things about Elizabeth Goudge for years, this is the first book of hers that I've read. But it won't be the last - I plan to read more soon. She's a great story teller and wordsmith, and even though one character infuriated me at times, I loved this book.
Favorite quotes:
"It's not what you expected" he asked softly and mockingly. "Freedom? Scope? Satisfaction of love and ambition? You thought that here you'd have them all, eh? Life's much the same, my dear, wherever you live it."
"Huddled under the last of the trees, the forest with its darkness and dangers behind them, they stood and looked out at the fair prospect as Christian and Hopeful, worn by their travels, must have looked out over that valley where ran the river of the water of life."
"The sea was turquoise blue, spread all over with diamond-crested ripples, and the sky overhead was blue, too, with small clouds like pink sea shells sailing along on it because it was so early in the morning."
"Marianne had restricted the acreage of looking glass in her daughter's room lest vanity be encouraged, but in her own she saw her reflection at every turn.... It was very necessary that one should, at her age, she considered. When a woman is fifty-six years old and for twenty-four years has endured the rigors of pioneering in a new country, she is no longer in any danger of vanity when she looks in the glass, but she needs to see herself from every angle if her façade of dignity is to be equally impressive to the beholder whether he beholds from north, south, east, or west."
"... for he understood now that love is not love at all until it has paid the price."
August 18, 2021
In your typical love story, girl meets boy and they fall in love, but some obstacle springs up, such as a misunderstanding, or another woman. Eventually the obstacle is overcome, however, and they declare their love and live happily ever after. But what if things don’t work out that way? What if the boy hopelessly botches things and accidentally marries the wrong girl? Can it still be a love story? Green Dolphin Street is tender, funny, wrenching, and vivid, and it will weave its exquisite spell on you while it challenges and enriches your understanding of real love.
July 14, 2025
Such a good redemption story. I think of Marianne Ozonne alongside Kristin Lavransdatter. Immensely frustrating but convictingly relatable. And a byword against pride. A couple small scruples with some points in the book but in light of such a good story they’re mostly negligible. I’d consider this “Christian fiction” but it rises to the level of real literature. This one has given me characters and images to keep before me.
April 15, 2022
What an epic journey this was! It is a journey literally and metaphorically for each of the main characters, especially Marianne, William, and Marguerite, but also Samuel and Tai Haruru and Veronique, Nat and Captain O’Hara of the majestic Green Dolphin. The ending is really exquisite, though hard won. There is a beautifully written dark night of the soul passage for each sister: for Marguerite, towards the beginning, and for Marianne, towards the end. The language later deliberately echoes the language in the earlier passage. I was deeply struck by this and its significance for these two sisters and their tenuous, tense relationship with its slow move towards humility, love, and forgiveness.
Marianne is a tough character to love. Not gonna lie! But Elizabeth Goudge writes her so well and full of so much complexity that she just can’t be other than she is. William is so lovable. I would love to have more of Marguerite’s story, but I think the real heart of this book is Marianne’s story. She is the Elder Brother of the prodigal son story. William is something of a Younger Son actually, so that is a rather fascinating connection. The irony of his sacrifice for Marianne is exquisite. I won’t say more for fear of getting into spoiler territory.
This is a long book but it almost never felt long. There is a lot more action here than in some of Goudge’s novels that are more interior. I do love those novels but they make for slower, more meditative reading. This novel was almost swashbuckling at times. Goudge’s imagination must have been simply expansive!
Marianne is a tough character to love. Not gonna lie! But Elizabeth Goudge writes her so well and full of so much complexity that she just can’t be other than she is. William is so lovable. I would love to have more of Marguerite’s story, but I think the real heart of this book is Marianne’s story. She is the Elder Brother of the prodigal son story. William is something of a Younger Son actually, so that is a rather fascinating connection. The irony of his sacrifice for Marianne is exquisite. I won’t say more for fear of getting into spoiler territory.
This is a long book but it almost never felt long. There is a lot more action here than in some of Goudge’s novels that are more interior. I do love those novels but they make for slower, more meditative reading. This novel was almost swashbuckling at times. Goudge’s imagination must have been simply expansive!
June 16, 2021
This was a very confusing book. For like the first three quarters of the book I liked it, but was overwhelmed. But the ending... so beautiful. Elizabeth Goudge exells at endings.
A note on the characters:
Marianne: I'll be honest, for the whole of the book I hated her. A lot. I couldn't bear her. She was just so prideful and selfish and unfeeling. But after the ending I forgave her. I couldn't help it.
Maguerite: I liked her quite a bit.
William: For the first half of the book I was annoyed with him, but later he was just so kind and unselfish.
This was certainly a wild ride. I think I need a break from Elizabeth Goudge for a bit.
A note on the characters:
Marianne: I'll be honest, for the whole of the book I hated her. A lot. I couldn't bear her. She was just so prideful and selfish and unfeeling. But after the ending I forgave her. I couldn't help it.
Maguerite: I liked her quite a bit.
William: For the first half of the book I was annoyed with him, but later he was just so kind and unselfish.
This was certainly a wild ride. I think I need a break from Elizabeth Goudge for a bit.
August 3, 2017
Not my favourite Elizabeth Goudge. But still
February 5, 2023
An amazing work, will recommend alongside "Crime and Punishment"
The story of how to love. I will eventually write more about this book. Right now I'm melted by its perfection.
The story of how to love. I will eventually write more about this book. Right now I'm melted by its perfection.
January 31, 2017
This book introduced me to Elizabeth Goudge. After reading the book, I scoured the library for more by the same author . I was lucky enough to have a mother who also loved reading, and she purchased others. Through Miss Goudge, I so very much! She introduced me to a world I didn't know existed, and I've been a bit of an Anglophile ever since!
Goudge's books are notably Christian in outlook, containing such themes as sacrifice, conversion, discipline, healing, and growth through suffering. Her novels, whether realistic, fantasy, or historical, interweave legend and myth and reflect her spirituality and her deep love of England. Whether written for adults or children, the same qualities pervade Miss Goudge's work and are the source of its appeal to readers of all ages, but most especially girls and women.
English bungalows and cottages, English gardens (especially if they are Secret), tea in the late afternoons, and "proper" ways of being, doing and saying. The beauty of her word painted pictures in my head of that other life, and through the characters in every book, it rubbed off! I was 12, then 13, 14 and 15 -- now at 60, I still prefer her created world.
She said, in 1960, "As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself."
My favs: "Gentian Hills" and an all time great: "The Scent of Water"
Goudge's books are notably Christian in outlook, containing such themes as sacrifice, conversion, discipline, healing, and growth through suffering. Her novels, whether realistic, fantasy, or historical, interweave legend and myth and reflect her spirituality and her deep love of England. Whether written for adults or children, the same qualities pervade Miss Goudge's work and are the source of its appeal to readers of all ages, but most especially girls and women.
English bungalows and cottages, English gardens (especially if they are Secret), tea in the late afternoons, and "proper" ways of being, doing and saying. The beauty of her word painted pictures in my head of that other life, and through the characters in every book, it rubbed off! I was 12, then 13, 14 and 15 -- now at 60, I still prefer her created world.
She said, in 1960, "As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself."
My favs: "Gentian Hills" and an all time great: "The Scent of Water"
March 9, 2016
What a bizarre and unfortunate mistake to make! Elizabeth Goudge is always a lovely read despite being not exactly modern and unfashionably nice! I forgave her for all errors about NZ - she made it clear she had never been here.
August 31, 2019
Green Dolphin Street was a best seller when it was published in 1944 according to the back of the 1970 reprint I read. It was also made in to a film starring Lana Turner and Donna Reed in 1948. I can see why it was popular. The story is about two sisters who love the same man: Marianne is the older sister, headstrong and cunning. Margarite is the younger, dreamy and good natured. Which one gets the guy? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
Set in the mid 1800s, the characters go from Guernsey to New Zealand and then back again. Apparently Goudge knew Guernsey well but she never visited New Zealand and neither have I. I have no idea if her representation of the Maori or the European settlers is wildly off base or what. I think she does try to be sympathetic to the Maori.
I am not really the audience for this kind of brick of a saga. In the middle of it, I lost steam. I definitely much preferred Goudge’s contemporary novel The Rosemary Tree.
Set in the mid 1800s, the characters go from Guernsey to New Zealand and then back again. Apparently Goudge knew Guernsey well but she never visited New Zealand and neither have I. I have no idea if her representation of the Maori or the European settlers is wildly off base or what. I think she does try to be sympathetic to the Maori.
I am not really the audience for this kind of brick of a saga. In the middle of it, I lost steam. I definitely much preferred Goudge’s contemporary novel The Rosemary Tree.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 406 reviews