A City of Bells

Torminster Saga #1

by Elizabeth Goudge

Who was Gabriel Ferranti? Why had he disappeared?

Jocelyn Irvin has just returned from the Boer War with an incurably lamed leg. He heads for the cathedral town or Torminster, where he recovers his love of life in the invigorating company of his cousin, Hugh Anthony, his grandfather, the Canon and Henrietta.

When Jocelyn moved into the little house where Ferranti once had lived, a dark Byronic spirit haunted its rooms. Was Ferranti alive or dead? Until they knew, Jocelyn and Felicity must reach out to him. Until Ferranti no longer needed them, they must yield slowly to the madness of love. So the ghost of Gabriel Ferranti guided their lives in surprising ways, and more than one bewildered heart was restored to the wonder and magic of living.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Romance, Book Club, Novels, British Literature

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Elizabeth 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.

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times this was a five star book and at times a three star one. It is full of lovely characters and quotable passages. The back drop to all this loveliness is a rather odd story. I loved hearing Goudge’s rather Charlotte Mason ideas on education. Don’t worry about the plot; enjoy the ride.

[Karlyne Landrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how Goudge writes introspection without navel-gazing, but she does it better than anyone I've ever read. Perhaps it's because she does it in company? Here's a bit of dialogue about eternity that manages to be between two people and yet personal and general,too.

"Why didn't you kill yourself after all?"
"Your Grandfather. We'd always argued together and though I was far too apathetic to be convinced by any of his arguments I remember them because of my affection for him. One of them was that nothing whatsoever, not even the existence of God to His lovers, can be proved, but that every man, if he is to live at all finely, must deliberately adopt certain assertions as true, and those assertions should, for the sake of the enrichment of the human race, always be creative ones. He may, as life goes on, modify his beliefs, but he must never modify them on the side of destruction..."

But before you get the idea that she's a sober, dogmatic writer of seriousness, here's a bit of her speciality, children:

Hugh Anthony, age about 8, speaking to the gardener:
"Bates, if I was to pour all the water over one plant in a flowerbed, would it run along underneath the ground and make all the others wet, too?"
"No, sir, it wouldn't. If you was to 'ave a drink of beer it wouldn't do me no good."
"Bates, if you planted all the bulbs upside down would they come up in Australia?"
"I couldn't say, sir, I ain't never done such a thing."
"Bates, why do peas grow in pods?"
"I couldn't say, sir, I'm sure. Maybe they're fond of a bit of company."

Hugh Anthony is described as being a vibrating question mark in his appearance, by the way.

And I can't do justice to Henrietta, age 10, so I won't even try. But I love her dearly!

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

This delicious book was published in 1936. I decided that, since #1936Club is a hashtag review-marker going around on Twitter just now organized by Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings, I'd join the fun.

It shows its age in the various creaky plot mechanisms that, in today's publishing world, would get this tome bounced out the doors of any major publishing house.

And what a mistake that would be. Goudge writes in a gentle, soothing voice about a time that, even in 1936, seemed distant and innocent. She writes about characters who, despite their predictable entanglements and pat problem resolutions, make the reader feel like he has added some beloved members to his family. These are characters whose motivations are always for something, never against; these are men and women whose basic focus is, "How can I best serve the people I love?"

For that reason, and almost only for that reason, this is a heartily recommended book. Anyone whose mental furniture includes mid-century English fiction (eg, Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels) will lap this up. Its Christian themes are not unobtrusive. They are also quite deftly interwoven into the story, such that the book wouldn't be the same or even as good without them. Modern writers of Christian fiction could take a lesson from Miss Goudge! (And I wish they would...does anyone know Francine Rivers's email addy?)

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jocelyn Irvin, a young man left wounded in the Boer War, goes to stay with his maternal grandparents in the Cathedral town of Torminster to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. What Jocelyn does not realize is that he has come to the perfect place, a town—or ‘city’ technically because it has a cathedral—but still small enough that everyone knows everyone and in this case knows what Jocelyn needs to do. They quickly set about helping him establish the best business imaginable, as book seller, of course! What else?!

Along with his lively eight-year old cousin, Hugh Anthony, and adopted cousin, Henrietta, the stabilizing force on young Hugh, who are also living with his grandparents, Jocelyn sets about his new business and life.

Of course, there must be a love interest, and in this case, it is Felicity Summers, a beautiful young stage actress who lives next door with her eccentric aunt when she is not away performing in some play or other. And there is the added dimension of the disappearance of Gabriel Ferranti, a mysterious figure who lived in the house-cum-bookshop before Jocelyn’s arrival.

Besides being a restful, happy story to read during these stressful times, I thoroughly enjoyed the many insightful quotes which laced this nostalgic novel. It was wonderful to see that almost all my favorites had already been noted by those who have gone before! Check them out below if you have the time. There are a good number which have to do with reading and books.

This is the first* in the Torminster or Cathedral Trilogy. So looking forward to returning and visiting with my friends again soon!

*I have the third, The Blue Hills, but not the second, The Sister of the Angels. :(

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle, charming parable on healing and forgiveness wrapped up in a cozy village package.

Jocelyn Irvin was wounded and discharged after service in the Boer War. He now walks with a limp, worn out in body and soul, and far too depressed to tolerate the bracing family suggestions of trying for a desk job in Whitehall or a position as someone’s secretary in the House of Commons. “He was being difficult and knew it…in pity for his family he decided to go and stay with his grandfather, Canon Fordyce of Torminster, and relieve them of his presence.”

Torminster, a small, rather somnolent cathedral town, “could hardly be said to belong to the contemporary world at all” and Canon Fordyce is definitely not of this world, given to sudden whims like adopting orphans and befriending reclusive poets.



Captain Irvin soon finds himself discovering sweet shops and other Torminster marvels in the company of his irrepressible young cousin Hugh Anthony and his grandfather’s latest orphan, a beautiful and frighteningly precocious ten-year-old named Henrietta. Then, our bemused, bewildered hero is somehow maneuvered into launching Torminster’s very first bookshop and lending library. It turns out to be just the thing.

There is humor, a lovely romance, a charming family, colorful village characters and a gossip network so efficient and clairvoyant that the whole town knows what you are going to do before you’ve even thought of it yourself.

I had to sit through rather too many church services for even this tolerant and pluralistic Jew, but the homilies and hymns were enlivened because I was seeing them through the eyes of two delightful but not-always-perfectly behaved children.

This is the first in a series of novels set in the cathedral town of Torminster loosely based on Ely, an actual and very picturesque town in Cambridgeshire, England. I'm planing on reading them all.



Content rating: a clean read.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars is maybe an exaggeration but I just finished the book and am caught up in its web, so five stars it shall be.

A City of Bells refers to the fictional Torminster, a backwater cathedral town to which Jocelyn Irvin retreats for a moping session after life has planted him a facer. A soldier (we are told, though there’s little of the soldierly about him), Jocelyn was injured in the Boer War and can no longer practice his craft. Despondent and at loose ends, he travels to Torminster to pay a restorative visit to his grandmother and grandfather, the latter an elderly dean at the cathedral, while he figures out how to drag himself through the remainder of his days.

Even before we arrive we learn that Torminster is a place not quite of this earth, a dreaming haven of peace and beauty lost in time and space. Elizabeth Goudge is one of the best describers I know, and she pulls out all the stops to make us love this setting. Jocelyn, in his depressed state, is able to see the beauty but not feel it in his bones. Soon enough, however, he comes across people designed to pull him back lifeward—a beautiful and grounded actress, the rather obviously named Felicity Summers; and an orphaned child, Henrietta, whom Jocelyn’s grandfather has adopted on impulse. (Pay attention to the grandfather’s impulses, they are more like divine interventions.)

For a while during my reading of this book I thought it was a bit immature, all about children and young love and the earth-shaking importance of creativity to young creatives. But Goudge ultimately showed me the paucity of my imagination. The tale finely interweaves a cozy British human-interest story, complex symbolism, and Christian humanism into a clear-eyed portrait of acute depression and its destructive ways. A City of Bells ended up being both inspiring and transcendent.

Goudge’s gift for incidental lucidity is something that cannot be overstated. She throws off insights with a casual grace that leaves me gasping. I am someone who never understood the magic of the theater till I read her comment about an audience enraptured by a play: “the things that in broad daylight are shadowy and dim became in that enchanted cavern where they sat the things that mattered.” Or this: “The sight of perfection was like a gate that let one out into freedom.”

As an author Goudge hits all my pleasure centers and I cannot understand why she is relatively obscure.

[Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Jocelyn Irvin goes to stay in the sleepy cathedral town of Torminster with his grandparents, Canon and Mrs. Fordyce, and his young cousins Hugh Anthony and Henrietta, he is only seeking peace and quiet. But what he finds are love, mystery and a new direction.

As Jocelyn opens a bookshop in Torminster, he is haunted (figuratively speaking) by the house’s previous tenant, a writer named Gabriel Ferranti, with whom Henrietta and Grandfather had struck up an odd friendship until he abruptly disappeared.

Impelled by the pleadings of his grandfather and Felicity Summers, the actress with whom Jocelyn is falling in love, and even more so by marked passages in the books Ferranti left behind, Jocelyn sets out to find out what happened to Ferranti. He discovers and deciphers the writer’s last work, and he and Felicity determine to produce it as a play. But is Ferranti alive or dead? And will the play be enough bring him back?

The story is not entirely about Ferranti, but his tale is a darker thread woven through the brightness that is life in Torminster. There is something magical about Torminster that beats at the heart of novel, a magic not born of fantasy but of good will, of kindness, of friendship and the power of love.

One of the things I treasure about A City of Bells is the characters. They’re all so delightfully individual. From the orphaned Henrietta with her artist’s sensitivity and her capacity for joy, to Hugh Anthony’s penchant for mischief; from Grandfather’s selflessness to Grandmother’s tart commonsense practicality; from Felicity’s glowing warmth to Jocelyn’s reserve and dogged determination, I love them all. Even the minor characters are deftly drawn: gentle little Miss Lavender; Felicity’s aunt, the eccentric Mrs. Jameson; the worldly Dean and the saintly little Bishop.

It’s Goudge’s peculiar genius to move easily between the adult world and that of children. She clearly never forgot what it was like to be a child, with all its dreams and fears and enchantments, and in writing Henrietta and Hugh Anthony, she helps us remember, too. Henrietta’s scenes in particular are among some of the best in the entire book.

And it’s clear that Goudge knew something of the theatre as well, for her descriptions of Ferranti’s verse play are vivid and compelling. In fact, all her visual depictions come alive, from Jocelyn’s first glimpse of Torminster dreaming in its quiet valley to a London thunderstorm. Torminster itself is based on Wells, the home of Goudge’s early childhood; her clergyman father taught in the cathedral school there until Elizabeth was 11. Her portrayal, based on her memories, makes the town and cathedral feel at once real and believable, and as unattainable as any paradise lost to the march of time and progress. But in A City of Bells they live again, albeit in a somewhat idealized state.

I have loved A City of Bells for over thirty years, and expect to go on re-reading it periodically for at least the next thirty. It is in some ways a timeless book, spanning both the century-plus since it takes place and the years between Henrietta’s youth and Grandfather’s age with ease. It’s a book I turn to for comfort and for peace, for a reminder of the joys and everyday magic of daily life.


Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 5 out of 5]

He saw this pattern now as a series of lovely things hung one behind the other like great curtains. Closest to him was the life of men with the moving figures of those he must love, an old man and a little girl and a husband and wife whose generosity would make their home his. Then came the city of bells and towers, then the blue hills behind it, then the sky that now to him a rich, o'erhanging firmament. And behind that? He was no imaginative child and his vision of wings and crowns was not as clear as Henreitta's, but behind the things that are seen he was aware now of the things that are not seen and in his new-made pattern they were the warp.

The 'city of bells' is the Cathedral town of Torminster, based on the real-life city of Wells, Somerset - the smallest city in England. Elizabeth Goudge spent much of her childhood in Wells, where her father was the vice-principal of the Theological College. Her knowledge of this special place - its citizens, and its rituals - provides much of the colour and background to this novel.

"I don't know why, but a small cathedral town always seems to attract peculiar elderly ladies . . . Of course, no doubt we are all of us much more peculiar than we have any idea of . . . It may be that I am considered odd myself." (Grandfather)

"In Torminster everyone knows much more about one than one does oneself, you'll find." (Felicity)

There are many lost characters in the novel, the most important of which are Gabriel Ferranti (an unsuccessful writer), Jocelyn Irvin (a retired soldier) and Henrietta (the adopted daughter of Canon Fordyce, who is also Grandfather to Jocelyn). Indeed, the parable of the Prodigal Son is used to symbolic effect in the story. All of these characters will make their home in Torminster and their lives will be bound together in a 'pattern' that seems fated in both the spiritual sense and what Shakespeare described as 'the stars'.

This book is set during the Edwardian era that would have been Goudge's own childhood, and details like clothing (there are especially wonderful descriptions of 9 year old Henrietta's accoutrements) and the ecclesiastical calendar are undoubtedly accurate. However, you couldn't really describe Goudge's book as 'realistic'. Although this particular novel doesn't delve as deeply into fantasy as some of the Goudge canon does, it has its own romantic colouring and flavour. She has a particular style all her own, and although it's difficult to pin down into words, it will be recognisable to all of her readers. She has a distinctive mix of whimsy and wisdom in her books, and there is an insistence on the importance of love. Her religious faith imbues all of her stories, but it has elements of humanism, too. Goudge's reverence for beauty, learning and the natural world create a special atmosphere in all of her books - but in her best novels; and to my mind, this is one of them - those elements serve a higher power. There is something very old-fashioned by a Goudge novel, but old-fashioned in the best way. She is the least cynical writer imaginable and I always feel uplifted by reading any of her books.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful story. This might be my favorite Goudge book so far. Really lovely.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not think another Goudge book could top The Scent of Water, but A City of Bells sure tried its best. The novels are different in story, but similar at the core. A City of Bells is funnier and livelier, for one, but with a quiet heart like a steadily flowing stream. I found it absolutely delightful.

-----

"A bookseller...is the link between mind and mind, the feeder of the hungry, very often the binder up of wounds. There he sits, your bookseller, surrounded by a thousand minds all done up neatly in cardboard cases; beautiful minds, courageous minds, strong minds, wise minds, all sorts and conditions. And there come into him other minds, hungry for beauty, for knowledge, for truth, for love, and to the best of his ability he satisfies them all." (92)

"In my experience when people once begin to read they go on. They begin because they think they ought to and they go on because they must. Yes. They find it widens life. We're all greedy for life, you know, and our short span of existence can't give us all that we hunger for, for the time is too short and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience all life vicariously." (104-105)

"I don't think it saddens people to have their heartache expressed for them in art....It relieves them as a burst of tears would." (218)

"For her a background of quiet was essential to happiness." (238)

"It may be difficult, in the face of the problem of human suffering, to believe in God, he said, but if you destroy God you do not solve your problems but merely leave yourself alone with it." (289)

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023 Review: Loved this even more on a re-read. Five stars! Loved buddy reading this with Melissa. Goudge’s characters and writing and spiritual/psychological insight gave Melissa and me so much to chew on and discuss. I had forgotten how much the trio of Grandfather, Henrietta, and Hugh Anthony are in this and how funny Goudge’s writing about them is. I laughed so many times and had to restrain myself from quoting everything I found amusing to Melissa. I was more moved on this by Grandfather’s humble saintliness and by Jocelyn and Ferranti’s struggles and mysterious friendship.

2018 Review: This book was far different than I expected and it’s a strange tale, in some ways, but I loved it. The writing is wonderful, so beautifully capturing the imaginative souls who live in the world and are deeply moved by beauty. I suddenly realized what the ending would be in a flash of insight but it didn’t diminish the joy of it. Now if only I could find a copy to own.

[Iza Brekilien · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up to 5 for GR. Short review, sorry.
This is my second time reading this novel. I was afraid that after so many years, it would have lost its magic but it certainly hasn't.
The characters are truly wonderful, the plot is slow (but who cares ?), you would love to live in Torminster, even if the gossips spread like fire. I generally don't love children in novels, I loved those, especially Henrietta. I'm not a believer and even the references to religion didn't bother me in the slightest.
Absolutely delightful.

[Jennifer Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It was:

1. Well-written. Elizabeth Goudge was a gifted writer, and her prose is a treat. Her descriptions are beautiful and vivid, without being excessive.

2. Character-driven. That is just the kind of fiction that I like. If you’re into thrillers, this won’t be your cup of tea. But if you like stories full of lovable, unique, well-rounded characters, you will like this book.

3. Clean. No smut or bad language.

4. Full of literary allusions. (I’m a nerd like that.)

5. Built on a foundation of truth. By which I mean, the author’s quiet assumptions line up pretty well with the truth of the Bible. This isn’t too surprising, since Goudge was a Christian. However, I’m not saying that every single sentence in the book is Biblical or theologically correct—it’s a novel, not a sermon.

5. Spiritually deep. One of my favorite things about Goudge is that she creates characters who have souls, and these characters develop spiritually as well as emotionally over the course of the book. Not all of the characters are Christians, and among those who are, there is a wide range of theological opinion—just like real people. The narrator also occasionally makes observations that are quite profound and insightful.

Reading this book was a lovely experience, and I have no doubt that at some point I’ll be reading it again. Highly recommended!

[Lily Rose Dorothea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time deciding whether to give this a 4-star or a 5-star review. It moved along very slowly for about half the book, and the time-period wasn't my favorite, and some language; but then the story picked up and I really did enjoy it, with Ferranti ending up being my favorite character in the end, though I loved Henrietta, as well, and Felicity in her love of the children was a woman after my own heart. I still chose to give this "only" 4 stars because it took so long to get into.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read my first Elizabeth Goudge novel, The Dean's Watch a few years ago and thought it was very good, better than I anticipated. I chose to read this novel, A City of Bells, as my second Goudge because it had a high Goodreads rating and it was the first book in Goudge’s The Cathedral Trilogy: The City of Bells + Towers In the Mist + The Dean's Watch and I had already read the third novel of the trilogy. The Cathedral Trilogy's three unconnected novels take place in three different time periods in three different cathedral towns.
These are my comments on some of the specific aspects of the novel.

1. The Story
The story is set in the early 1900’s England during the Boer War. War veteran Jocelyn Irvin has returned from the war with a permanent limp, both emotionally and physically damaged. When he rejects his family’s attempts to convince him to work for the family business or some friendly government official, Jocelyn instead decides to seek solace and rest in a town he remembers fondly from his youth, the cathedral town of Torminster, the home of his 80ish grandparents.
Grandfather is a Canon of the Cathedral and he and Grandmother care for their orphaned grandchild Hugh Anthony and adopted daughter Henrietta, both 8 year olds. Their neighbors include Mrs. Jamieson, an elderly lady whose niece Felicity, a successful actress, has come to stay. Jocelyn is immediately attracted to Felicity.
Prior to Jocelyn’s arrival, Grandfather and Henrietta both formed close attachments to a young brooding poet named Gabriel Ferranti who lived in a charming green-doored right on the Torminster Market Square. Ferranti has disappeared, possibly dead from his own hands. Jocelyn falls in love with the green-doored house and somehow feels Ferranti’s presence there.
The rest of the story concerns with what Jocelyn does with the green-doored house, with the poems that Ferranti has left behind, and with his relationships with Grandfather and family, the city and Close residents and most importantly, with Felicity. The story is full of inventive, engaging events.

2. The Setting
The 1900 Cathedral city of Torminster is supposed to be based on the city of Wells, a cathedral city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in southwest England. I loved the setting. Goudge was especially adept in portraying the Market Place square where the green-doored house is located next to the Green Dragon hotel and near other shops where the merchants nod to each other as they’re outside opening their shutters for their 9:00 a.m. openings
She also vividly describes the buildings associated in the Cathedral Close where much of the story takes place, including the old grey majestic home of the Grandparents, as Grandfather is a The Cathedral Canon, The Cathedral itself dominates the town as its towers are often depicted as the first glimpse of the city for new arrivals. I love the atmosphere that Goudge creates in this turn of the century Cathedral town.

3. The Characters
This is a character driven novel that is full of good characterizations. Jocelyn is a fine hero as is his romantic interest, Felicity. Goudge puts special emphasis on the children. Hugh Anthony is a humorously consistent young man, always questioning and quite practical, but Henrietta is a more complex child, sensitive to the needs of the poor and emotionally troubled and also appreciative of the beauty of the world and the arts. Goudge thought enough of what she created in Henrietta that she made her the main character in the next two volumes of The Torminster Trilogy three related stories set in Torminster.

4. The Theme
The essential story arc concerns Jocelyn’s personal growth from a man damaged physically and mentally by war to a skilled businessman, essayist and poet capable of both friendship and love. In other words, the story’s main theme is the restorative power of friendship, love, the arts and spiritualism.

5. The Ambience
There is a spiritual presence in the story and not just because of the taking place among so many religious figures such as the Bishop, the dean and most significantly Grandfather who is a Canon. There are several discussions and internal thoughts concerning the existence of a higher being as Jocelyn comments how he finds that people more intelligent than he believe in the existence of a Supreme Being to be fairly persuasive on the subject.
But besides the religious spiritualism there is a magical spiritualism in the book. One such example is in how Jocelyn feels Ferranti’s presence.

Overall, A City of Bells was a very touching and well written and developed story in a setting I enjoyed being in. I enjoyed the main characters and their story arcs. What kept it from being a 5-star novel for me is that the descriptions and characters’ discussions were often overly mawkish and the spiritual and magical elements too pronounced for my tastes. I rate it as 4 stars.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet and gentle book. it is a beautiful thing when a sensitive and creative child is brought up in a steady, encouraging serene atmosphere. And it's also wonderful to read about a melancholy gentle man find his place in life after the chaos of war. I found myself relating so much to Capt. Jocelyn and Henrietta that it brought tears to my eyes at times. Goudge has hopeful insights into people and her belief in the goodness of humanity and God makes this a refreshing read.

[Kendalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Goudge's books have come to me in the very moments that I need them. The moments I need their light to slip off the pages into a heart that isn't as elastic as it once was in matters of hope and joy. A City of Bells is no different. It left pieces of beauty for me to find and they have changed me. I only hope I won't forget that change.

[Maria Copeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found so much that is typical of Goudge to love here, romantic and redemptive alike -- the all-consuming callings of artists; the bitterness and beauty in acts of mercy; the homecoming for the wounded and prodigal; the loveliness in an ordinary home and marriage that, to re-contextualize Keats, "will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."

I began reading this book in Boston on a windy day, and so the following excerpt from Shelley, quoted in the text, lingered with me.

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

[Esta Doutrich]

Well I finally read a Goudge I didn’t like. There were places I underlined for insightful phrases, but the story was not for me. The plot felt unbelievable and the two main female characters were annoyingly beautiful and relatively flawless—unusually so for a Goudge novel. My favorite part was a brief description of a Charlotte Mason type of educational scene.

[Carolien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle story of destinies that collide in the fictional cathedral city of Torminster. Jocelyn comes to Torminster to recuperate, but soon finds himself the owner of a building whose previous inhabitant left some manuscripts on his disappearance. Elizabeth Goudge writes beautifully and creates lovely characters.

[Rosemary Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goudge was born in Wells and also lived in Ely and Oxford. It is not surprising that her imaginary cathedral city, Torminster, with its houses, gardens, cathedral and church bells, and the surrounding countryside, is so realistic. The lyrical descriptions should be savoured like fine food.
Goudge wrote: “Re-reading A City of Bells” I was not remembering my Edwardian childhood; I was back in it. Torminster is not an entirely accurate picture of Wells in Somerset, where I was born and spent the first eleven years of my life, but I think it is an accurate picture of a small west-country cathedral city in those safe motorless days.”
The characters who have their ‘entrances and exits’ are as varied and fascinating as the city of bells, which has a distinct personality. Delightful Henrietta plucked from an orphanage by Canon Fordyce, who takes her home to his wife. Soon Mrs Fordyce packs up Henrietta’s hideous back clothes and returns them to matron. To Henrietta’s delight, from then on she wears ‘periwinkle blue or rose pink for every day and white on Sundays’.
With deft words Goudge created major and minor characters, who stayed with me long after I reached the end.
The author writes at a leisurely pace and with deep understanding of the changing seasons, old buildings, children and animals.
I recommend this exquisite novel that transported me back to another time in an imaginary place.

[Jeana · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And an old house is a sort of history book . . . All that people thought and did in it must be written in it somewhere . . . Only the ink’s Invisible.”
—Elizabeth Goudge, A City of Bells

I don’t think I can adequately describe how much I loved this book! A quaint village with ringing bells, a beautiful but abandoned old house with a mystery, a bookshop, and a love story. You can't help but fall in love with little Henrietta and the way she sees the world. There's so much to love about this book that I actually hugged it when I finished reading. I can't wait to read the next book in the Cathedral series, which I'm so happy I already have!

[Rose A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then a work of art comes into your life at exactly the right time and devastates you. "A City of Bells" has done just that to me. That book has stared directly into whatever my soul and heart are made of in 2022 and reflected it right back at me. All my deepest hopes and fears and struggles and searches for meaning are written down in ink in a novel from 1936. Extraordinary.

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could have used a little judicious editing, perhaps, but I give it five stars because of the great love I have for Elizabeth Goudge as an author and the FEELING of this book. Her way of seeing life and explaining people brings thrills and shivers of joy in reading that to my mind far outweigh any occasional faults of prose.

[Marie-Hélène Clinchamps · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je ne compte plus le nombre de fois où j'ai relu ce livre... Il se passe au début du XXe siècle, dans une petite ville au cœur de l'Angleterre, celle qui a servi de modèle à Tolkien pour la Comté, collines verdoyantes et boisées, rivières chantantes toute la palette de la nature, des ors de l'automne aux jacinthes sauvages du printemps. Ce livre est un conte de fée, mais les fées sont des humains, un vieux chanoine de 88 ans qui adopte une fillette pour la pureté de son regard, un jeune homme revenu brisé de la guerre des Boers qui se trouve sans top savoir comment, comme poussé par la Ville, à louer une maison pour y ouvrir une librairie, une jeune et ravissante actrice qui rend visite à sa marraine, laquelle a perdu légèrement la tête depuis que son mari missionnaire a été tué par les Zoulous. Et il y a le fantôme du Joueur de Flûte, ce drôle d'homme, Ferranti, venu on ne sait d'où et reparti sur les ailes du vent, laissant le cœur de la petite Henriette en peine...La ville vit et respire au son des cloches de la cathédrale, falaise de granit au milieu des maisons et surtout du cloître où vivent les chanoines. L'auteure a su donner à son histoire une atmosphère de conte magique, par la description de la campagne, de la ville, nichée au creux des collines et toujours voilée de brumes mystérieuses. On sent l'odeur des feuilles mortes sous la pluie, on voit le vallon nappé de jacinthes sauvages, on entend les cloches rythmer la vie, on sourit et on rit à la galerie de personnages pittoresques, si vivants, si drôles, les deux très vieilles dames de la confiserie, le Doyen et son dog-cart au cheval fougueux. Dès que je l'ai fini, j'ai toujours un instant de regret que Torminster n'existe pas ! J'aurais toujours voulu aller en Angleterre, voir la ville de Wells, où Elisabeth Goudge a passé son enfance, qui est le modèle de Torminster, j'aurais pu le faire, mais briser l'image ravissante et idyllique que ce livre en donne, telle qu'elle était avant la Grande Guerre ? Non, je ne connais pas Wells mais je pars régulièrement à Torminster pour reprendre un bol de rêve, de joie, de rire et de larmes !!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful story by Elizabeth Goudge! I think it was the characters that I loved the most in this work. Each one is a gem, and I was so sad to finish the book and have to leave them behind!

I buddy read this one, and I am so glad that I did! The contemplative nature of the story led to some wonderful discussions on how Goudge uses her stories to draw out themes on faith, the well-lived life, and the humor/fun to be found in the every day.

[Elinor Loredan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story shows that renewal and rebirth are possible. Most of Goudge's work that I have read so far includes these themes, but she presents them in such a fascinating variety of ways that I do not tire of them. Jocelyn, who struggles for rebirth through life, is contrasted with Ferranti, who seeks the escape of death. But both find new life through the bond that Ferranti’s books and writing forge between them. They are both practically forced to begin anew, Jocelyn by his affection for Henrietta and his grandfather and Torminster's insistence that he open a bookshop, and Ferranti by Jocelyn's persistence in believing that he is alive and can be brought back to reason. The two men both also find the strength and interest to continue living through the influence of the childlike, both actual children (Henrietta and Hugh Anthony) and those who have retained the faith and lightness of children (grandfather).

Goudge emphasizes how the arts can reveal people’s inner lives more deeply and clearly than speaking to them directly. Artists live on in their work, and those who encounter it can connect with them without ever meeting them in person.

The setting is cozy and vivid, as usual with Goudge's writing, and the characters feel like real people. Grandfather is particularly endearing. I did not love Felicity, somehow. Maybe she struck me as a little cocky, or maybe I simply tired of hearing about her beauty! Nonetheless, I appreciate how Felicity's buoyancy helps to bring Jocelyn out of his depression and how Goudge describes their relationship: "there should always be a mating between the lovers of life and the endurers of it…the star-shine of the one comforting the darkness of the other" (129).

Some of the plot is, of course, a bit implausible (Ferranti happening to meet Henrietta, his lost daughter, and Jocelyn happening to bump into him on the street near the end, for instance), but the story is so full of wisdom, hope, and coziness that I do not care in the slightest. I enjoyed it so much that I promptly ordered the next two books in the Torminster trio.

Memorable quotes:


7 Life…a funny business…consisted in climbing painfully to the tops of ladders and falling even more painfully to the bottom of them again.

8 He was in that state of fatigue of mind and body when all well-meant suggestions immediately make the sufferer want to do the opposite.

10 A pity to be tired of life in such a world…If the old earth could wash herself and begin again so often and so humbly why could not a man do the same?

11 He would feel toward Torminster as one feels towards a human being when one has, if only once, seen the soul flickering in the eyes.

14 The most important moments of a lifetime seem always to arrive out of the blue.

20 The eyes…slightly astonished, as though he had never ceased to be surprised at the beauty of the world.

25 A sincerity as catching as measles, shouldn’t be allowed about loose in a world where the wearing of a mask was good form.

26 Our destiny is like a wind blowing…It carries us along. But now and again the wind seems to drop. We don’t know what to do next. Then it may be that a blade of grass beside us bends slightly. It is a tiny movement, slight as a whim, but enough to show us which way to take.

31 She was giving him her friendship with the lovely abandonment of childhood that has not learned yet to hold back for fear the love given should be scorned. Jocelyn, in this his first close contact with a child, felt not so much touched as stabbed. This trustfulness and fragility were almost terrifying, for how in the world, as children grew from childhood to maturity and the bloom was rubbed off them, did the sensitive spirit itself escape destruction?

35 The beauty was so unearthly that the thought of its passing was a pain…wished it were possible to draw beauty into oneself and preserve it unfadingly for ever.

38 Flowers needed individual care, some wanting one sort of soil, some another, some wanting sun, some shade. Was it perhaps the same with children?

44 Colours and scents had their sounds. Red was a trumpet blast and green was the sound of fairy flutes.

45 Dreams cannot be hoarded selfishly in the mind, lying piled one upon the other, getting dog-eared and faded, but must be generously spilt out into the world.

59 In this beautiful world that God had made joy was a duty.

63 An army of spirits stepping silently through the veil of mist hanging between earth and heaven.

67 In this world you may lay violent hands upon no personality but your own. Other people’s…must be handled with a touch as light as a butterfly’s.

72 She disliked excess. Things were much more enjoyable…if you took them singly and in small quantities.

79 “An old house is a sort of history book…All that people thought and did in it must be written in it somewhere…Only the ink’s invisible.”

81 No doubt we are all of us much more peculiar than we have any idea of.

90 His look had thrilled her and comforted the lonely place that cries out for help deep inside every human being.

96 A man always leaves the print of his personality on his dwelling-place.

103 “One can relax in one’s past. One hasn’t got to do anything about it any more…And it’s companionable.”

105 “A writer has to spin his work out of himself and the effect upon the character is often disastrous. It inflates the ego. Now your bookseller sinks his own ego in the thousand different egos that he introduces one to the other.”

106 The peculiar feelings that lie in wait to pounce upon those who are both tired and alone proceeded to pounce.

110 “Some of us are lucky enough to find a causeway for our feet across the slough of this world…But we find it for ourselves. It’s the tragedy of life that we can’t communicate it…We can cry aloud and hold out a hand to another man, but even though he may take our hand and come nearer to us we have no way of forcing his feet to find rock. That he must do for himself.”

111 “…that fatal gift of identifying his whole being with one object only. There’s a touch of greatness there, but it’s dangerous.”

119 “We’re all greedy for life…and our short span of existence can’t give us all that we hunger for, the time is too short and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience all life vicariously.”

127 Like all happy people she always seemed to be very close to the earth and to all growing, living things…Perhaps her joy in life gave her a special unity with all forms of life…self is forgotten.

129 In this world…there should always be a mating between the lovers of life and the endurers of it…the star-shine of the one comforting the darkness of the other.

155 If you created a story with your mind surely it was just as much there as a piece of needlework that you created with your fingers?

162 If one wanted [peace], one must not hit back when fate hit hard but must allow the hammer-stroke to batter out a hollow place inside one into which peace, like cool water, could flow.

169 Life and its disillusionment had a little dulled his perception of beauty and his response to it. How is it that artists keep their powers of perception even in the days when life darkens?...their perception was born of the faculty of wonder.

173 Felicity chattered as a bird sings, joy being with her a thing that must be instantly expressed lest she burst, but Jocelyn did not speak, it being with him a thing that silenced.

180 Man while still in the body cannot look upon pure spirit…he can apprehend it only when its light is split into coloured fragments by the prism of his own senses…must pluck [these fragments] out of the mud…form them into a pattern…that shall satisfy him by shadowing faintly the perfection of patterns that he cannot see.

181 The room had the indescribable fascination of all studies…where the life of the mind only is carried on and the fact and business of practical living are shut out.

189 Imagination, like the honey-sucking bee, creates from what it feeds upon. Surrounded with flowery beauty it creates sweetness, surrounded with harshness and ugliness the fruits of its toil are bitter.

192 …that moment of pause between day and night. Henrietta had already noticed that there was always a haunting, unearthly beauty about this time of transition and that it was very varied. On sunshiny summer days it was a gradual intensification of colour and scent that came near to ecstasy.

196 In childhood there is no past or future, but only the joy or desolation of the moment.

201 So often the minor miseries of life had been eased by the touch of humanity; would the great miseries be eased by God’s touch?...the old…and not the young, were more often the men of faith.

213 He longed for the time when all the different lights carried by man in the pageantry of life should glow into one.

226 Was there anything in this world of which one could be certain, of which one could take hold and say “This will never forsake me?”

245 There had come to him one of those moments of quiet despair that lie in wait for even the happiest. Stealthy-footed they leap upon us, as we walk along the street…neight at our work nor our play nor our prayers are we safe, those moments can leap at any time out of the blackness around human life.

“I don’t think it saddens people to have their heartache expressed for them in art. It relieves them as a burst of tears would.”

260 Human longing is too vast a thing to be satisfied by anything that the earth holds, human love like natural beauty can comfort but it cannot satisfy.

267 She, like everyone else, had to find out by experience in what mode of life she could best adjust herself to the twin facts of her own personality and the moment of time in which destiny had planted it.

287 Is it a human instinct to think that buried gold is richer than the treasure that lies ready to hand?

305 A man’s mind can be his greatest friend or his greatest enemy according as it serves or binds his will.

310 “We’re all too apt to think that things are as we feel them to be, forgetting that they have an objective value apart from what we feel about them. An embittered mind colours the world black for its owner yet that does not alter the fact that the world is a treasure house of beauty and love.”

311 “It is possible to be born again as a little child…It is easier…choosing death rather than birth. The dying man…only has to let go, while the child in the womb has to fight for its life.”

315 The Cathedral, towering against the brilliant blue sky, gave to its lovers who looked upon it that gift of self-forgetfulness that is at the same time both awe and peace.

316 What we are made to do we seldom do well, what we do of our own choice we make a success of for very pride.

319 There is nothing more consoling than to be told by someone whose judgment you trust that they would have done the same.

324 “There’s nothing so steadying, when you’re in pieces, as reading something fine that you know very well.

329 Inside her there was a little room and it was empty and cold.

341 Suffering…could be the gateway to renewal, than which no more glorious experience can be man’s on earth.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such appealing characters appear in Elizabeth Goudge's novel, City of Bells. The city of the title is Torminster in which a young man, Jocyln Irwin, whose army career is ended during the Boer War by a leg injury, decides to open a bookstore. His parents and his grandmother are aghast that he would consider going into trade. But his grandfather, Canon Fordyce, thinks it's a wonderful idea and lends him money to get him started.

"A bookseller," said Grandfather, "is the link between mind and mind, the feeder of the hungry, very often the binder of wounds. There he sits, your bookseller, surrounded by a thousand minds all done up neatly in cardboard cases . . . and there come into him other minds, hungry for beauty, for knowledge, for truth, for love, and to the best of his ability he satisfies them all. . . . Yes. . . . It's a great vocation."

The canon is "one of the saints of God" who has adopted a little girl from a nearby orphanage, Henrietta, who gave her friendship "with the lovely abandonment of childhood that has not learned yet to hold back for fear the love given should be scorned." Canon and Mrs Fordyce are also raising their orphaned grandson, Hugh.

Canon Fordyce says compline every evening while walking around the garden, but he can't help getting involved in the conversations he hears as he passes, breaking off in the middle of a psalm to encourage one of the children or to give his opinion on some topic of importance in the close, and then resuming his prayers where he left off.

Henrietta makes friends with a reclusive poet who disappears suddenly leaving bills behind. Jocyln falls in love with the house he was living in and sees in it a perfect place for his bookstore. Also visiting the sleepy town when Jocyln arrives is one of England's foremost young actresses, Felicity Summers. She is staying with her Aunt Adelaide who "always dresses in the colors of the Church's seasons, stockings and all. She wears purple in Lent, red at Whitsun, white during festivals and green the rest of the year."

Goudge's books are a delight and this one, published in 1936, certainly delighted me.

[Bookguide · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure if there’s any literal magic in A City of Bells, but it is truly magical. There’s the Hans Christian Anderson quality of the buildings and gardens enclosed by walls, the cherubs in the corners of the bedrooms of the number two Cathedral Close. It’s all in the details that set the scene, like which flowers are blooming, the intriguing souvenirs in Felicity’s Aunt Adelaide’s house and the window seat in house with the green door. Elizabeth Goudge was a master of including things with odd names that make you want to go and look them up. I’m thinking here of the buff orpingtons in the crate in the bus (which is a horse-drawn one like a pumpkin). In the olden days, I would have probably been left with the impression they were a Kentish breed of chickens; as I come from Kent, I know that Orpington is a town in Kent. Now I can look them up online.

Just as magical are the relationships in the story. Grandfather magically decides to adopt Henrietta. Jocelyn feels some form of magical affinity with Henrietta and the house with the green door, then with Felicity. There is some magical force in the city that means Jocelyn’s vague idea of ‘taking’ the house and starting a bookshop is picked up by the townspeople as truth, passed by word of mouth. His fate is sealed by the saintly Grandfather by telling him he could find out about the mysterious Ferranti, who disappeared without saying goodbye. How?
“A man always leaves an imprint of his personality on his dwelling-place.” (p.89)

I did feel that the pacing was rather slow and too philosophical and/or religious near the end. Torminster’s sleepiness seeped into the writing perhaps. Another sadness about the novel was the fact that young Hugh Anthony didn’t really get a look in, remaining an undeveloped character. However, I believe this is the first of a trilogy about Torminster, so perhaps our budding scientist will feature in one of those. I will have to see if I have them because my reacquaintance with Elizabeth Goudge has been a happy one.

[Jeannette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my very favorite Goudge so far however I have many more of her books to read! But for me, this one had it all, picturesque cathedral town in England, a bookstore, a young couple in love, a mysterious writer, theater life in London, wise elderly people who love books, artistic sensitive precocious children. All woven together by the lyrical prose of Goudge into a story of such loveliness, it made me stop reading just to savor it. Best book i have read so far this year.