Through the Postern Gate: A Romance of Seven Days

by Florence L. Barclay

Mrs. Barclay's story "Through the Postern Gate" was first bought into print as a serial in the Ladies' Home Journal, of Philadelphia, under the title of "Under the Mulberry Tree." The change of title was necessitated by the discovery that "Under the Mulberry Tree" had been already utilized for a volume still in print.... This early works is a fascinating Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Genres: Fiction, Danish, Christian, Romance

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

She was born Florence Louisa Charlesworth in Limpsfield, Surrey, England, the daughter of the local Anglican rector. One of three girls, she was a sister to Maud Ballington Booth, the Salvation Army leader and co-founder of the Volunteers of America. When Florence was seven years old, the family moved to Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

In 1881, Florence Charlesworth married the Rev. Charles W. Barclay and honeymooned in the Holy Land, where, in Shechem, they reportedly discovered Jacob's Well, the place where, according to the Gospel of St John, Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4-5). Florence Barclay and her husband settled in Hertford Heath, in Hertfordshire, where she fulfilled the duties of a rector's wife. She became the mother of eight children. In her early forties health problems left her bedridden for a time and she passed the hours by writing what became her first romance novel titled The Wheels of Time. Her next novel, The Rosary, a story of undying love, was published in 1909 and its success eventually resulted in its being translated into eight languages and made into five motion pictures, also in several languages. According to the New York Times, the novel was the No.1 bestselling novel of 1910 in the United States. The enduring popularity of the book was such that more than twenty-five years later, Sunday Circle magazine serialized the story and in 1926 the prominent French playwright Alexandre Bisson adapted the book as a three-act play for the Parisian stage.

Florence Barclay wrote eleven books in all, including a work of non-fiction. Her novel The Mistress of Shenstone (1910) was made into a silent film of the same title in 1921. Her short story Under the Mulberry Tree appeared in the special issue called "The Spring Romance Number" of the Ladies Home Journal of 11 May 1911.

Florence Barclay died in 1921 at the age of fifty-eight. The Life of Florence Barclay: a study in personality was published anonymously that year by G. P. Putnam's Sons "by one of Her Daughters.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful old romance that I read years ago and never got around to adding here. Not quite a favorite, compared to Barclay’s other stories, but a heartwarming story.

[Julie Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, old romance novel (published in 1912). I enjoyed reading it, but I wasn’t blown away. (I had heard some high praise for the book before I read it, so my expectations were probably too high.) The age difference between the two main characters felt a little odd, but is not meant to be creepy.

[Elizabeth S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don't know why I love this book so much. The heroine is ten years older than the hero and what is more knew him when she was a teenager and he was six. Somehow she avoids the creepiness that could happen if you were not careful with this plot. Not much "conflict" but maybe it is better for it. I love this story and love to reread whenever I am depressed.

[Tytti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty charming old romance by a bestseller author from over 100 years ago. 26-year-old Boy wants to charm an intelligent woman 10 years his senior in seven days, just as long as the Israelites marched around Jericho blowing their trumpets in the biblical battle of Jericho. As this explanation shows, the novel has religious or maybe biblical undertones but it is understandable as it was written in 1911 and they are not overt. For a modern reader most of the interest lies in the world and life style described and ones which neither the characters nor the author could have predicted will disappear in the coming years because of World War I.

A longer review in Finnish: http://lukemattomatlukemattomat.blogs...

[Salla Katriina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ai jehna mikä kirja. Äitelää, kristillishenkistä erotiikan leimaamaa romantiikkaa. Barclayn kirjat ovat kyllä kaikki sellaisia, oikeasti laadukkana ja ihastuttavana esimerkkinä voin mainita Rukousnauhan. Sen olen lukenut useasti, mutta tähän tuskin palaan. Jollain jännällä tavalla kirja kuitenkin piti otteessaan, halusi tietää miten kaikki lopulta käy ja kuvottava tunnelma jotenkin sitten lopultakin kiehtoi. Erinomainen esimerkki 1900-luvun alun romanttisen viihdekirjallisuuden imelimmästä opuksesta. Suosittelen, jos kiinnostaa harrastumielessä yli sadan vuoden takainen laadukkaasti kirjoitettu roskakirjallisuus.

[Cecilia Gini · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very sentimental novel, the author's craft comes through in the way her prose is very emotionally evocative and provocative, but I was left feeling rather unsettled in the end, perhaps because the woman's insistence on trying to remind her lover of how young he was when they met and all the maternal feelings he inspired is too heavy a weight on the romantic plot, already weighted down by its atypical age gap.

[Trish Boese · Rating 4 out of 5]

4* A charming, classic love story. Modern courtship has no intrigue like the old stories! These characters have strong morals, and yet such a variety of obstacles to overcome.

[Vicki Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3* but for the biblical references and excellent analogies drawn.

I couldn't get behind the interlude at first. Still don't. I had to reread it.

[Ana Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romantično, jednostavno, preslatko :)

[Trine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, the Danish edition is only Through the Postern Gate, the other story I have read online. I would have preferred to rate them seperately since they are so different. My Heart's Right There belongs to it's WW1 era, TtPG is more general although still old-fashioned. But both stories contains the sweetness that is so special to FB, with love and honour walking hand in hand in order for both to reach their highest.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this utterly charming. It's sentimental and occasionally silly and filled with oddities—such as the way the author referred to the hero as "the Boy" and even had the heroine address him that way: "Boy, I have something to tell you"—but somehow it all works. The premise of a romance in seven days is clever, and I appreciated the Jericho motif. All in all, a charming, sigh-worthy romance.