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Still Glides the Stream
Still Glides the Stream
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
46 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
Flora Thompson
36 books94 followersFlora Jane Thompson (5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet famous for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, Lark Rise to Candleford.
Flora benefited from good access to books when the public library opened in Winton, in 1907. Not long after, in 1911, she won an essay competition in The Ladies Companion for a 300-word essay about Jane Austen.[6] She later wrote extensively, publishing short stories and magazine and newspaper articles. She was a keen self-taught naturalist and many of her nature articles were anthologised in 1986.
Her most famous works are the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, which she sent as essays to Oxford University Press in 1938 and which were published soon after. She wrote a sequel Heatherley which was published posthumously. The books are a fictionalised, if autobiographical, social history of rural English life in the late 19th and early 20th century and are now considered minor classics.
Flora benefited from good access to books when the public library opened in Winton, in 1907. Not long after, in 1911, she won an essay competition in The Ladies Companion for a 300-word essay about Jane Austen.[6] She later wrote extensively, publishing short stories and magazine and newspaper articles. She was a keen self-taught naturalist and many of her nature articles were anthologised in 1986.
Her most famous works are the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, which she sent as essays to Oxford University Press in 1938 and which were published soon after. She wrote a sequel Heatherley which was published posthumously. The books are a fictionalised, if autobiographical, social history of rural English life in the late 19th and early 20th century and are now considered minor classics.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 7, 2014
Miss Charity Finch returns to her village Restharrow following an absence of 24 years. It's now post-World War II but the sleepy little village has hardly changed at all since her childhood in the 1880s. Only the faces have changed. So many people she once knew and loved are now lying under the tall unkempt grass in the churchyard. As she walks the meadow path she remembers those long-ago days of her youth. There was a family of cousins nearby, as close to Charity or Cherry, as she was called then, as siblings. They lived in a farmhouse which they shared with another woman and her daughter. There the family experienced the joys and sorrows of everyday life in a village. There were moments of fun like the flower show and weddings, and moments of sadness when death came. There was, of course, petty gossip and poverty. Through it all, they were a close family and a tight community. As Charity grew from a girl into a woman she realized her hopes and dreams lay outside of the village she always called home.
This is such a sweet nostalgic book! It's very similar to the author's fictional memoir Lark Rise to Candleford but the story is tighter. I found it slow to begin as elderly Charity wandered through her old haunts and described every bit of scenery in minute detail. Once her childhood narrative began, I felt more connected to the stories. Flora Thompson was an amazing writer. The characters really come to life and I felt like I was there with elderly Charity watching her childhood go by in a series of memories. Charity herself isn't a well-drawn character but her cousins all have distinct personalities and plot lines of their own. I liked practical Bess, the mother of her siblings and the champion of the poor. I admired Charity for knowing what she wanted and going after it no matter what pressures she faced from her mother and her community. I felt every joy and sorrow the characters experienced and I was sad when the end came to tell the reader what happened to the characters after they grew up.
Restharrow and Waterside seem like real places I've visited. Having recently been to some small English villages and seen Lark Rise to Candleford, I can easily picture the scenery. Even if I hadn't, the writing is so descriptive that anyone should be able to picture the Oxfordshire village.
Some of the word choices in the book are a bit difficult to understand, being colloquialisms but I enjoyed learning them and trying to figure out how to say them. It's part of the charm of the novel. All the local color really makes the story shine, much like Lucy Maud Montgomery's stories about Prince Edward Island.
This book could easily be made into a play like Our Town or even another season of Lark Rise to Candleford. I thought it was very cinematic in the story telling and the episode of the mysterious gossipy letters was very entertaining. The rest of the story was very sweet and nostalgic. I didn't want this book to end and now I'm craving more like it. If you enjoyed Lark Rise or Cranford or the Road to Avonlea series (or the books it was based on), you'll love this book too.
This is such a sweet nostalgic book! It's very similar to the author's fictional memoir Lark Rise to Candleford but the story is tighter. I found it slow to begin as elderly Charity wandered through her old haunts and described every bit of scenery in minute detail. Once her childhood narrative began, I felt more connected to the stories. Flora Thompson was an amazing writer. The characters really come to life and I felt like I was there with elderly Charity watching her childhood go by in a series of memories. Charity herself isn't a well-drawn character but her cousins all have distinct personalities and plot lines of their own. I liked practical Bess, the mother of her siblings and the champion of the poor. I admired Charity for knowing what she wanted and going after it no matter what pressures she faced from her mother and her community. I felt every joy and sorrow the characters experienced and I was sad when the end came to tell the reader what happened to the characters after they grew up.
Restharrow and Waterside seem like real places I've visited. Having recently been to some small English villages and seen Lark Rise to Candleford, I can easily picture the scenery. Even if I hadn't, the writing is so descriptive that anyone should be able to picture the Oxfordshire village.
Some of the word choices in the book are a bit difficult to understand, being colloquialisms but I enjoyed learning them and trying to figure out how to say them. It's part of the charm of the novel. All the local color really makes the story shine, much like Lucy Maud Montgomery's stories about Prince Edward Island.
This book could easily be made into a play like Our Town or even another season of Lark Rise to Candleford. I thought it was very cinematic in the story telling and the episode of the mysterious gossipy letters was very entertaining. The rest of the story was very sweet and nostalgic. I didn't want this book to end and now I'm craving more like it. If you enjoyed Lark Rise or Cranford or the Road to Avonlea series (or the books it was based on), you'll love this book too.
June 17, 2021
Still Glides the Stream (Illustrated Edition) by Flora Thompson (Bracken Books London 1984) (Fiction) (3543).
This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. Beloved British author Flora Thompson is known for her bestselling nonfiction trilogy Lark Rise in Candleford. Still Glides the Stream (Illustrated Edition) presents a new tack for the author; it is pure fiction, and it is chock-full of gorgeous artwork reproductions selected by...I’m not sure who exactly, but I don’t think it was the author, for this was first published posthumously in 1948.
Still Glides the Stream is set in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Restharrow during the period surrounding Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee of 1887. Our narrator, Miss Charity Finch, is a retired schoolmarm who has returned to the village of her youth. She shares the memories of her childhood years fondly and paints a vivid portrait of a vanishing way of life.
This is a fine tale; it reminded me very much of the writings of Jane Austen. The care with which Flora Thompson describes the subtle details of a scene setting immediately brought to mind Jane Austen’s Emma. That is high praise indeed.
And oh, the pictures! The illustrations! They completely make this volume one to be collected and enjoyed over and over. Every sheet in this 224 page volume contains either a full-page oil painting or a work done in the smaller style of a naturalist’s study of a pressed flower, fern leaf, or a mounted butterfly.
This book is gorgeous. The reader will be astonished at its beauty. I recommend this with a teakettle and a plate of buttered brown homemade bread with jam.
My rating: 8/10, finished 5/21/21. I purchased my HB copy in like-new condition from McKay’s books on 6/1/2019 for $1.50.
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April 10, 2022
If you love Flora Thompson and her world, this books is another of her stunning masterpieces of English 19th century fiction. As in all her other works, characters are drawn in all their details, and the stories of their lives intermingle like the waters of a calming stream that meanders here and there in the beauty of the English countryside. I knew nothing of this work until this year. I loved it!
November 27, 2021
More Flora Thompson, what Joy!
I have loved Flora Thompson's 'Lark Rise to Candleford' since I read it for the first time in 2004. I was in a bookstore in London seeking something to read while in hospital, knowing as I was 245 miles from home and wouldn't have many visitors. Flora's description of Lark Rise, the inhabitants, their way of life, and what life was like in rural England at the turn of the 19th century came alive from page 1 . To discover 18 years later that there were more books in Flora's 'oeuvre ' was a wonderful surprise of great cheer during the current pandemic. This book and three others popped up in Kindle recommendations and made a cold winter's day warm as I read of 'Charity Finch' and her family. She had what Ronald Blythe called a keen eye that a village born person had for anything out of the ordinary in 19th village life,and as life for the average villager then meant you didn't travel far, you knew your neighbours that much better. I am now about to read Heatherley for the first time and have just read the introduction by Anne Mallinson, and discovered that nearly all Flora's papers are at the University of Texas - although British i am an honorary citizen of Texas! I wonder what Flora would have thought about one of her readers having a slight inter-continental link. I've read the Lark Rise trilogy several times and still love every minute of it. For me Still Glides the Water is equal to Lark Rise and gets top rating from me.
I have loved Flora Thompson's 'Lark Rise to Candleford' since I read it for the first time in 2004. I was in a bookstore in London seeking something to read while in hospital, knowing as I was 245 miles from home and wouldn't have many visitors. Flora's description of Lark Rise, the inhabitants, their way of life, and what life was like in rural England at the turn of the 19th century came alive from page 1 . To discover 18 years later that there were more books in Flora's 'oeuvre ' was a wonderful surprise of great cheer during the current pandemic. This book and three others popped up in Kindle recommendations and made a cold winter's day warm as I read of 'Charity Finch' and her family. She had what Ronald Blythe called a keen eye that a village born person had for anything out of the ordinary in 19th village life,and as life for the average villager then meant you didn't travel far, you knew your neighbours that much better. I am now about to read Heatherley for the first time and have just read the introduction by Anne Mallinson, and discovered that nearly all Flora's papers are at the University of Texas - although British i am an honorary citizen of Texas! I wonder what Flora would have thought about one of her readers having a slight inter-continental link. I've read the Lark Rise trilogy several times and still love every minute of it. For me Still Glides the Water is equal to Lark Rise and gets top rating from me.
February 9, 2021
Still Glides the Stream is a tale of memories, told by middle-aged Charity Finch visiting her childhood village for the first time in 30 years. Though told in 1947, the story takes place in the early 1900s, during the formative years of Charity and her cousins, Beth, Mercy, and Polly.
The colorful characters, from farmhand Luke to Dog Virtue, are memorable, lovable, and multidimensional, carrying personas not often associated with “the past”, such as Reuben, Bess’ single father, who encourages her argumentative and opinionated spirit, and Luke’s honest conversation about depression. Even a random encounter with a man in a pub, told from Charity’s perspective, introduced a healthy, equal relationship in marriage I didn’t expect to read, especially in passing, in an Edwardian setting. This gem is definitely overshadowed by Lark Rise to Candleford, but it is very worth reading if you enjoy the gentle cadence of English countryside stories.
The colorful characters, from farmhand Luke to Dog Virtue, are memorable, lovable, and multidimensional, carrying personas not often associated with “the past”, such as Reuben, Bess’ single father, who encourages her argumentative and opinionated spirit, and Luke’s honest conversation about depression. Even a random encounter with a man in a pub, told from Charity’s perspective, introduced a healthy, equal relationship in marriage I didn’t expect to read, especially in passing, in an Edwardian setting. This gem is definitely overshadowed by Lark Rise to Candleford, but it is very worth reading if you enjoy the gentle cadence of English countryside stories.
May 12, 2024
I didn’t really like that book because it felt quite long to read to me. There were almost no dialogues but long descriptions to read, mainly written with old English and slangs. However, I enjoyed the paintings, drawings and dried flowers showed in the book. I also loved the final paragraph: « And so with us, she thought. We come, we go, and, as individuals, we are forgotten.
But the stream of human life goes on, ever changing, but ever the same, and as the stream is fed by well-springs hoarded by Nature so the stream of humanity is fed by the store of accumulated wisdom and effort and hard-won experience of past generations.
Lapping peacefully over the shallows, running dark in the shade, wrestling turbulently with the obstacles, ever changing, yet ever the same, it continues. And as she once more trod the old footpath way with the sound of running water in her ears, these thoughts gave her an extraordinary sense of comfort and reassurance. »
But the stream of human life goes on, ever changing, but ever the same, and as the stream is fed by well-springs hoarded by Nature so the stream of humanity is fed by the store of accumulated wisdom and effort and hard-won experience of past generations.
Lapping peacefully over the shallows, running dark in the shade, wrestling turbulently with the obstacles, ever changing, yet ever the same, it continues. And as she once more trod the old footpath way with the sound of running water in her ears, these thoughts gave her an extraordinary sense of comfort and reassurance. »
October 1, 2025
DNF at page 62. I much preferred Flora’s other book ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’. I was really expecting to like this one, but I just couldn’t get into it. It was published posthumously, so perhaps she hadn’t gotten it up to her usual standard before she died. I do enjoy the random historical facts she has in her books (such as applying cobwebs to cuts to stem the blood flow ), but there wasn’t enough of that to keep me interested.
October 23, 2025
A lovely book of beautiful prose and artwork. This the story of a woman who visits the village of her childhood after being away for quite some time. Her friends and family have passed or moved away as she did. I really enjoyed the artwork, the poetic descriptions of this enchanting place and meeting the interesting characters. This was my first time reading anything by Flora Thompson. I might give Larkrise a try sometime.
December 25, 2021
A deeply sentimental memoir of farm life in late Victorian England. Breathtaking descriptions of the natural world.
November 4, 2023
Authenticity shines from this gentle book set in turn of 19th to 20th century English countryside. Very pleasant to read and educational about the everyday life of that period. Flora Thompson writes consistently well about characters, society, and natural environment. The only weakness is in tension of plot construction - the principal little mystery here is too easy to solve. Nevertheless recommended for its descriptive value - as long as adrenaline fuelled excitement isn't required.
November 19, 2016
I love this book about village life in the 1880s.
February 24, 2016
My oldest son bought this for me as a little surprise because he thought I might enjoy it. He guessed correctly.
This is a special illustrated edition of this book and it has pictures of actual pressed flowers, foliage, butterflies, and also idyllic rural English paintings scattered throughout the book.
It's a gentle story of a woman who comes back to the small English village where she grew up and reminisces about her childhood. The characters are very well drawn and I found them endearing. The descriptions are so realistic that I could easily envision the time and place of this nostalgic story. If you prefer exciting plot-driven books then you may not like this, but I thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful, measured pace of the story.
If you are familiar with the Lark Rise to Candleford TV series you may recognize that this is written by the same author who wrote the memoir that series is based on. I plan on reading that too, eventually.
This is a special illustrated edition of this book and it has pictures of actual pressed flowers, foliage, butterflies, and also idyllic rural English paintings scattered throughout the book.
It's a gentle story of a woman who comes back to the small English village where she grew up and reminisces about her childhood. The characters are very well drawn and I found them endearing. The descriptions are so realistic that I could easily envision the time and place of this nostalgic story. If you prefer exciting plot-driven books then you may not like this, but I thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful, measured pace of the story.
If you are familiar with the Lark Rise to Candleford TV series you may recognize that this is written by the same author who wrote the memoir that series is based on. I plan on reading that too, eventually.
June 8, 2020
My favorite edition of Still Glides the Stream. Absolutely beautiful with lovely illustrations.
A lot of description but hardly any dialogue. Nevertheless, understanding that, it's a very relaxing story.
A lot of description but hardly any dialogue. Nevertheless, understanding that, it's a very relaxing story.
September 19, 2013
quiet slow moving view of English village life at the turn of the century. Author of Larkrise to Candleford.
February 7, 2015
Nostalgic book of joys and sorrows circa 1880's. Delightfully illustrated.
January 29, 2018
Absolutely spellbinding. Charity, a retired headmistress, returns to the village where she was raised in about 1948 (when the book was published) and remembers life as it was, with her cousins Bess, Mercy and Polly, and their neighbour Stella. Such a peaceful read, so nostalgic.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews