Cornflower Book Group - April 2014

   

    Having just read a biography of Rumer Godden I thought a novel of hers might be a good choice for the Book Group. The one with which she made her name was Black Narcissus, but it's a later book I've chosen, also a huge popular success, and a critical one, too.

    First published in1969, In this House of Brede was the product of five years of painstaking research and writing, and is its author's longest and most complex book. Here's the blurb:

    "Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves a successful career in the Civil Service for a new calling. She joins an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love, despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters' shared bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it, Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past."

    Here's a passage from Anne Chisholm's biography:

    "Brede did seem to be blessed: everyone who read it before publication was impressed by it. A hint of amazement is sometimes discernible behind the compliments... [Rumer's] agent told her it was a triumph; Macmillan were delighted, and [the editorial director of her American publisher] wrote from New York to tell Rumer he found the book 'absolutely extraordinary ... I would have been incredulous had anyone told me how terribly involved with and concerned for a community of Benedictine nuns I could become ...' "

    Rumer's US advance was $150,000, the equivalent, apparently, of just under $1,000,000 today, and her publishers' faith in the book was justified by its sales. Structurally, it is her most ambitious work - Anne Chisholm tells us - spanning nearly twenty years and dealing with two dozen major characters (it's satisfyingly chunky at around 500 pages in the Virago paperback edition). Although it was made into a film starring Diana Rigg, that "has not worn well" (AC again), and Rumer did not care for it. I hope our reaction to the book will be a positive one, and I've slotted it into the calendar for discussion from Saturday, 26th. April.

    Details of our February and March books are given here, and I hope you'll join us to read some or all of our next three titles; you'd be very welcome.

Comments

[Susan in TX]

I've been seeing this name more and more lately, but I've never read her. Looking forward to it!

[Lyn]

I love this book, it's my favourite of RG's novels. I'm also fond of the movie but I can see why RG hated it. Great cast though, Diana Rigg, Judi Bowker, Gwen Watford & Pamela Brown.

[Pam]

I've only read a couple of her books but absolutely loved this one. Didn't know there was a movie. I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere. I'm hoping to read more RG this year.

[Sue]

Possibly my favourite novel.

[Fran H-B]

I started to read R G as a child, liking The Dolls House best of her children's novels. As a teenager I borrowed In This House of Brede many times from the school library as I loved it so much. Over the years I have collected most of her books. She is the author I re-read more than any other.

[LizF]

I fell in love with Rumer Godden's books after finding a copy of The Greengage Summer years ago and have been slowly but surely building up a collection of the others which is much easier now that they are being re-printed!
Although I have read quite a few (Greengage and The River have been my favourites so far) I have yet to read In This House of Brede so I look forward to joining in with the Book Club read and thanks for the timely reminder that I need to dig out my copy of Dr Jekyll to read by next weekend!

[Cornflower]

I'm delighted to see this is a favourite!

[Di McDougall]

and it is also such a favourite of mine....as a very young woman it had so much to say to me about spirituality....

[Mystica]

I've only read Black Narcissus and found it delightful. I am hoping that I can find this book in Melbourne when I visit next month. Several of her books are available at the library but not this one.

[Karoline]

Rumer Godden is someone I've been meaning to read for a while so I shall look forward to this

[Judith]

I'm so glad that people are still reading and talking about Rumer Godden. I have read several of her works since childhood (her memoir Two under the Indian Sun my first exposure at age 12, about her and her sister's childhood adventures in India). And to think I haven't read Brede. Must get to it this year!

Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)

[Cornflower]

I hope you'll join us, Judith!

[Dark Puss]

Rats! 13 different books by Godden at The University of All Cats library, but sadly not this one. Will try other sources.