This is outstanding!
You might call China Court a palimpsest of a novel: the history of a Cornish country house and its family, layered, interleaved, the past forever colouring the present. It's beautifully, evocatively written, but it's the masterly way Rumer Godden has constructed it that so impresses. In her preface she quotes Chaucer: Life is 'a thinne subtil knittinge of thinges', and such is her skill that she has carried the strands of her story with ease and perfect tension and worked them into a complex, fitting, and very pleasing pattern.
I'll say no more than to urge you to read it for yourself.
(Edited to add: I've popped a favourite passage over here.)
I have a vintage copy of this on my TBR shelves and have been meaning to read it for a while! It's one of three novels I have set in Cornwall so I might read all three in a row.
Posted by: Karen K | 09 June 2021 at 04:28 PM
Good idea, Karen, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. I could almost re-read it straightaway, so 'rich' a book is it.
Posted by: Cornflower | 09 June 2021 at 04:50 PM
A re-read for me; it’s been many years since I first read it so I look forward to be delighted all over again.
Posted by: Fran H-B | 10 June 2021 at 05:59 AM
I love this author. I've read quite a few of her books and the ones with a colonial theme are wonderful. The ones portraying the clergy are also so very good.
Posted by: Mystica | 10 June 2021 at 09:44 AM
China Court has always been a favorite…..it will be a perfect re-read now. I have been appreciating my comfortable home during the last year, but I am really tired of looking at the same four walls, so a visit to China Court should be just what I need.
Posted by: Barbara M. In NH | 10 June 2021 at 02:24 PM
I did a quite comprehensive re-read of Rumer Godden's books last year but forgot "China Court" now I have a treat to look forward to.
Just this last month I also treated myself to 2 new, hard cover books, both of which were worth the cost and they will be passed on to my sister, so the money was not too extravagant.
These books are: "The Secret Guests" And "The Third Pole". One about Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, but more the events swirling about them in the early 1940s and the other about Mount Everest's history, particularly the ill-fated climb of Mallory and Irvine. Both so interesting and so outside my usual reading range.
I haven't written here in a long while but still reading you with great pleasure
Posted by: Erika W. | 10 June 2021 at 02:41 PM
I'm sure you will be, Fran.
Posted by: Cornflower | 10 June 2021 at 04:31 PM
I'm glad I still have quite a few to read, Mystica - she is very good, isn't she?
Posted by: Cornflower | 10 June 2021 at 04:32 PM
Good idea, Barbara!
Posted by: Cornflower | 10 June 2021 at 04:32 PM
Thank you, Erika, and thank you for the recommendations - both books sound very interesting.
Posted by: Cornflower | 10 June 2021 at 04:33 PM
I first read it as a teenager. It remains one of my favourite Rumer Godden books, together with The Greengage Summer (I once cycled round northern France trying, unsuccesfully, to find the hotel in that story . . .
Posted by: Miki | 14 June 2021 at 09:30 PM
Have you by any chance read this account of a similar quest, Miki? : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54526146
Posted by: Cornflower | 21 June 2021 at 09:13 AM
No, I hadn't. Thanks! I had read references to Epernay and Chalons, both quite large towns. Only after returning home did I read about Chateau Thierry. Never mind! It was a great trip. Epernay is a nice lively town, Chalons less so (like in many French towns all the shops are in a modern shopping centre outside the town, leaving a deserted city centre). One of the highlights was visiting a small champagne house. We were saved the embarrassment of not being able to buy any bottles ("we are cycling") by our fellow visitors who came by camper van and bought a case!
Posted by: Miki | 30 June 2021 at 10:02 AM
Just finished it and loved it. Thank you for the recommendation.
Posted by: Dorothy | 05 July 2021 at 01:49 PM
I own an old second hand hard cover copy. I’ve read it more times than I can count. A wonderful rich story on all levels.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | 14 October 2021 at 01:36 AM