About this title: The story of nuns and postulants in the closed Benedictine Order in the Abbey of Brede. Through the events of the novel Philippa Talbot, an ex-civil servant, learns how to come to terms with the tragedy from her past and even gain serenity. "The River" is another book by the same author.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Press, New York
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Pages clean, bright and unmarked. Binding has slight twist with worn fabric at spine heel. Corners lightly bumped with fabric rubbing. Tan/yellow boards have age and handling marks, lettering and rooster inlay on spine is clear and attractive. A well loved copy. 376 p. 23 cm. read more
Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Viking Press, N. Y.
Date published: 1969
Description: Cover Art. Good in Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. The hard cover and the jacket has some shelf wear. Owners name on the front fly...Price clip....----We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by...... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Loyola Press
Date published: 2005-02
ISBN-13:9780829421286ISBN:0829421289
Description: Very Good. Great title in good condition. Pages are clean, crisp, and tight. Covers show some light shelf wear. Satisfaction guaranteed. If item not as described, return for refund of purchase price. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Viking Press
Date published: 1969
Description: Good. Great reading copy. Good BCE hardcover, no dust jacket. Unmarked, bright and clean with square and tight binding. Cover is mildly soiled and pages are pleasantly toned. Enjoy reading with a real book in your hands. read more
"With the book under my belt years ago, I spent four days as a guest in a cloistered Benedictine house. It was excellent background with regard to the Divine Office, which was sung in its full Latin glory.
My complaint about the one I got from Loyola Press, was that the copy editing was horrendously bad. It's as if they had turned the book over to an inept college freshman and it spoiled some of the pleasure for me.
While Philippa Talbot was the protagonist, my favorite character was Abbess Catherine Ismay. The way she grew into leadership from her election to the end of the book was a case study in how to be a good chief executive of any organization, whether a monastery or a corporation. I learned more about being a leader from her than I have learned from textbooks on business administration.
I had no problem finding my way through the multiple characters in the book. Indeed, I had a lot of fun doing it. I know it has been a problem for some reviewers, though. The author did a fairly good job of writing thumbnail sketches of some of the characters but they do, as Sister Hilary remarks, get one lost in the wimples and veils. The description of the clothing of one of the nuns is beautiful and moving especially in light of her problems with her family.
I had no illusion about the humanity of nuns. I went to graduate school with some of them and I was impressed by their intellect and how different they were from each other. The common life does not erase differences and result in a homogenized human being but rather refines each of the people who are called to it and can handle it. I couldn't.
In short, I loved the book and look forward to getting a copy that isn't chopped up and mauled."
"If I had to choose ten books to take with me to a deserted island, this would be one. Not light reading but joyful in its weight, somehow....most compelling, making one want to explore one's own beliefs, assumptions, behaviors. Certainly a fascinating look into cloistered life, quite eye-opening and refreshingly honest. Each character almost resonates with the reader as a part of self. Not action-packed or full of twisting plot, but deeply seeing into life in the large things and the small. A wonderful book that one will likely save and read again and again. I very rarely read books again in their entirety after I have finished once, but this one I will in order to be sure I will glean everything possible from it and revisit with relish some great characters.
Read it, keep it, cherish it, and find another Rumer Godden."
"While this is clearly a very well done book, and I appreciate Rumer Godden pretty seriously, I gradually found it more and more difficult. Going deeper and deeper into the stifling atmosphere of not just Catholicism but pre-Vatican II turn of 1960 Catholicism is just hard. I am stifled. I can't be a part of this rhetoric, no matter how believable/sympathetic/compelling the characters are. I can't endorse it. Did you know, for instance, that abortion is evil? Oh.
Besides that, about 2/3 of the way through the book there's a point where the plot sort of halts at "mostly resolved" and a number of other developments take place instead. It's pretty clearly designed to mimic life, in which there isn't a plot, but when you combine that with 60 characters (who keep increasing, receiving sketchier and sketchier characterization, as new postulants arrive), it's difficult to go on immersing yourself in a backward, illogical, and now apparently plotless world. By the end it comes back around, but the interim hurts."
"Being raised Baptist, I knew very little about the Catholic faith or Catholic orders, so when I read several positive reviews of Godden's, "In this House of Brede", I knew I needed to get this book and read for myself to understand a way of life very foreign yet very intriguing to me.
It was overall an enjoyable read. The story weaves in and out of the lives of most of the main sisters in the cloister. I have to admit that I gave it only 3 stars because it took me almost half way through the book before I could recognize and categorize all the characters (there are many, many sisters to remember). Also, not growing up Catholic made many of the terms and rituals sometimes difficult to follow -- however, Godden provided an index in the back of the book which answered many of my questions.
For anyone interested in knowing more about the cloistered life, I would certainly recommend this book. However, be patient when you start it and take your time learning with various characters. I think perhaps a second reading might improve my rating of this book since I would already remember most of the main characters."
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