Elizabeth Goudge Plaigerized

A little more on Elizabeth Goudge for those who may be interested.
Here is an interesting story I came across and first posted about in 2008.
I'll let the words speak for themselves.

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My overflow shelf; some I've read but others are still waiting for my attention...

Some of these books, such as The Cross, have been waiting for over a year for me to read them. I am still working on a couple of books on theological topics, but came to a point where I needed a break to read something light and entertaining instead.  Don't laugh, but I even read two little Christmas novels last month - it was a pleasant diversion!

One book on the shelf that I have read is Cranes' Morning. The sad tale, or how not to write a novel, revolves around the author, Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen, with one previous novel already to her credit. She died, it is believed by her own hand, at age 41, shortly after it was discovered that she had plagiarized Elizabeth Goudge's The Rosemary Tree to produce Cranes' Morning.

Since Elizabeth Goudge is my favorite author, I wanted to see just how closely the two novels matched. The two books are nearly verbatim, though Ms. Gyaltsen moved the setting to India, with Indian names, and changed a few facts here and there. She also left out many things; her story is somewhat shorter than The Rosemary Tree. She kept the basic story line, but Cranes' Morning is missing the depth of spirit and character that Elizabeth Goudge poured into her novels.

First paragraph of The Rosemary Tree

Harriet at her window watched the gulls with delight. It meant bad weather at sea when they came up-river, and she had known when she awoke this morning in the waiting stillness, and had seen the misted sky, that the only spell of fine weather was going to break into a gale; and she did not enjoy the March winds in this draughty, bone-searching house whose cold and damp had already crippled her. But she enjoyed the gulls, and would enjoy them more when she found the right pair of spectacles. She had been reading her Bible when she first heard that strange, exciting cry, and her reading spectacles were no good for distance. She wasted a few precious moments finding her distant ones on the table beside her, knocking over the teacup on her breakfast tray as she did so, for her hands were knotted with arthritis, slow and fumbling. Daphne might have sharp words to say about the dregs in the teacup staining the traycloth, and for a moment she flinched from the thought of them, but when she got the gulls into focus she forgot Daphne. She had never been able to remember other things when the gulls came.

The first paragraph of Cranes' Morning

Old Vidya sat at her window and watched the cranes with delight. It meant bad weather on this plateau when they came from the east and she had known, when she woke this morning in the waiting stillness, and had seen the misted sky, that the long spell of fine weather was going to break into a rainstorm. She did not enjoy the late February winds in this drafty house whose damp and cold had already crippled her. But she enjoyed the birds and would enjoy them more when she found the right pair of spectacles. She had been reading when she first heard that strange, exciting cry and her reading glasses were no good for distance. She wasted a few precious moments finding her distant ones on the table beside her, knocking over her teacup on the breakfast tray as she did so, for her hands were knotted with arthritis. Gargi might have sharp words to say later about the dregs in the teacup staining the tray-cloth, and for a moment she flinched from the thought of them, but when she got the cranes into focus she forgot about Gargi.

Now I am re-reading The Rosemary Tree to refresh my memory about the story; it has been four years since I last read it.

A few dusty jackets....

This post was originally published in September of 2007, just a couple of months after I started blogging.  What an adventure this blogging experiment has turned out to be. 

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Today I thought it might be fun to show you a few rather old but quite interesting dust jackets from a handful of my favorite books. All of the books are, of course, by Elizabeth Goudge!

This first one is her autobiography, The Joy of the Snow, copyright 1974, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London. I start with this cover because of what is depicted: the seventeenth-century cottage, called Rose Cottage, where Elizabeth Goudge lived for nearly 40 years until she died in 1984. Rose Cottage is located in Dog Lane, just off Peppard Common, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. How quaint is that address! It's like my dream of the perfect place to live...a quaint old cottage in a narrow lane somewhere in the beautiful English countryside.


On pages 246-7, Ms. Goudge describes the area when she first moved there:

In those days Peppard Common could still be said to be in the country. A few houses were grouped around it and to the north the road that crossed the common disappeared towards Henley between tall elm trees, the village pond to the left and the seventeenth-century inn, The Dog, to the right. The entrance to Dog Lane could hardly be seen where it left the road beside the inn, and the two cottages in the lane hiding behind the inn could hardly be seen either. Dog Lane is very ancient, it was a Pack and Prime lane, and is still called that when it reaches Henley. The men with their pack-horses primed their pistols when they rode up from the river to the wild common lands above. The two cottages are called Primrose Cottage and Rose Cottage and have been called those names for perhaps three hundred years...

Living there, Ms. Goudge was inspired to write an historical novel called The White Witch, copyright 1958, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London, a fascinating story about that area of Oxfordshire. She includes in the story a woman, the "white witch," who lives in Rose Cottage. The home was featured on the book's dust jacket, and you can see the resemblance to the cottage on The Joy of the Snow's jacket.

Interestingly (to me anyway), about a year ago, when I had nothing better to do, I "Googled" Dog Lane, Peppard Common and found that Rose Cottage was being offered for sale for 695,000 British Pounds, which I believe is just over $1 million in US currency. And the other cottage in Dog Lane, Primrose Cottage, had recently sold for 725,000 British Pounds. Guess I won't be moving there—not at those prices!


And now for the dust jacket from her book The Rosemary Tree, copyright 1956, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. This is extra special to me because the wonderful illustrations are found on both the front and the back of the jacket. I just love the style and color of these old-fashioned drawings! And in my opinion, the story is just as delightful the art depicting it.




Next we have this charming dust jacket for Gentian Hill, copyright MCMXLIX, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. Do you know what year those Roman numerals indicate? I don't; my dear hubby translated them for me - it is 1949. I am enamored of those sailing ships in the bay and the view from the little chapel on the cliff above the sea.

Old sailing ships have always fascinated me, probably from reading about them in Elizabeth Goudge's books, Gentian Hill and Green Dolphin Street (or Green Dolphin Country, as it was first published in England). Perhaps you would be interested to know that Hollywood made a movie in the 1940's of her Green Dolphin novel (sadly, my copy is sans dust jacket).




My penultimate offering for your viewing pleasure is the dust jacket for A City of Bells, first published in 1936; my edition was published in 1949, Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., London. That bow window in the little building with the bookseller sign above it is significant to the story, as are the people approaching the shop's front door.




And finally, The Dean's Watch, copyright 1960, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. See the cathedral towering over the square, and the clock shop across the way? And the characters standing there? They are all part of this fabulous story set in a cathedral town based on the English town of Ely, where Elizabeth Goudge lived in her youth with her parents. Her father, Principal of the Theological College at Wells Cathedral, was offered a canonry at Ely Cathedral and the family moved there for the sake of her mother's health. Ms. Goudge says on page 100 of her autobiography "...for me, Ely was the home of all homes."

All of these lovely dust jackets contain hints about what's inside the pages of these novels, as any good jacket must. I've read these stories so many times since the 1960's that it's almost as though I have personally met the characters, and this is yet another reason why I so enjoy looking at them as the artists conceived of them in each of these wonderful illustrations.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour!