This book has everything for me. It will rank as a comfort read, much like "Pilgrim's Inn" by Elizabeth Goudge. It will be the book I re-read when I'm blue, or need to step away from the way this world has become. It's hard to describe China Court. In some respects, it's a very emotional book, otherwise it is a story about the love of a house and the love between a grandmother and granddaughter and the deep understanding between them. Well worth the read, well worth the time spent longing for that sort of connection in a world gone crazy.

Read this for August book club and really didn’t like it! I kept persevering, hoping it would get better, but it really didn’t! Apparently it’s described as a cosy read - I couldn’t disagree more. Every time it got interesting, the narration would slip back to a time and characters I didn’t give a hoot about. The ending was probably the worst part, when the young farmer slaps his new wife in the face - I know it was published over 60 years ago but WTF?!? Awful.

Everyone raves about this author but as it was the first I’ve read by her, I won’t be tempted to try another any time soon. It helped me fall asleep, but that was about it!

If you want a comfort read about a country house with multiple generations, go with Dorothy Whipple’s The Priory instead.

This was described as a multi-generational book, and technically it was, but it jumped around a lot and I am really not sure what it was about. The main narrater was telling images from her life, but I never really felt like I connected with her. It was many little bits of life in a house in England.

Can a single moment ruin the entire experience of a book? I wouldn't have said so before reading this one, but now...

China Court is the story of a house. It is also the story of the generations of a single family who lived in the house, but the house is the principal character. China Court (the house) is the home of the Quin family of Cornwall, a middle-class family of comfortable means but no social distinction. This in-between position isolates them from their neighbors both high and low, and each generation is marked by this separateness. Some go away, never to be fully part of the house's life again; some rage against being trapped there; and a lucky few find their soul through subsuming themselves into the house's life.

If that makes this book sound like some kind of spooky horror story, I have misled you. The house is a large but rather ordinary one, but the lives lived there over the generations have given it a life of its own, a life richly rewarding to the family members and servants but only if they have the commonsense to embrace it. Its contents, its rhythms, its sounds and scents are described in lyrical, loving detail, bringing it to life for the reader. By comparison, the lives of the people are revealed in a nonlinear, almost scattershot fashion, being important only as they reveal more about the house.

All of this I loved, and I admired the masterful writing that kept me wrapped up in the world Rumer Godden wove. The present tense often erupts into the narrative, giving a timelessness to details large and small. This is an inventive and interesting book, for all its conventional language. And I fell in love with some of the characters, especially the outsider Ripsie, who is in many ways the heart and soul of the house even if the only place she can make her own mark is outdoors, in the garden.

But then--a conventional plot device of pulp fiction comes into the (for Godden) present-day portion of the tale. The artificiality of it gave me pause, just a frisson of anxiety over where we were headed. And then the final scene smashed in and may have ruined it all for me. I have never been a fan of the bodice-ripper genre, and when a previously rational man goes caveman all of a sudden it leaves me stone cold and I start screaming at the heroine to start running and keep going. I know I am coming to the book with the perspective of a twenty-first-century reader and I shouldn't judge the mores of an earlier age, but the ending just left an ugly taste in my mouth and I can't get it out. Maybe read to the 96 percent mark and leave it at that, if you really want to appreciate the loveliness of this book.

I love rambling family sagas, especially those set in England; so this book did not disappoint on that front. Other reviewers have been critical of the rambling, time-shifting narrative, but I enjoyed the novel's structure, and bought into the author's assertion that meeting a large family takes time to distinguish who is who. To me, the entire family was revealed much as one peels the layers of an onion.

I am critical, however, of the ending -- not only was it jarring (and disturbing), it felt abrupt in a manner was was entirely at odds with the meandering pace of the rest of the novel.

3.5

In a Preface to this novel, the author gives the reader some advice:

n  

China Court is a novel about five generations of a family, so that, as in real life, there are many names and personalities, but I believe if the reader is a little patient - and can bear not to skip - they will soon become distinct and he will have no need to look at the family tree included at the end.

n

Well, I did look at the family tree 'included at the end' several times in the course of reading this story, but in the main, the author is correct. Eventually, the different personalities and generations become distinct. However, a good deal of patience is required to truly enjoy this book because it doesn't unfold as a straightforward narrative.

The first lines of the book are this:

n  

Old Mrs Quin died in her sleep in the early hours of an August morning. The sound of the bell came into the house but did not disturb it; it was quite used to death, and birth, and life.

n

There is a linear narrative to the book: it begins with the matriarch Mrs. Quin's death, progresses to her funeral and the will reading, briefly devolves into an unexpected mystery involving a long ago daughter of the house, and ends in marriage and new ownership of the house. However, the bulk of the story goes back and forth in time; the previous inhabitants of the house, China Court, are not so much ghosts as part of the very fabric of the house. The narrative shows how the life of the house is made of the work of many hands, and there is repetition within that constant change. The happinesses and tragedies of the Quin family are gradually pieced together, but these revelations are by no means chronological. Some dramas and personalties imprint themselves more strongly than others.

There is another structure to the story, too: the eight canonical hours of the day. A Book of Hours is a beloved possession of Mrs Quin's, found in her hand when she dies, and it is used as a plot device in more ways than one. In the most obvious sense, though, the Book of Hours becomes a way of organising the chapters: Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline and Matins. The linear structure of the storyline unfolds against the echoes of the past.

There doesn't seem much point in getting specific about any of the characters other than Mrs. Quin, whose death precipitates a changeover in ownership of the house. This really is the story of a house - not so much a 'great' house as a substantial one. At one point, the house is part of a much larger estate: quarry, china clay works and farm. As the 20th century progresses, and the local Cornish economy changes, and male heirs die in wars (Boer, World War I and II), the house undergoes changes as well. Most of Mrs Quin's heirs see the house as hopelessly old-fashioned, a 'white elephant', too big and too expensive to keep going. In many ways, the story of China Court is the story of many great and substantial houses in the UK in the 20th century. Ultimately, though, this is a story about renewal and regeneration. China Court still has its share of hours, even though the future is only hinted at.

I think the thing to do with a book like this is to read it once and then read it again. The first time, in order to make its acquaintance; the second, to settle into a deeper friendship.

Note: this book was briefly mentioned in Novel Houses, and that's when it first came to my attention. Soon after, a friend - who knows of my fondness for 'house' stories and family sagas - recommended it to me.

Absolutely one of my favorite reads this year. Beautifully told story of the history of this old English manor through 150 years and multiple generations of one family. The presentation of the memories are a bit jumbled and hard to follow at first, but it was like getting to know a person over time and I found myself just wanting more of the stories. The jumble soon became the story of the house and all it saw over the years. I fell in love with the house and the family that became such a part of the heart of the house, all the while hoping that Tracy and Peter make the right choice for the future of this house and their family. "... it captures a sense of the house holding all the members of the family at any one time, the echoes of their steps and their voices all layered upon one another." https://madamebibilophilerecommends.w...

"When one of the…rose bowls or vases is rung it gives off a sound, clear, like a chime, the ring of true porcelain, so China Court gives off the ring of a house, a true home.”

"Memory is the only friend of grief."

"In real life, when one meets a large family, with all its ramifications of uncles, aunts and cousins, as well as grandfathers and grandmothers, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, their friends, servants, and pet animals, it takes some time to distinguish them; one does not expect to remember straightaway that it is Jane who is married to Bertram, Jack who was born with a club foot, Aunt Margaret who had the unfortunate love affair… China Court is a novel about five generations of a family… I believe if the reader is a little patient – and can bear not to skip – they will soon become distinct and he will have no need to look at the family tree on the frontispiece’."

When I picked this book up, it felt like a secular draft of Godden's masterpiece, In This House of Brede. Same circular format, not so much jumping back and forth in time as sliding in and out between events. Same basic idea of the house (or House) as central character, inhabited by generations and ages. Same dramatic rescue via hidden treasure...

However, it was a very rough draft and somehow unsatisfying and unconvincing. I know I read this book back in the mid-seventies and was underwhelmed at the time; unfortunately, my opinion has not changed. Godden's output is uneven; when she's on form, she can't be bettered, but when she is not--well, she's not. The final few pages felt like they belonged to a different book, and the story is chopped off about time it looks like it might go somewhere. It builds up and up and up to...nothing.

I've had this book on my shelves for many, many years. I read it a long time ago, it was my introduction to Rumer Godden, and I loved it so much that I promised myself a reread one day. That day finally came after seeing so many GR friends reading this and posting great reviews that reminded me of my promise. In the intervening years, I've read 7 or 8 other books by Godden and never been disappointed. She's a perfect storyteller because she gets out of the way and lets her characters take over.

The main character here is the house itself: China Court. A family saga of 5 generations of lies and love and deceit, generations who walk together through these pages and tell their stories simultaneously, but such is the skill of the author that you understand perfectly well what is going on and when, and who is speaking. An unusual technique, but it works better than a linear tale. Our main character is Ripsie to start out, a waif who doesn't belong, old Mrs. Quinn at the end, the matriarch who straddles the generations. Her death in the first chapter sets things into motion, ultimately deciding the fate of the house, but no more so than unhappy, lonely Eliza who, because of her actions one hundred years in the past, becomes a savior of sorts. I think my favorite character was Cecily, the cook/housekeeper/companion of old Mrs. Quin. She knew more than anyone thought, but also knew when to keep her mouth shut.

Thank you Megan, Sara, Connie, Katherine and the others who posted glowing reviews. It gave me 4 days of reading pleasure, and confirmed my original opinion of a favorite novel.

DNF

I couldn't even give this my "50 page" test. China Court is written in the stream-of-consciousness style that I dislike the most: the author believes it's artistic and literary to throw characters and sentences and images randomly on the page, with no introduction, chronology, or context; and it is my job to figure out what the hell is going on.

I'm very disappointed because if I was able to locate the story, it seems like something I would have enjoyed.

This is a difficult book to review. I had been wanting to read something by Ms. Godden, and somebody recommended China Court as a good introduction to her work.

I was enraptured by the book. Ms. Godden does a brilliant job of creating distinctive, individual personalities for all of her characters - and there are a lot of them! - painting an indelible portrait or scene with a few well-chosen words. As the title indicates, this novel is as much a story of a house as of a family, and she also is adept at interweaving generations of characters and the lives they lived in different eras. It took me a little while to get used to the narrative structure, but I was mesmerized by her writing style once I did.

Unfortunately, the entire book was ruined for me in the last few pages. Since this is my only experience with Ms. Godden's work, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that her ideas are just hopelessly outdated. I don't think I'm going to read anything more by her, though.