A delightful, lovely, and fascinating read; after I caught on to the rhythm, cadence, and many interwoven voices. It was like a mathematical equation where once I understood the formula, all the pieces began to come together, and I devoured the building of the puzzle. It is complex and dramatic, subtle and yet, often shocking, a treasure in the genre of family sagas.

I read this book in 1963/64 and loved it then, and never forgot the title. Revisiting the Quinn family history has been as rewarding the second time around. I love the way Rumer Godden weaves the details of the different generations around each other, creating a beautiful tapestry, reflecting the continuity of life, and how things change and yet never change.

My favourite Rumer Godden novel so far and read as part of the #thecosyreadinggroup on IG. I loved the interweaving of the generations in this story. I had to refer back to the family tree on numerous occasions though! A story of a house, its family and its garden , showing humanity in all its ups and downs. Life is no fairy story and this novel makes it clear, but we can all find our own happiness somewhere.

I wanted to love this book. I didn't.

It's the story of a house in Cornwall, and three or four generations of the family who shaped and were shaped by this house. The writing is quite lovely and lyrical, and I liked its structure around the Book of Hours. I disliked the way the descriptions and narrative hopped around between generations, characters, and their stories, often mid-paragraph. It's well rated - lots of folks love it. Just not me. 3 stars for the language and writing.

Appealing cover. Manderley Press Publisher. Great story. Beautifully descriptive.

Lol, need to revisit this one so that I can write a review.

Another in my “read through the 20th century” project, this was published in 1960 and just goes to show that it’s a good idea to read old books! With a few exceptions I loved most everything about this beautifully written book that’s set in Cornwall in a rambling old country house sadly in need of renovation. The house figures significantly in the narrative because it has been home for five generations of the family who has lived there.
tI’ve read this book before and liked it as much then as I did this time around except for the way it ended, especially the last few pages. Obviously they were written at a time when it seems to have been acceptable for men to slap women around, nevertheless the scene raised too many red flags for me to simply excuse it.
tOther than that I enjoyed the way the novel chronicles the stories of multiple generations of one family, weaving them together back and forth so that the secrets they’ve hidden, the betrayals they’ve experienced, and they passions they’ve felt are all revealed gradually.
tBut what really stands out about this novel is the way Godden uses time itself as a structural device. Admittedly this takes a while to get used to because while the narrative unfolds over five generations Godden uses the present tense to portray significant episodes in the lives of a wide range of vivid characters, often shifting abruptly from one time period to another without warning in the same paragraph.
tGodden has structured her novel around the monastic Liturgy of the Hours and that may be a bit confusing unless a reader is familiar with what they are. But those of us who have had a chance to experience Prime, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline in a monastic setting understand that the Liturgy of the Hours is a way to pay attention to the sacred nature of time itself as it moves throughout the hours of the day. In using the monastic hours as a structural device I think Godden is emphasizing what is sacred about the hours that flow through the lives of each generation of a family: “The stories are different – of course, each has its time and place – yet they are all alike in that, as with every day, they must be lived through from sunrise to sunset, all the hours of the day; and as the day ends, it begins.”

I loved this novel, and I think it may end up being one of my top reads of the year. I have realized recently how much new favorite novels earn a place on that list because I say to myself: "Hmm, I don't understand what is happening here, but I know it's worthy of a re-read." There was a lot of that happening in China Court because it is so complex and multi-layered. I used to see not understanding something as a disadvantage in a novel. As I grow older and life itself grows more complex and multi-layered and mysterious and my capacity to dwell in nuance grows, I see novels like this as an invitation to contemplation. As Elliott Holt wrote in a recent NY Times article about reading the same poem every day for a month: "Repetition leads to revelation."

This is a fascinating novel structurally. Rumer Godden moves seamlessly between the generations of Quins (the family surname) living in the big family house of China Court in Cornwall from 1840 when Eustace and Adza Quin first move to the house to the "present day" in 1960 when Mrs. Quin has died and her will is being read. The only novel I can think of that is like it (that I've read) is To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, and I found China Court much easier to follow, likely because it has many tactile details about the house and garden and the people who live there over the years whereas I found Woolf's writing more esoteric.

I love that books play a crucial role in the plot of the novel in several ways. For example, Godden chose to structure her novel around The Book of Hours, which is an illuminated monastic book divided into the Latin names of the monks' prayer times throughout the 24 hours of a single day. Each section of the book has the title of a prayer time, e.g. Lauds, and a description of an illuminated scene from the Book of Hours, which is a beloved book of Mrs. Quin's (the main character of the novel, I would argue). I love this because I was on a monastic retreat in college where we kept a monastic schedule with Lauds, Prime, Tierce (or Terce), Sext, None, Vespers, Compline, and Matins and learned about the history of Christian spirituality. I love that this concept and this practice is interwoven into the bones of the novel. This is one of the things that I want to pay attention to on subsequent re-readings.

Spoilers from here on. :)

The monastic bones of the book and the primary role of the house, China Court, reminded me so much of Elizabeth Goudge's novels. Both Godden and Goudge have a deep, mystic sense of Christian spirituality and sacramentality. With both, the stuff of the earth and the basic rhythm of being human are means of God's grace. China Court (or Damerosehay in Goudge's Eliot novels) is not just a house. It's a haven that shelters and nurtures the people who live there. This is why the antagonists in the story are Mrs. Quin's children, especially Walter and Bella, who see the house strictly as a drain on resources, a white elephant to get rid of as soon as possible. It is simply utilitarian to them, so it's so satisfying when Tracy inherits the house. She loves the house as it is, flaws and all and becomes the true child of the house.

I love Mrs. Quin's clearsightedness. As a former outsider to the house as the girl Ripsie, Mrs. Quin, by marrying John Henry after Borowis' death, becomes the ultimate insider: the protector of the house and its legacy. I love that Mrs. Quin's name is Deborah. This brought to mind for me the biblical character of Deborah from Judges who is herself a judge. Deborah Quin takes on the role of judge in her will. She arbitrates who receives the house (the Promised Land, in a way) and who does not. Peter is also a fitting recipient of the gift of the house because he loves the farm that is part of the house and has worked the farm with humility and fortitude.

I love that Godden's characters in this novel are well rounded. Bella, Walter, the Graces, and their husbands come the closest to being the story's antagonists, but there are a couple redemptive scenes towards the end of the book that I think are crucial. The first is when everyone is searching the house for the rare books. The second is when the four aunts (Bella and the three Graces) come together to find a wedding dress for Tracy among the saved wedding dresses of past generations. I thought the second scene was especially touching.

I love Eliza's character. She is so complex and her storyline has such delicious irony. As a Victorian woman who was forced by society and her family (her father, especially) into a certain mold of femininity, I love that she stumbled into a way to be her own independent woman, albeit by swindling her father and brother. And it's that very swindling that saves China Court! Ah, it's just so clever and nuanced. Of course I wish that Eliza had found a different, more upright path, but her storyline causes us as readers to rage against the conventions of her time that kept her wings clipped.

Lady Patrick and Jared are both challenging characters as well. I don't know that Jared ever had that moment of redemption, but Lady Patrick certainly does when she leaves the monastery to come back to China Court in the hope that Jared will receive her. That was the most heart-breaking scene of the story. (Even more than Damaris' death and later Eliza's death.) I love the few brief conversations between Lady Patrick and her priest-confessor, Father Blackwell (funny because that is a famous Oxford bookstore). There is a sense of tragedy about Jared and Lady Patrick and later about Borowis.

The love triangle between Borowis, Ripsie, and John Henry was the one part of the story that I rolled my eyes at some. It's a common plot and it bothers me when a girl loves a guy who is so obviously not good husband material. Give them two years of marriage and it would be another Jared and Lady Patrick: estranged and full of regret. There is a sense in which Mrs. Quin never gets over her love for Borowis, which is the annoying weakness of her well-rounded character. I do like that John Henry and Ripsie end up married though and it seems to have been a good fit overall. Borowis reminded me so much of Edward from Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher.

The other troubling moment of the book is at the very end in the evening of Peter and Tracy's wedding day. I know it is troubling to a modern reader, but I think to read it with modern sensibilities is to mis-read it. It's one thing to have a wedding. It's another thing to face the wedding night and the intimacy of both the marriage bed and of marriage as a whole. I think Godden describes the tension for Peter and Tracy so well, especially because there is a lot at stake with their marriage. They were on a track to completely miss out on that intimacy and something had to break the tension, had to force them to each other instead of away from each other. Of course, I would have it be anything other than Peter's raised hand against Tracy. However, the force the interaction and the broken beloved china ornament does drive them to each other and so the book ends with a coming together (not explicit) that is crucial for the happiness of Tracy and Peter's marriage and of future generations. Indeed, the book ends with a tremendous amount of hope that the Quin family will continue with Tracy's children, a whole new set of children to be sheltered and nurtured by the aged loveliness of China Court. Throughout the book, there is a strong sense that Tracy and Peter are a good match, and I believe in their happiness.

I also love that a book full of sacramentality ends with the mystery and sacrament of marriage with the two becoming one flesh. And that foreshadows the second coming of Christ when another marriage will take place between Christ and his bride, the Church. There is so much richness there to contemplate, both in the novel and in the Christian faith.

The writing is exquisite as well. There are passages that read like poetry: the diction and the word choice is so precise, so evocative. I really think this book is a masterpiece.

There are other books equally well written that I have rated at four stars, but I give this five because I really loved it. I loved both its style and its story. It is fluid, rather than linear, in depicting and revealing China Court and its inhabitants, beginning with Mrs. Quin who dies in the first sentence but is a major character throughout the book. And the descriptions of the house and the gardens are lovely. It is the perfect antidote to news reports of war, wildfires, the pandemic and whatever else is befalling the world at the moment.

"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."

Five generations of the Quin family have lived in China Court. Their home was named for the white clay in the English countryside which was used in making fine porcelain. The home seems like a character--an observer of both the happy and unhappy events in the family for over a century.

The book starts with the death of Mrs Quin (from the middle generation) who has lived a long life. She leaves China Court, an old house with beautiful gardens, and her relatives wonder who will inherit the property.

The novel takes us day by day from Mrs Quin's death through the reading of the will which has some surprising bequests, the funeral, the inventory of the house which holds some secrets, and ending when the heirs take possession of China Court. Through it all, the history of the family is also told. The stories about the servants are as fascinating as those about the family.

Each chapter begins with a quotation from the Book of Hours of Robert Bonnefoy, an antique book loved by Mrs Quin. This book of prayers is going to prove to be important late in the story.

I loved Rumer Godden's descriptions of the house, the gardens, and the characters. The book begins in the mid-19th Century when the daughters had very different lives and expectations compared to the sons in the family. The novel ends with a disturbing event, leading the reader to wonder what the China House will be witnessing in the next generation. This was a wonderful 5-star read!

A pretty perfect story about an English country house. I loved the setting and the several-generations-worth cast of characters. Each chapter started with a prayer from a medieval Book of Hours, along with a description of an illuminated page, which I found delightful. Definitely a good read!

Rumer Godden's books are wonderful, and this one is a love story to a house so it's one of her best. The style is fluid, moving through decades, but tightly woven nonetheless and the description is lush and detailed, bringing a past world to life. She has a knack for writing tropes and cliches and making them fresh and believable.