For twenty-five years devoted readers of Elizabeth Goudge's exceptional novels have kept her name on best-seller lists with dependable regularity. In her newest novel the author of Green Dolphin Street, Gentian Hill and The White Witch returns to the setting and period of her best-loved book, A City of Bells. An English cathedral town in the mid-nineteenth century forms the background for the warm and gentle story of Isaac Peabody, an obscure clockmaker, a dreamer but a dedicated craftsman, and of Adam Ayscough, the brilliant, pious Dean of the Cathedral, whose great love for his parishioners is stifled by his own unconquerable shyness. Around these two central characters, Miss Goudge has brilliantly evoked the atmosphere of the town itself, steeped in history yet throbbing with the very real life of its citizens, who are all in one way or another affected by the Dean's remark- able awakening. Through Isaac and Adam the strange healing force of unselfish love is revealed with its power to alter and redeem the lives of all whom it touches.
In this inspiring novel, Miss Goudge has drawn, with her remarkable talent, appealing characters in a warm and richly imaginative story. As always her handling of children is magic and in this appealing story they come to life as they respond to the Dean's under- standing and appreciation.
Miss Goudge returns to Ely, the country she knew and loved as a child, for her novel The Dean's Watch. Having a horror of cities, she now finds the peace and beauty needed to write her charming novels in the appropriately named Rose Cottage in Oxfordshire, England. Rose Cottage stands in a small but lovely garden and beyond that, fields, woods and a great sky. The beauty of her surroundings and her own understanding of the goodness of people enable her to present the endearing and aspiring qualities of human nature. Her ability to depict the charms of out-of-the-way places and to make them live again in time and space is a constant delight to her many readers.
Jacket design by Albert Orbaan
—from the dust jacket
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