11/9/08

My second favorite fictional room

Yesterday I wrote about Maria's room, in The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. My second favorite fictional room is also from a Goudge book--Linnets and Valerians. I love this room mainly because Nan's happiness in it rings so true...

"Nan sat down in the little armchair and folded her hands in her lap. A parlor of her own! She had never even had a bedroom of her own let alone a parlor. It was quiet in here, the noises of the house shut away, the sound of the wind and rain outside seeming only to intensify the indoor silence. The light of the flames was reflected in the paneling and the burning logs smelled sweet. Something inside her seemed to expand like a flower opening and she sighed with relief. She had not known before that she liked to be alone. She sat still for ten minutes, making friends with her room, and then she got up and moved slowly around it making friends with all it had."

An introvert's dream come true.

For those who haven't read this book--it is about a family of four motherless Edwardian children whose military father has left them with their grandmother in England. Escaping from her stern attentions, the children end up at their uncle's house, in a Devon village at the edge of the moors. There they find magic, both good and evil, and end up righting ancient wrongs....and the descriptions of places, people, food, and gardens are utterly and wonderfully wonderful. I read it when I was eight. It knocked my socks off. Still does.

7 comments:

  1. I wouldn't call it my own favorite fictional room, but I'm reminded of Laura exploring all the clever contrivances in the kitchen Almanzo built for her in The First Four Years. Or is it at the end of These Happy Golden Years? Too bad it burnt down...

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  2. It's The First Four Years. I've always liked that kitchen too!

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  3. Elizabeth Goudge has a gift for writing about rooms. When Jen posted about your post, I immediately thought of Maria's room in Little White Horse and Henrietta's rooms in Henrietta's House/The Blue Hills. I need to reread all of her books in which children are important characters, because those are my favorites of her novels. It's tickling my brain, and I can't quite reach it, but wasn't the kitchen in Pilgrim's Inn/Herb 'o Grace quite special, too?

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  4. The whole of Herb of Grace, not just the kitchen!

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  5. I've just ordered The Herb of Grace plus others. A whole bunch of Goudge books are back in print, and that means I can afford a bunch at once, instead of eeking them out bit by bit. I'm remembering more rooms as this meme takes off. Way to inspire our imaginations!

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  6. How nice, both that they are in print and that you are getting them! What fun for you!

    The Dean's Watch is the best Goudge for Christmas, althoug Herb of Grace has a lovely Christmas bit too...

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  7. ...please where can I buy a unicorn?

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