Status
Checked out
Publication
Hendrickson Publishers (2012), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 350 pages
Description
Dean of the cathedral in an 1870s English town, Adam Ayscough is respected and misunderstood. A dogged crusader against corruption, he's also acutely shy. When his watch breaks, he forms an unlikely friendship with watchmaker Isaac Peabody, who doesn't think he has anything in common with God. Will their relationship open the door to grace?
User reviews
LibraryThing member lauranav
This is a beautiful story of a Dean who has loved his God and His people well and in the best way he could. He has spent his final years in a Cathedral City fighting against sin and corruption to save the people from evils they aren't even aware of. He has won to the light for so many of them, but
He meets a clock maker one day and this changes both their lives. The Dean comes down from the Cathedral and begins to meet people in the city with astounding results. He sees the immediate physical needs and the eternal spiritual needs with equal clarity and works to meet both.
A very satisfying need. It is comforting in the middle of a book to know that Ms. Goudge will bring the novel to a good end. Not that everything will be perfect, but that the people we've come to know and love will improve, and change for the better. We want them to find the better part of themselves, we want them to find happiness and see that they don't have to cling to fear or anger or hatred. She gives us the hope that if they can change, we and the people in our lives that we care for can also change.
Show More
he is still not understood or loved, even while he is appreciated in some way.He meets a clock maker one day and this changes both their lives. The Dean comes down from the Cathedral and begins to meet people in the city with astounding results. He sees the immediate physical needs and the eternal spiritual needs with equal clarity and works to meet both.
A very satisfying need. It is comforting in the middle of a book to know that Ms. Goudge will bring the novel to a good end. Not that everything will be perfect, but that the people we've come to know and love will improve, and change for the better. We want them to find the better part of themselves, we want them to find happiness and see that they don't have to cling to fear or anger or hatred. She gives us the hope that if they can change, we and the people in our lives that we care for can also change.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SueinCyprus
The story is set in the latter part of the 19th century, featuring several very different but beautifully drawn characters, both wealthy and poor who live in a small Cathedral town in England. Each of the people is lovingly introduced, and painted in such a way that there is never any danger of
Part of the enjoyment of Goudge’s writing is to slow down and savour her evocative descriptions of characters and places. It's not usually my kind of thing, but I made the effort not to skim, and it was decidedly worthwhile.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around the city Dean getting to know a few of the people in the city, and helping them. He’s an old man and evidently in failing health but he has a great capacity for love, which he has only just discovered. He also develops a fascination with horology, after meeting the talented clockmaker of the city. There isn’t much action, yet a great deal happens in the lives of several individuals.
It’s a Christian book; the Cathedral and the Dean’s faith are significant, yet there’s no ‘preaching’. There is, however, a mystical thread: there are signs, and intuitions so strong that they are as real as words spoken. All in all, it’s a thoughtful and beautifully written book, reminiscent of calmer, slower times - yet with an awareness of how unpleasant life would have been for those born into the lower classes.
Definitely recommended to all who like slow-moving character-based and beautifully written stories.
Show More
confusing them. Part of the enjoyment of Goudge’s writing is to slow down and savour her evocative descriptions of characters and places. It's not usually my kind of thing, but I made the effort not to skim, and it was decidedly worthwhile.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around the city Dean getting to know a few of the people in the city, and helping them. He’s an old man and evidently in failing health but he has a great capacity for love, which he has only just discovered. He also develops a fascination with horology, after meeting the talented clockmaker of the city. There isn’t much action, yet a great deal happens in the lives of several individuals.
It’s a Christian book; the Cathedral and the Dean’s faith are significant, yet there’s no ‘preaching’. There is, however, a mystical thread: there are signs, and intuitions so strong that they are as real as words spoken. All in all, it’s a thoughtful and beautifully written book, reminiscent of calmer, slower times - yet with an awareness of how unpleasant life would have been for those born into the lower classes.
Definitely recommended to all who like slow-moving character-based and beautifully written stories.
Show Less
LibraryThing member starbox
"Those living in the shadow of the great cathedral"
By sally tarbox on 17 April 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Written in 1960, but set a hundred years before; this is a beautiful and uplifting book, in which relatively small incidents conspire to improve the individuals and the world about them.
The
By sally tarbox on 17 April 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Written in 1960, but set a hundred years before; this is a beautiful and uplifting book, in which relatively small incidents conspire to improve the individuals and the world about them.
The
Show More
narrative opens with Isaac Peabody, an embittered elderly watchmaker who lives for his craft. Sharing a home with an unlovely sister, broken by a harsh childhood, he has turned his back on religion, despite living by the cathedral... And here is the Dean, one of his clients, an apparently stern man, with a cold-hearted wife... A good natured servant girl, a runaway apprentice, a cruel fishmonger, a delightful child...all come into the story, which is a gentle read with a Christian message. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1960
Physical description
350 p.; 8.52 inches
ISBN
1598568876 / 9781598568875