What do you do when a book, written by an author you’ve read avidly in the past, but which you’ve never heard of before, comes to your attention? You run out and hunt it down. And then, maybe, you think there’s a reason why you never heard of it …

Last week, Henrietta’s House by Elizabeth Goudge was mentioned somewhere. I read a lot of Goudge’s books years ago. She was popular enough and prolific enough that the library carried her books, and they were always being checked out. Consequently, back then it took some time to be sure I’d read them all. (I didn’t do anything forward-thinking like putting holds on them, or looking in the card catalog to see what was available.)

Henrietta’s House is a continuation of the story in A City of Bells, which I love, and Sister of the Angels. Sort of. The characters of Henrietta, Jocelyn, Gabriel Ferranti, Grandmother and Grandfather, and Hugh Anthony, are all present.The story involves a picnic, which become an enchanted journey, with many of those involved having a life-changing experience.** BUT. It’s some determined and treacly wish-fulfillment, and Henrietta is not a serious artist-in-the-making in this book. Her slightly absent father, Ferranti, is granted the power to fulfill her most material wish for a house where everyone will always be with her and be safe. I really didn’t know what to think.

** For example, Jocelyn and Felicity realize that they don’t need a car. It’s a horrible contraption to bring to the lovely city where they live.

Eventually I looked at the copyright date of the book. It was originally published in 1942 which makes a certain amount of sense. During World War II, especially shortly after the London Blitz, a wish-fulfillment book would have an audience that wouldn’t exist at other times.

The one thing I really liked in the book was a very brief conversation. Ferranti, a poet, is explaining to Henrietta how he met a character called Old Gentleman.

“[the old Gentleman was] sitting under an apple tree enjoying a book. And I looked at the book, and it was one of mine, and so of course I liked him. Authors always love people who enjoy their books, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” said Henrietta. But readers don’t always love the authors of the books they enjoy. They are often a great disappointment to them. I do hope you weren’t a disappointment to [the old Gentleman]?”

Anyway here are some links. First up, Internet Archive where I found Henrietta’s House. I’d rather read The Scent of Water, a book which includes some of the most mentally vulnerable characters that Goudge ever wrote. https://archive.org/details/texts?tab=collection&query=elizabeth+goudge It also includes a character who writes, but the passages about his work are the least self-referential I’ve ever read. (I’m comparing them to D. E. Stevenson’s Miss Buncle, for example.)

https://www.ggbp.co.uk/authors-and-series/elizabeth-goudge/ This is a short biography of Elizabeth Goudge, listing several places where she lived, and noting books associated with those places. However, Elizabeth’s mother was from Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and this brief biography misses that particular connection, although Island Magic, Goudge’s first successful book, was based on holidays she took with her grandparents there.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1490695.A_City_of_Bells A bit more biography of Elizabeth Goudge is included here.

Neither biography includes Jessie Munro, her long-time companion. Munro came to live with her after her mother died. Goudge suffered from depression and poor health all her life, so that living alone was not the best option for her.

This article discusses Goudge’s deep faith, a feature of her best books. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/18-march/features/features/an-undervalued-gift Her father had been associated with cathedrals all her life.