Evening star., 1950-01-01
Books
Elizabeth Goudqe
Steps Right Into
95OLioeIight
GENTIAN HILL
BY Elizabeth Goudge. (CoWard
McCann, $780,
Reviewed by
CARTER, BROOKE JONES

Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
With the new year comes a new
novel by Elizabeth Goudge, des-
tined, unless all portents fail. to
make the best-seller lists at once
and stay there quite a while.
The author of many popular
books turns this time to a his
torical setting. Her story centers
around the West Country of Eng
land-a region she has written
about often-during the Napole-
onic wars in the early part of the
18th century. 1t stems from a
legend of st. Michaels Chapel at
To1quay, which was built in the
18th century by grateful mariner
who was saved from a ship
wreck by the monks of Tore
and carried out a VOW to
devote the rest of his life to God.
Three centuries later a girl named
Rosalind prayed in the chapel for
her absent lover, and when a
storm blew up, an old man who
appeared beside her led her down
the steep slope to the sea. A ship
was breaking up on the rocks, and
the man she pulled ashore alive
was her lover.
In 1904. the chapel was in ruins.
a shrine foreign seamen sometimes
visited. Roman Catholics of the
community went to mass in the
old guest house of Tore Abbey.
Their priest was the Able de Col
bert, a reserved man of mystery
said to have belonged to the
French nobility and to have fled
for his life during the revolution.
Then there was Farmer Sprigg
and his good wife and their
adopted daughter Stella, saved
from the sea as baby, her origin
unknown. And there came to- the
region Zachary, a youthful mid
shipman, who had deserted one of
the few bad" ships in Nelson S
fleet. Zachary was rebuffed and
driven to hide in the fields until
the fine physician, DR.. Crane, took
the boy in.
A Glimpse of Trafalgar.
Around these characters Miss
Goudge has woven her romance.
It is fairly clear from the begin
ming who the more mysterious
ones will turn out to be and what
will happen. But it takes the
author long time to reach the
visible shore. Meanwhile, there
are. true enough, exciting epi-
sodes, including a crisp impress
sion of the Battle of Trafalgar.
And there are many descriptions
of the countryside and honey de-
tails Of life among the Devon
farm people of that era. all no
doubt based on observation and
careful research. None of it, you
may be sure If you've read Mis-,
Goudge before, is told without
sentiment. Heart is the
term generally used to describe
the effect. The characters are
an uncommonly splendid lot, and
the author leaves no subtleties in
them to puzzle you. There's not
really villain. unless you count
the country Tout who beat up
Zachary early in the narrative
and this churl is quickly banished
from the story. There are vicious
elements, but they are anonymous
war. occasional brutality in the
British Navy, the London slums,
a prison.
More Story, Less Rhapsody.
Gentian Hill" is more re-
strained-well. restraint in any
degree is not exactly applicable
to Miss Goudge-let's say less
rhapsodic than her last novel,
Pilgrims Inn Perhaps the new
book Is better written because
she had more of a story to tell.
"Gentian HILL" a Literary Guild
selection, should be just the
thing for readers who are al
ways saying there's enough
trouble in life without having to
read about it. And to have a
novel with so many pleasing ele-
ments the very first days of the
new year should put the book
sellers In a good humor. So, why
should a reviewer be captious?
INFORMATION PLEASE
ALMANAC: 1850
Edited by John Kieran. (Mac-
MILAN; $780,
A new feature Of the 1850 edi-
ton OF this popular compendium
OF facts is vacation travel guide,
prepared by Holiday Magazine
and various travel agencies. Con-
tributors to this section include
Louis Bromf1eld, who writes on
France, Russell Grouse on Scan
dinavia. John Gunther on Italy
and Christopher Morley on Eng
land. There are the usual de-
partments. brought up to date.
The Washington year is described
by Elmer Davis, sports by RED"
Smith, books of the year by John
Chamberlain and the theater by
Brooks Atkinson,
Cruise Of the Jeanette, by Capt.
Edward Ellsberg, U. S. N. r.
Dodd, Mead & Co.; $2.75.)
Capt. Ellsberg has retold here