All the talk around LT about Rumer Godden was making me a little hankersome for a quick dip in that pond. I dredged this oldie up, since it's a short book and a re-read, and sailed through it on a cloud of appreciative smiles.

Now, to make sure you understand how weird that is, I do not love the ballet, which is the subject of this book. I do not love it so much that I refer to it as the Charles Dickens of the dahnse: Ponderous, possessed of a cliquish, cultlike following with its own icky little patois, and able to scrutinize the itsy-ootsy-teensiest of twitches with all the seriousness that a normal person would give their bank statement.

Unpromising beginning, in short, for me and this novel. I love it. It's just stellar. The characters are so vivid and real, the stakes of the story are so vividly presented, the ending so exactly what would happen inevitably, that there is no way not to appreciate the craftsmanship of the tale.

Since I know from my own life that miracles occur, I had no problem with the basics of the plot. I don't respond to this book as a religious tract, but as a tale well told, and I think that's what Rumer Godden would want a reader to do...she slipped her messages into the book so well that I wouldn't even have clipped them out as her editor.

Know any balletomanes? Give them this book immediately! It's in print! Are you of a faith-and-family bent? Read it read it read it! Interested in midcentury writers? A minor book by a major talent of the day, but worth reading. ( )

I would like to have a doll's house made of the theatre in this book and dolls of all the characters. ( )

A book I've read and reread with pleasure over many years. For a lover of ballet, this is a lovely evocation of the creation of a new ballet. An eccentric and temperamental Russian ex ballerina who runs a London dance school and the many other characters (students, staff..) who populate the book are memorable and very real. To me this book has always come through when I need a familiar and satisfying read..like an old friend. ( )