4.5 stars

This was a masterful book. I couldn't decide whether it was a morality tale, a love story, an account of estrangement and reconciliation, a religious narrative, or a fantasy. For Goudge strings this all together in a nameless Cathedral town in the late 1800s, but builds such a history for this town, and some of her characters, that it's almost as if she is creating another world.

Though it's only 380 pages and there are, at least, 10 major characters and plotlines, each one is carefully and tightly woven together. I wouldn't say that it's a tapestry. Goudge isn't really aiming for the moon. This is not meant to be an explosively mind-blowing mad dash of action. Instead, it is meant to take you street by street, line by line, through the transformative ordinary days. And she does it well.

I'm not quite sure why it isn't literature. As wonderful as it is, it doesn't quite make it to Austen, Bronte, or Lewis material. It isn't a classic. But it was a lovely journey all the same. And well worth your time if you should come across it one day. ( )

"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 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. ( )

A story about an old clockmaker, a Dean of a City, and several other people. Misc feel goodism's about wuv, sweet wuv" and how everything would just be better if we all wuvved eachother. I don't know why I keep reading Goudge's books. They tend to irritate me with their rose tinted outlook." ( )

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 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. ( )

Very slow going. Took half the book to get interested, but enough in the writing and characters to keep me going. (I tend not to waste time with books that don't interest me!) The Dean - elderly, ugly - married to lovely but unloving wife. Gets involved with watch/clock maker, Polly (young orphan maid), and Job (young, talented orphan), and elderly clergyman. Many nice people living with unappreciative people who gradually come together. Turned out to be an enjoyable, sweet book. ( )