A lyrical, atmospheric family story, with a surprising amount of suspense and some great plot twists at the end. I wonder if Rumer Godden wrote for the stage; The Greengage Summer is perfectly structured in three acts with all the plot points in just the right places. I would love to see this in the hands of a modern director with a really good ensemble cast and a fine cinematographer. Meanwhile, the book is absolutely wonderful. I’ll tell you about Act 1, but leave you properly in suspense about Acts 2 and 3.In the first pages, Joss, the oldest girl, and her sister Cecil, the book’s narrator, are reminiscing with their Uncle William about that fateful summer. Cecil recalls the green-gold days at the inn on the Marne, and the orchard ripe with fruit. “On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages.”“Will—though he was called Willmouse then—Willmouse and Vicky were too small to reach any but the lowest branches, but they found fruit fallen in the grass….”The story opens with the five children stranded in France with their mother, who has been taken severely ill with septicemia. They manage, quite heroically, to get themselves and their mother to the inn where they have reservations. It is very late at night and they are very much the worse for their journey—grubby, wearing school uniforms that make them look like orphans, terribly hungry and desperate. A chaotic scene ensues as the hotel’s proprietors at first refuse to let the family stay. Part of the conversation is in French, only partially translated, and that adds to the extraordinarily vivid sense of panicked dislocation as the children try to remember their school lessons and argue their case in broken but indignant sentences. They are rescued by an enigmatic Englishman, apparently another guest at the Inn, but one who seems on extraordinarily intimate terms with the proprietors. Who is this Englishman? We get a hint that all is not quite on the level when Eliot says the children will "give him a reason for being there." The children are "camouflage" for the mysterious but attractive Mr. Eliot—but why? The children’s mother is packed off to a hospital, which must be good since it serves wine with luncheon, and the children are on their own, running free in the town by the river and in the splendid orchards.They also amuse themselves by watching, with quick, observant eyes, the adult dramas unfolding around them. “If Mademoiselle Zizi had known that gallery of hard young eyes was watching her I wonder if she would have been different. From morning to night at Les Oeillets we sat in judgment on her, and the judgments were severe. ‘Well, none of it is true,’ said Hester.”The time is the 1920s, some years after the end of World War I. Who did what in the war, who collaborated, or hid secrets, or profited from others’ misery are still topics of gossip and shame. There are too many women alone and there is too little money—but on the Marne there are also visitors, pilgrims really, who come from all over the world to see the battlefields and find graves of lost ones. Les Oeillets caters to these battlefield visitors and the owner, Mademoiselle Zizi, and the manager, Madame Corbet, make the most of the gruesome relics—the bullet holes on the staircase and a bloodstain in one of the guest rooms, carefully renewed with pan drippings at regular intervals.I thought that no one could do children better than Elizabeth Goudge, but now I’ll have to add Rumer Godden as another author who can create sympathetic and utterly believable children and young people; each of the five English children has a distinctive voice and personality and we see the world and its ‘grown-up’ inhabitants through their perceptive eyes and quick ears. Joss Grey is 16 and sidelined for most of Act 1 with severe headaches and nausea. Cecil, at 13, has always been a bit jealous of her beautiful sister but she has her own special gifts and takes charge with a good deal of courage and competence. Hester, 10 years old, accompanies Cecil on many of their great adventures, while Willmouse, age 7 designs dresses for his dolls and Vicky, age 4, follows the head chef everywhere and charms him so thoroughly that she grows quite fat from all the tidbits. Paul, the scruffy kitchen boy, befriends the children and slips them fresh rolls for their picnic lunch instead of the stale ones ordered by Madame. Madame, it seems, hates the children. Not even Vicky escapes her dislike. Paul sorts it out for them in chapter 6: (view spoiler)[Madame hates them because Eliot has arranged for them to stay. Mademoiselle Zizi is in love with Eliot and Madame Corbet is jealous. (hide spoiler)]
THE GREENGAGE SUMMER. (1958). Rumer Godden. *****.tMy experience with Rumer Godden’s writings has been limited. I’ve read two of her works: “Black Narcissus,” and “The River.” I can also recommend the film made from “The River” directed by Jean Renoir. I found this novel to be excellent. It starts off as a sleeper, but you soon get involved with the characters and are caught up in their adventures. A mother from a small town in England decides that her children need to explore something different on their vacation that will provide some incentive for them to grow up. She felt that a lesson that demonstrated what other people did for their fellow man would be in order. So, instead of heading off to the seaside, she took her brood to France, to the area around Rouen. She wanted them to see the trenches and graves left over from WW I, and to visit the site of St. Joan of Arcs execution. The brood included her five children, four girls and one boy. The oldest was Joss: she was 15-years old. Next was Cecil, 12-years old, who is the narrator of the tale. Then there was the boy – about 10-years old – who had a great interest in fashion. Ms. Godden made him a little namby-pamby, but that was probably because of having so many girls around him. Finally, there were the two youngest girls, Willmoose and Vicky. They were called The Littles. When they finally arrive in France, and are on their way to Rouen, Mother is bitten by a horsefly. That doesn’t sound lke much, but her leg subsequently became infected. (These were the days before antibiotics.) Thereafter, Mother was treated by a doctor and then sent to a hospital where she spent the rest of the vacation. Five children were then thrown upon the owners of their hotel for survival. The children really didn’t speak French past their school training, so had to do a lot of guessing about what was said to them. They soon discovered that quite a lot was going on at this hotel, Les Oeillets (The Violets), that went beyond their knowledge of life. The principal plot involved an Englishman named Eliot. Eliot was a travelling man with a winning personality and what seemed to be a great knowledge about life in general. He was staying at the hotel and having a fling with the owner, Ms. Zizi. This created a serious rift between Zizi and the managress, Madam Courbet, who was apparently in love with her. There was also a lusty boy about the hotel who was the general dogsbody for the staff and guests. An undercurrent of sexuality pervades everything that seems to be going on at this hotel. The children have to learn how to cope with this in spite of not having an English-speaking adult around to advise them. They get along as best they can, but are soon involved in the goings-on around them. There is a great air of mystery about Mr. Eliot, too, that puzzles the children. Later, they find out that he has a hidden past and a not so rosy future ahead of him. There is love interest and mystery in this novel that will certainly keep you interested and entertained throughout your reading. I guess I’m going to have to find more of Ms. Godden’s novels. Highly recommended. Oh…If, like me you didn’t know what greengages are, they are a variety of plum. The title comes from the fact that the hotel was next to a greengage orchard.
What do You think about The Greengage Summer (1995)?
Greengages, or reines-claudes.This must have been lurking on the back shelf in the spare bedroom for years, ever since I bought it on a bookseller's recommendation as a way of weaning a teen off Jacqueline Wilson and onto something slightly more grown-up. As one of those serendipitous side-effects of a bit of general tidying (tidying bookshelves, yay!), it came with me for my morning coffee and I just read it straight through in one sitting. A bittersweet evocation of August days in the Champagne district, it is set just after WW1, when the narrator was thirteen. She and her three sisters and a brother are taken abroad for the first time in their lives, mother disappears into the local hospital with septicaemia following a horsefly bite, older sis laid low by The Curse, and the four other children are vaguely 'looked after' by various members of staff or guests of the hotel on the banks of the Marne. A real mystery knits itself up, with more than one type of border crossed, innocence lost, and the swither between child and adult that is thirteen.With penicillin and paracetamol, nowadays there would have to be some other way of removing the responsible adults. But remove them one must.
—·Karen·
When the Inspector, wondered why the children thought of Eliot (the jewel thief) as 'God', it was no wonder, Eliot had given them respect, something they had never had before, they lived as the poor relatives of Uncle William Bullock. Eliot treated Joss as the beautiful girl, to Cecil he taught that every individual is beautiful, he never laughed at Willmouse and the 'littles' got all the love and affection from him. The cold hearted Eliot, 'when on job' has no time for anyone, uses and discards
—Sonia Gomes
I re-read this book every 10 years or so, yet always manage to forget important plot points in the years in-between, which only adds to my reading pleasure. It's really a perfect little book, (minus some dated political incorrectness,) with an incredible sense of place and time, a French village in the 1950s. When their mother takes ill and is hospitalized while on a family vacation to see the battlefields of France, five British children are left to fend for themselves in a small hotel, with minimal supervision. An adult coming of age novel, mature teens with a taste for old fashioned books should also appreciate it. The second oldest daughter narrates as she observes the hotel owner, the employees, the guests, and her own siblings. Highly recommended and something different for book clubs to discuss, although finding copies may be difficult.
—Corene
