Gentian Hill: Week 3

Published Editions, Trafalgar & HMS Victory

US edition of Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge

“After the first few pages I became interested. By the end of the third or fourth chapter absolutely fascinated. And then enchanted. I couldn't put the book down. I found myself re-reading various paragraphs and sequences...

After that, every time I saw a book or novel by Elizabeth Goudge I bought it; new, hardcover, paperback, or even secondhand. Whether adult or for children, didn't matter… the books were read, and read again and again; and in the reading they transformed life.

It may sound strange, yet it certainly isn't.”

🌿 Alan Hull Walton, from Books and Bookmen

Welcome to our discussion on Book 2: The Sea

The above is critic Alan Walton’s experience with Gentian Hill - the book that introduced Walton to Goudge’s work. Gentian Hill happens to have also been my first Goudge novel! I had started it after just finishing a novel by George MacDonald (CS Lewis’ favorite author) and I was struck by the way she also woven in fairytales into her story as he did. I started looking for her other works, and was very shortly hooked!

(Paper) Back in print!

Compared to just a few years ago, it’s so much easier now to find Goudge to read! I can definitely relate to Walton saying he looked for “new, hardcover, paperback, or even secondhand. Whether adult or for children didn't matter…” when reading her.

Here is the *only* currently-in-print edition of Gentian Hill:

I'm thankful that Goudge can have a new generation of readers because of the reprints from publishers like Hodder Books. Their editions of Goudge’s adult novels (like the one pictured here) are very nice, with beautiful lino cuts by Tom Duxbury

Today we will take a look at the US and UK editions of Gentian Hill, and also a look at the Battle of Trafalgar & the HMS Victory…