Pilgrim's Inn: Eliot Heritage #02

Elizabeth Goudge wrote old-fashioned novels: novels that balance a compelling story with believable and (mostly) lovable characters. Cross Maeve Binchy with CS Lewis, and this is what you get. And what you get is a thoughtful, graceful, fasctinating novel. When you get to the Herb of Grace Inn, you'll want to stay: it is a great place to think about what matters most in life.

I've loved this book, it's complex characters, and Elizabeth Goudge's elegant writing since my mom introduced me to Elizabeth Goudge books in high school. I was so excited to see that someone was reprinting Elizabeth Goudge books! BUT, there is a typo on almost every page! The books were clearly scanned and then no spell check was used. One of the key characters names, Lucilla, often appears as Ludlla. I love the book, but the typos grate on my nerves and ruin a lot of the enjoyment! Elizabeth Goudge Classics, thank you for reprinting, but please spell check!

This book by Elizabeth Goudge is part II in the Eliot Family trilogy, and is also released under the title "The Herb of Grace" a reference to the name of the old inn the family buys in the country after World War II. The first book in the series is: "The Bird in the Tree" and last is: "The Heart of the Family". Goudge was a really unique and authentic voice. She was deeply spiritual, which may automatically cause many people to turn away from her books. She does not preach, however, and her characters do not preach "at you." They live lives that may include growth, suffering, and perhaps eventually opening their eyes to the beauty around them that for some reason they were unable to see before; there is much about the beauty of the forest, nature, the wild animals, and very little or none about religion per se. In fact, in this book the eldest Eliot son, Hilary, an Anglican Clergyman, says to someone about his past Sunday sermon, "I think they all got a good sleep, I'm glad I could do that for them..." its a bittersweet dry British humor, he's aware of his limitations, and knows very well those who come to his services are more inclined to doze than be enlightened. The force of the family, the heart of it all, is Lucilla, Lady Eliot, widow, mother of many children, of whom three sons were killed in World War I, and her eldest, Hilary, was badly wounded. World War II has quite literally just ended, her grandson David, whom she raised, as his father, her favorite child, was one of those sons killed in the first war, was a bomber pilot during this last war, and is now suffering from a type of nervious breakdown...we'd call it post traumatic stress syndrome. Another son, with a egotistical wife and too many children, is mentally and physically exhausted from his work in the war as well. Lucilla is determined that she will get all these remaining family members out to the country, away from London, to heal, no matter how she has to do it. She's not beyond manipulation, "for their own good". Its an interesting insight to see England right after WWII, when everyone still had ration coupons, and food, gasoline, everything, was rationed and people made do by trading or growing gardens or, as one character says about picking someone up at the train station, the person will have to go down there with the bakery truck, and come back up with the meat truck, there's no other way to and from that week... Its a lovely, old fashioned little story...not boring, but no overt sex or violence, just the lives of a family trying to stick together and survive and get through things. The writing of Goudge makes it memorable. Its not, in my opinion, sentimental, though some would say it is. There is a depth to it, and to all her works that I have read, that stay with you, and you do remember these people, unlike how many other characters in books? Her stories are like little jewels, and the further we get from that long ago time, the more precious

I first read this book (then titled Pilgrims's Inn) when I was about 15 years old. I loved it then and I love it now! It is a story of growing, changing and healing, that is both soothing and uplifting. Like an old friend, I have turned to it again and again through the years.