“One was born a certain sort of person, and though by ceaseless struggle one might become as nice as that sort of person ever is, one could never become as nice as a nicer sort of person.” —Elizabeth Goudge, Towers in the Mist
It is late sixteenth-century London when awkward teenage Faithful travels to Oxford to study in England’s great university. When Canon Leigh takes him in, Faithful enters into a family as exciting and educational as the university itself.
Woven into the narratives of Faithful and the canon’s daughter Joyeuce is Oxford during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I with the pomp and sordidness of the spectacular era of England’s Golden Age. With compassion, wry humor, tenderness, and a keen eye for historical detail, Elizabeth Goudge brings to life figures of British literary and political history (including poets Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh, and Queen Elizabeth I herself) alongside boisterous college boys, the Leigh family, the family's servants, and even the watchful dog who guards the city gate. The rich tapestry she weaves transports readers into a colorful past that echoes even today in the stone byways of Oxford.
It is late sixteenth-century London when awkward teenage Faithful travels to Oxford to study in England’s great university. When Canon Leigh takes him in, Faithful enters into a family as exciting and educational as the university itself.
Woven into the narratives of Faithful and the canon’s daughter Joyeuce is Oxford during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I with the pomp and sordidness of the spectacular era of England’s Golden Age. With compassion, wry humor, tenderness, and a keen eye for historical detail, Elizabeth Goudge brings to life figures of British literary and political history (including poets Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh, and Queen Elizabeth I herself) alongside boisterous college boys, the Leigh family, the family's servants, and even the watchful dog who guards the city gate. The rich tapestry she weaves transports readers into a colorful past that echoes even today in the stone byways of Oxford.
