In This House of Brede

by Rumer Godden

book data

246 ratings, 4.28 average rating, 59 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		51%
4		31%
3		14%
2		2%
1		0%

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published

February 2005 (first published 1969) by Loyola Press

binding

Paperback, 656 pages

isbn

0829421289 (isbn13: 9780829421286)

description

This extraordinarily sensitive and insightful portrait of religious life centers on Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professional woman who leaves...more

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Different Takes on Religion & Spirituality

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06/20/08

Bettyjane rated it:

Read in January, 1978

I re-read this book every year or so. The opening scene where the highly successful businesswoman Philippa is giving away treasured possessions which she will no longer need at Brede abbey, draws you right into this story. The community of Benedictine nuns are a fascinating bunch. Flawed yet likeable, they all have their own stories and Godden doesn't underdevelop any of them. I always felt this would make a sensational mini-series. The very good film starring the great Diana Rigg just can't mat...more

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08/10/07

Lydia rated it:

Read in August, 2007

I've read this at least three times before. It's interesting, because I am an atheist, but I find this book fascinating for its characterization of community life, particularly among women. I am interested in the way it explores a "humble" life--a life lived with a purpose other than financial growth or competition. The characters are very well drawn, the interactions are subtle and complex, and the result is a refreshing read.

UPDATE 8/29/07: I just finished this again, and...more

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05/21/07

Tera rated it:

bookshelves: pastreads

Read in May, 2007

This book taught me a lot about cloister life. After growing up catholic, I wish these nuns were the ones to teach me. Maybe I would still feel like a catholic today. The nuns in the community focused on self-improvement and discipline, hard work, everyone had a function, everyone was needed in the community. Even though the book went into great detail about the daily habits, ceremonies, traditions the nuns kept, it went into little detail about the power of prayer. The author did not quite...more

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11/29/08

Rtriptow rated it:

(review of isbn 0670400238)

Read in November, 2008

Rumer Godden wrote the gripping 1939 novel Black Narcissus about a group of Anglican nuns who attempt to establish a convent school in a former harem palace in the foothills of the Himalayas, the result of which is failure, insanity, and death. Thirty years later Godden returned to the subject of nuns with In This House of Brede and explored it without much of the popular-fiction melodrama. The book was a best-seller anyway because it is fascinating, but it's less of a novel and more of a profil...more

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07/09/08

Maryellen rated it:

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Maryellen by: a friend who reads constanatly
recommends it for: anyone,

I love this book and it is not a subject I was drawn to. It is about a Benedictine Abbey for women and they are contemplative, only see visitors through a grille once they have taken their vows. It is peaceful but the group of nuns create their own enviroment. The main character does not enter the order until she is in her early forties and her adjustment is somewhat difficult. The author is English but lived in India until she was a teenager. She describes the individual sisters and their ...more

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02/11/08

Ashley rated it:

Read in January, 2008

I loved this book. I had feared it would be heavy or require a lot of thought. It did, in fact, cause me to think a lot, but not to try and figure out what happened or what it meant. This was a wonderful study of one woman's life in a monestary. How she decided to enter, the history of her life beforehand, how she lives the rest of her life once she takes her vows.

I also learned a lot about the religion and beliefs of the Benedictine order.

Maybe it just caught me at a...more

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03/10/08

Suzanne rated it:

bookshelves: spiritual

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: to those interested in monastic life

A beautifully written story by Rumer Godden about monastic life. It is a fictional work but is said to be based upon monastic life at Stanwood Abbey in England. Godden lived on the property for three years while researching this seemingly curious lifestyle choice. As a result every word she writes rings true and every character she introduces to the reader seems believable and real.
Without being heavy handed or judgemental she conveys the choices these women make in becoming enclosed ...more

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09/04/07

Stephanie rated it:

bookshelves: dreamlives, favorites

Read in January, 1992

recommends it for: anyone who wants to escape

This book has profound meaning for me...it's about a group of contemplative nuns. If you've ever gotten sick and tired of living in the mundane world, I highly recommend picking up this book. It shows just how hard nuns work, and how their struggles with each other are no different than the struggles that most people have in modern life. Still, there is something beautiful and holy about THIS HOUSE OF BREDE that makes me want to shuck off my sweat pants and don a habit. Especially when the bills...more

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03/09/09

Sonia Gomes rated it:

bookshelves: convents-and-abbeys, fantastic

Read in December, 1972

recommended to Sonia by: Carmel College Library
recommends it for: People who have a liking for religious orders

I read this book when I was in my teens, all through the Christmas Vacation of 1972. I neglected my studies, but I do not regret it. I reread it many times and it never fails to grip me and the sheer beauty of the book leaves me in tears.
Philippa Talbot enters the Abbey of Brede when she is successful, at the peak of her career, all her friends are astounded, but for her the life that she had led was simply not enough. Yes, she chooses to leave all her worldly possessions in pursuit of a l...more I read this book when I was in my teens, all through the Christmas Vacation of 1972. I neglected my studies, but I do not regret it. I reread it many times and it never fails to grip me and the sheer beauty of the book leaves me in tears.
Philippa Talbot enters the Abbey of Brede when she is successful, at the peak of her career, all her friends are astounded, but for her the life that she had led was simply not enough. Yes, she chooses to leave all her worldly possessions in pursuit of a life as a Cloistered Benedictine nun. When she knocks on the door of the Abbey of Brede and tells the Mother Abbess, “I wish to try my vocation as a Benedictine nun in this house of Brede,” that is when the real story begins.
This novel with its many characters can be recognized as one of the most realistic explorations of religious life in literature. So much goes on behind those Abbey walls, but always within a framework of prayer, sacrifice, and love. Prayer, sung prayer in choir and personal prayer alone. Prayer says one of the nuns “Is our craft. . . . The craft of a contemplative religious, and as a good workman, an artist, loves his craft, we must delight in ours.” The nuns all find solace and peace in their devotion to continual prayer. Their special calling is to honor God through prayer, and to change the world by doing so. What was touching for me is that lay people could ask the nuns to intercede for them during their times of need.
Sacrifice - when you are thrown in the midst of so many nuns, there are so many different ‘sacrifices’ that are expected from you, Dame Agnes, for example resents Dame Philippa for her superior learning, Dame Agnes also resents her rival the poet Dame Veronica. So many emotions, jealousies, loneliness and rancor plague the lives of the fellow “sisters.” The life of a cloistered Benedictine nun is in no way the quiet oasis that many fantasize cloistered life to be.
Love - becoming a nun means that you are in the midst of women from very different backgrounds, who you are not related to and you have to love them. Love is not naturally innate. Indeed, as a nun, love towards the other sisters is a sacrifice and gift that requires the grace of God. But by continuous prayer, sacrifice, the thought of others before self, that at the end, Philippa learns to love each of the sisters equally, cherishing their many different foibles and their different natures. However, just like in a marriage in which there are times when it is so very difficult to love one’s spouse, In This House of Brede illustrates that it is equally difficult to find the will to love in a cloister.
This beautiful book emphasizes that what one does with ones own life is your personal choice, the choice aided by God. Thus, although we might want our lives to be one way, our Lord might have something entirely different in mind for us – perhaps more beautiful- but He will give us the strength and his love to do it.
On a personal note, I know that sometimes we yearn for some thing, it could be a person, it could be a job and we pray for it with all our heart. We do “achieve this thing” but many times it turns out to be truly unsuitable for us, but always God with his infinite capacity for Love helps us through this difficult time of our lives.
On a personal note, I know that sometimes we yearn for some thing, it could be a person, it could be a job and we pray for it with all our heart. We do “achieve this thing” but many times it turns out to be truly unsuitable for us, but always God with his infinite capacity for Love helps us through this difficult time of our lives.

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06/15/09

Hannahr rated it:

Read in February, 2009

Being raised Baptist, I knew very little about the Catholic faith or Catholic orders, so when I read several positive reviews of Godden's, "In this House of Brede", I knew I needed to get this book and read for myself to understand a way of life very foreign yet very intriguing to me.

It was overall an enjoyable read. The story weaves in and out of the lives of most of the main sisters in the cloister. I have to admit that I gave it only 3 stars because it took me almost h...more

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03/12/08

Lara rated it:

bookshelves: catholic

Read in March, 2008

I LOVED this book. It is such a faithful, warm and real portrayal of women, women who are very easy to connect with, despite their cloistered life. Rumer G's writing style suited me perfectly. She slips in dialoge in an interesting way, almost like asides, that made me feel like I was a confidant, or I was in the room with the women. There were scenes that made me laugh, that made me cry, times I was shocked and times I felt awe. Just lovely, and perfect for Lent.

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08/04/07

Linda rated it:

bookshelves: bas-bleu, faith, fiction

Read in December, 2007

I just loved this. It's a fairly complex novel that interweaves three layers of story: There's the personal journey of Philippa Talbot, a career woman in her forties who enters the cloistered world of a Benedictine monastery; the story of this particular monastery as it buries one abbess and elects a new one; and an exploration of the life in general of a cloistered order, devoted to prayer.

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06/12/09

Sharon Ader rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in June, 2009

I would like to reread this book at a later time. I enjoyed it, but I was so busy I really didn't get to read it and enjoy it. I love the story and learning about life in a monastery. I really liked the nuns and their personalities, but because it took me so long to read the book, it was hard to remember some of them and the rolls they played.

The main character Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professional woman leaves her life to join a cloistered Benedictine community. We...more

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12/03/07

Jennifer rated it:

Read in October, 2005

recommends it for: adults

Rumer Godden is a prolific writer who converted to Catholicism as an adult. She is brilliant at character development and her characters are fully fleshed out and so very interesting. In this novel, we follow a woman as she discerns her vocation as a nun. We see her whole life in segments as she learns to adust to her life in cloister. Fabulous read!!!

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08/20/07

Loren rated it:

Read in August, 2007

Being a Benedictine nun is really hard. They have to learn like 50 different masses in Latin and occasionally "punish" themselves using a lash. Their friends only come and visit when they are considering getting abortions, and sometimes the food is terrible. Even so, it has its rewards. The first one being that there aren't many boys around.

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04/19/07

Amanda rated it:

In the catalogue of my obsessions, nuns ranks right up there with freak shows and prison, and this book is the best nun book of them all. It's a wealth of knowledge if, like me, you're curious as to the structure of the Benedictine day and year, and it's surprisingly gripping. A well done story all the way 'round.

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13 comments

06/27/07

Angela rated it:

I'm not sure what kept me going through to the end of this 600+ page book, because it was anything but gripping. I guess mainly it was that I read it at a time of upheaval in my life so I needed something calming, and this was definitely that. It moved quietly along for me, much like the nuns it portrayed.

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09/03/07

Dottie rated it:

(review of isbn 0670400238)

bookshelves: 1944-1966, own, theclosetshelf

Probably my favorite Godden book though I love them all. She is one of my earliest "adopted" authors whose works I read repeatedly and in as near completion as I can possibly do so -- I will keep searching them out until I've read them all.

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06/23/07

Linera rated it:

bookshelves: favorites, religion

I re-read this book every few years, when my soul feels dusty.

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04/07/08

Maureen E rated it:

bookshelves: classics

Read in January, 2006

This is, in my opinion, a most enchanting book. It is the story of a number of years in the life of Brede Abbey, a fictional English Catholic woman’s monastery, and the nuns who live there. The book opens very simply with Penny Stevens, the juniorest typist in a government office run by a Mrs. Philippa Talbot, who Penny adores. On this particular day Penny can tell that something is going to happen—namely that Mrs. Talbot has been given a promotion. She is called into Mrs. Talbot’s office ...more This is, in my opinion, a most enchanting book. It is the story of a number of years in the life of Brede Abbey, a fictional English Catholic woman’s monastery, and the nuns who live there. The book opens very simply with Penny Stevens, the juniorest typist in a government office run by a Mrs. Philippa Talbot, who Penny adores. On this particular day Penny can tell that something is going to happen—namely that Mrs. Talbot has been given a promotion. She is called into Mrs. Talbot’s office where, quite to her surprise, she is told that Mrs. Talbot is going to be a nun and is leaving, for good.

The story then switches perspectives and goes to Philippa Talbot as she prepares to make her entrance to Brede. For a large portion of the book the narration continues to focus on Philippa as she enters the monastic life but it occasionally switches to another character.

The pace of the story is gentle and slow, like monastic life itself. A fast-paced adventure story this is not. However, I would not call it boring. There are major troubles within the monastery and the conflict surrounding them was very gripping. Rumer Godden’s nuns live and breathe: sweet Dame Emily Lovell, stately Dame Maura, vivid Dame Colette, and steady Dame Catherine. A few of them will naturally become most dear, just as real people. Philippa herself, Hilary, and Dame Catherine were my favorites.

Godden’s descriptions of the monastic year are very striking and could be applied to any Christian liturgical tradition. “The Church is like a wise mother and has given us this great cycle of the liturgical ear with its different words and colours. You’ll see how you will learn to welcome the feast days and the saints’ days as they come round, each with a different story, and, as it were, a different aspect; they grow very dear, though still exacting.” (p. 60). As an Orthodox Christian, I nodded in agreement with every word of that sentence, not excluding the last bit (“though still exacting”).

My experience of monasticism has been different than the experience of Catholic monasticism that I gained from this book. Orthodox monasticism has developed differently than its Western counterpart, and there was much that was unfamiliar or that I disagreed with. Still, the desire to serve God and the world by retiring from the world is one that I can understand and respect. And again, the characters became so real with their struggles and triumphs that I felt I could count them as friends.

“If a place has been filled with prayer, though it is empty something remains; a quiet, a steadiness.” (p. 195) (less)

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