In This House of Brede

by Rumer Godden, Phyllis Tickle (Introduction), Amy Welborn (Editor)

This extraordinarily sensitive and insightful portrait of religious life centers on Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professional woman who leaves her life among the London elite to join a cloistered Benedictine community.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Religion, Historical Fiction, Catholic, Book Club, Literary Fiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Margaret Rumer Godden was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably Black Narcissus in 1947 and The River in 1951.
A few of her works were co-written with her elder sister, novelist Jon Godden, including Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of the Goddens' childhood in a region of India now part of Bangladesh.

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an astonishingly good book. I did not love the theme at all at first. I wanted to scream at Philippa not to join a monastery. It felt like the rest of the book could not possibly be interesting and yet, it was often quite exciting. By page 200 I would call this a page-turner, and yet why? Only surprisingly wonderful writing.

My favorite part of this book was the grace shown to the failures of many of the women and how God worked all things together for good in realistic ways in each of their lives.

This book was a beautiful testimony of how grace works in all of our lives. No, I do not want to join a monastery anymore now
than when I started the book, but the life of faith rings true at Brede as well as in my own life among my own failings.

I bought this book used in NJ at least 15 years ago and it has survived many, many purgings of my library and yet, I never found the gumption to read it. The theme was off-putting to me. Finally, with so many good reviews from friends, I pulled it off the shelf by my treadmill where it had been calling my name every time I walked or ran. Like Kristin Lavransdatter, some books must be read at the right moment in time. My time had come to read this one, hence the 5 stars.

[Bettyjane]

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 match the richness of the novel. This is a hard book to sell to non-Catholics, or non-religious for that matter. That's a shame, because it has alot to offer based on the sheer ability of Godden to create memorable characters.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philippa Talbot is a 42-year old widow, who has lost her only son, when she enters the Benedictine Abbey at Brede. She is a successful business woman and much older than the other postulates, and she enters the order amidst the serious doubts of several of the older nuns already installed. Dame Agnes particularly objects to her and seeks to find in her the faults she foretells before her installation. It is her story that is the crux of this novel, but there are multiple other stories weaved into its fabric, and together they give a full picture of the young and the old who live behind the closed doors of the Abbey; what they are seeking and sometimes what they are running from.

With a motto of “Peace," the Abbey is sometimes anything but peaceful. Here are a large group of women, from different backgrounds and at different stages in their journey of faith, and each of them brings with her all the worldly shortcomings she possessed before entering the cloister. We see struggles with pride, jealousy, hubris, loss, despair and favoritism; but also strength of character, sacrifice, true vocation, devotion and love.

I believe the overpowering theme is that of obedience. How difficult it is for us, as egotistical human creatures, to bow completely to the voice of God guiding our lives–even for those who have chosen and sworn to do so without fail. Godden wishes us to see that while this is a simple life, it is not an easy one, either physically or emotionally. There are good women behind the grill, but there are not perfect and saintly ones. Peace is not what they have, it is what they seek.

Much of this book is about life within the walls of a nunnery. It is about the structure, the customs, the rituals. However, it is also about the very human struggle for goodness and completeness and understanding. It is about a need for God, but also about a need for one another. It might have been boring, but it was not. It might have had nothing to do with lay people, like myself, but it did.

I am not a Catholic, so the world of the cloister was both foreign and fascinating for me. I have no experience to tell me if the nuns are realistically portrayed, but I would bet a large sum that they are. My conviction comes from the fact that Godden has given a full spectrum of personalities, strengths and short-comings to them. They felt quite real. Dame Philippa’s struggle to fit and to submit felt inordinately true.

The more I read Rumer Godden, the more amazed I am that she is not better known and appreciated. I did not love this in the same way that I loved A Fugue in Time, but it is an excellent piece of literature and a book I am happy to have read. She and I have just begun our friendship, but I suspect it is going to be a lasting one.

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered about the lives of nuns in a convent/abbey? Well, this book brought that secluded world to life.

In her afterword, Rumer Godden talked about her visit to Stanbrook Abbey. Dame Felicitas said to Rumer Godden, “I wish that someone would write a book about nuns as they really are, not as the author wants them to be.” That is what she did in this book.

Philippa Talbot is a very successful business woman. She shocks everyone in her office when she leaves to enter the Brede Abbey. Once inside the Abbey, the focus shifts on all the other nuns as well, not just Philippa. There is a listing at the front of the book with all the names and positions/rankings of the nuns. There were 96 names. Did I feel daunted? I did, but after a while, I decided to just go along with the story and not keep referring to the list. Of course, by then, the main players stood out and I knew who they were.

This book is a fascinating portrayal of all that goes on within the abbey’s walls- the vying for attention from the Mother Abbess, the jealousy as to positions, the daily practices, their self inflicted penances, their personalities.

Much as I loved the goings on, I preferred when the story took us back to Philippa, now Dame Philippa. It was hard for her to leave behind her position of authority, it was difficult for her to reveal the guilt and torture she had lived with all the years since her son’s death. She had to learn that at the Abbey, she did not rule. She had to bend to higher authority. She had to learn to lose herself from herself.

It was a difficult life, but most succumbed to the daily hardships because of their love and commitment to God. For some, the process took longer. They had to wrestle with their doubts.

This really was an inspiring book. I was raised Catholic and had contact with nuns, but really did not appreciate all that they went through. The ending had me in tears. Rumer Godden is a wonderful writer and she certainly succeeded in depicting nuns as they really were. As well, she made me care about these women.

“ People think we renounce the world. We don’t. WE renounce its ways but we are still very much in it and it is very much in us.”

Published: 1969

[Christmas Carol ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★

A Goodreads friend (Barb) said about Rumer Godden that she never wrote the same book twice.

I very much agree with this sentiment! Godden is a gifted writer with a fantastic imagination, who seems to go where the story takes her.

So I was expecting this to be Phillipa's Story, a middle aged career woman who found a vocation &, after giving away all her possessions, joins a Benedictine monastery.

But this story is much more than that and details the lives and often very human frailties of the nuns who live within the cloistered walls.

If the solution to the monastery's financial crisis seems a little too miraculous, some other episodes had a heart rending realism. I certainly cried buckets when it was revealed how Dame Phillipa's little son had died. Godden really knows how to touch the heart.

Another weakness for me was that Sister Cecily seemed to be blamed for one nun's infatuation with with her. Dame Maura was sent away, but to my modern, non religious eyes, I don't think either woman should be blamed. A very courageous tackling of the subject I thought.

Finally, this is a book that cries out for a dead tree reading. With so much to absorb, reading on my phone screen was very hard.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 was once more taken with the clear focus this book places on the ways people can change when they are determined to do it. A real look at the examined life and the community formed by a group of diverse personalities with a shared world view. (If you read it, check the math at the time of the vote. It just doesn't add up!)

[Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deserving more than 5 Stars

Last year, I saw that one of my Goodreads friend was reading this lengthy novel. I went to Barnes and Noble and found it there. But I didn't immediately open it as I thought I would. It has sat on my shelf staring at me. A few days ago, I pulled down In This House of Brede. I knew I was ready to read it. I had the queer feeling that I needed to read Brede. Perhaps, I know deep down that my Aunt Eloise may not be in this world much longer and that I needed the comfort of reading something that I could be close to her in spirit. My aunt is a nun.

She is not a cloistered nun as those in Brede, she belongs to the Order of Our Lady of Loretto, a teaching Order. Aunt Eloise's dementia has reduced her once great mind to only God knows what. She has become claustral within her own mind. But who knew that a story about an Abbey full of nuns could be so interesting?

In This House of Brede has the love that a reader would expect. Love of God; love of and toward each sister or Dame as they called in the Benedictine Monastery. Brede is in crisis. The Abbess has died suddenly and the Abbey is on the brink of bankruptcy. There is deception, betrayal, and thievery.

This is where the successful Philippa Talbot has come. The situation seems to be just right for her to help solve. Some of the nuns welcome her, while others question Philippa's vocation. I did too. I wasn't sure of her motive to become a Benedictine and wasn't sure if I really liked her. And some of the nuns are very hard to like. I feel guilty saying that I didn't like Dame Agnes or Dame Veronica. Must be that old Catholic guilt.

I found the book beautiful, reminding me of the Liturgy and prayers from when I was a small child. The life of a cloistered nun is difficult as the book describes. We get to see some go through some inner struggles. We get to see the politics of the Council as the yearly positions are selected. We see each nun's strength and weakness. I loved the Liturgical year within each calendar year at the Abbey. I enjoyed the writing. It is exquisite.

I know this little review hasn't said much about the plot - I can't really get it down on paper; Brede is just one of those books you have to read.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not Catholic, nor particularly religious, but I've always been fascinated by nuns. Who knows why? Taking vows of poverty and chastity, leaving the world they know behind for a sequestered life of prayer and service, accepting hard work and personal discomfort as their due; all very foreign to me and not something I would ever consider. But still, I read about them in fiction, maybe for the same reason I love reading about life in the Arctic, experiencing on the page what I would never have courage enough to try in real life.

This book took me right into the daily life of Brede Abbey in Northern England, following 42 yr old Phillippa as she enters as a postulant after a successful life in the business world, and losing her husband in WWII, and her 6 yr old son to a horrendous accident. She is just one of 93 women in the Abbey, and Rumer Godden makes sure we get to know all of them. Far from being a boring account of the daily lives of these nuns, although it is that too, we are placed into a community full of intrigue and change, ambition and maneuvering, involving pride and heartbreak, broken dreams, suffering intense emotional suffering, and trying to overcome all those things to serve their Lord and keep their vows. By turns suspenseful, then calming, then thoughtful, this novel takes us there. I loved every word, and now that I'm finished I will miss these characters more than I can say.

This goes right to my favorites shelf, to be re-read some day.

[Kate Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am neither religious nor Catholic; I abhor the idea of poverty, chastity, or obedience - yet this book made me want to join a nunnery. A fascinating portrayal of the contemplative life. And how nice to read a book about nuns that doesn't center on having a nun fall in love.

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is so powerful that I am not going to be able to read anything else for a little while. Although I have read it many time it remains thought provoking, moving, and magical.

(Original review below.)

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A Good Story is Hard to Find #97). Let's face it. Reading In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden is the closest either Julie or Scott will come to being cloistered nuns

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This is Godden's masterwork and I don't say that lightly.

I'm not sure how many times I've read this book ... it could be six or it could be ten. You know a book's a classic when you learn something new about yourself every time you read it. Such was the case this time around also. And it still made me cry at a couple of key points.

It is about nuns in a cloistered convent but don't let that make you think you have to be religious to enjoy it. I read it when I was in my teens because it was around the house. My mother was an atheist but she owned it. I know I'd read it many times with great pleasure before even considering my own conversion. Author Jo Walton is on record as having loved this book for decades and she's not what you'd call a believer. She maintains that this book has an element of fantasy because there is a miracle in it. Even I at my most jaded considered the story to be realistic when including a miracle. However ... I often disagree with Walton's conclusions about books.

Beautifully written, this book also is a nice introduction to Godden's fluid way of dealing with time which flows like a river with little eddies to the sides that swirl us back and forth as needed. Best of all is her thorough understanding of human nature, truth, and (in this case) the religious life. And a moving and engrossing story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

June-Oct 2025: Just finished a long, slow read of this novel with my friend Beth. We had so many good conversations as we read. Beth’s insights as a Catholic were invaluable as well. This is such a masterpiece of monastic life but also the spiritual life generally: what it means to surrender, to live in community, to be awake to the Spirit’s movement. It’s also a work of art in itself that moves me at a heart level. The gracious end of the novel brought me to tears again. I love every nun’s story in the novel. The redemptive arc for each one is moving, but it is Philippa’s story that I feel most deeply.

Advent 2022: I have been meaning to read this novel forever. You know when you save something you know you’ll love just so goodness is shimmering on the horizon? I did that with Brede, but through a prompt from Melody with her updated review, I decided that now was the time. I decided to make this my Advent 2022 contemplative novel. I find it almost impossible to write about it in a coherent way. I loved it and found it engrossing and moving. Whenever I opened the pages, I felt I was a part of Brede. There was one part of the novel that moved me so deeply, I woke up at the witching hour of 2 AM and felt the despair and sadness of the character to whom the tragedy had happened.

There are themes here that echo My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, which I was reading at the same time. Themes of giftedness and community and how those two things clash and enhance each other. Rumer Godden has her own distinct voice and style of weaving the narrative. It was more subtle here than in China Court, but still so very much her own. There are so many characters but the nuns slowly but surely become unique and vibrant. We enter Brede with Philippa and experience some of the bewilderment that a novice must have experienced entering into a life as rich and varied as Brede’s. This taught me more about life in a monastic community than anything else I’ve read, even in my History of Christianity classes in college.

I love Abbess Catherine’s character. She is such a good leader and yet her struggles with being the leader of the community are also real and relatable. I also love Sister Cecily’s character and the depth of her story that is woven into the bigger narrative. Through Cecily, we see what a young woman had to give up to be a nun…and the richness that she gains, which is not always evident to the undiscerning outside eye. I do think Philippa is the core of the story, though. There are times where her story is stark and her growth plain; there are other times where her growth is imperceptible until some incident reveals what has been slowly building in her. The end of the story felt very fitting for her, though I grieved as she did. Nothing in our lives is wasted. On the theme of art, every bit of life is paint fodder for the master Artist to bring into a harmonious whole.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember watching the movie first as a girl. A very youthful Diana Rigg plays Philippa who gives up everything to enter Brede. Later when I was older, I read the book, but I don't remember when and unfortunately I didn't write it down. It's an excellent study of women's spirituality, women living in community, one particular woman's journey, friendship and the essential nature of human relationships to our Divine Creator. It's a beautiful and haunting book. I've returned to it at various times in my life and with my own maturity gained new insights from it.

Edited February 5, 2021 for outdated link. Really need and want to read this again!

[Fonch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am ready to comment on the great discussion in this book. This reading was proposed by Mari Angels and in my opinion it has been quite a success, and an excellent proposition. At first I did not intend to write a review of this novel, since at first I found it more pressing to comment on a book that displeased me in this case we mean the "SapphireBook" by Gilbert Sinoue https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... which again abounds in the topics of the Black Legend, I also planned to say something about"Katherine" by Anya Seton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3..., and compare it to Robert Hugh Benson's "With What Authority?" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... or say something about the interesting spiritual biography written by Holly Ordway https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... and there's always the user's plea who can ask me to write a review of any book , that you have read, as long as you remember details of the book.

The first hit, which I think Rumer Godden has, is a shocking start. On the front pages we see the metheoric rise of a Philipa Talbot woman, and what is interesting is the approach with which Rumer Godden shows us. Not from the narrator's perspective, but from the point of view of one of his employees, who will then be wrapped in one of the sub-themes of the novel during the novel we mean Penny Stevens, a woman recently married to Donald. In the first few pages we see everything from his eyes, and does not fully understand Philipa Talbot's decision to abandon everything, nor does his most loyal employee Joyce Bowman understand, in fact no one at work understands why she is leaving a promising career, being one of the few women, who holds such a important position, there is only one partner who understands this decision, and we mean McTurk, who is not Catholic, but flirts with other spiritualities specifically Buddhism. In our discussion of the Catholic Book Club, and I very much agree that this novel is greatly influenced by the figure of the Trappist and convert Thomas Merton, who mixed Christianity with other Asian cults https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... for me this is no surprise, due to Rumer Godden's fascination with India. So this didn't surprise me. I lie, if you caught me, since in the second part this novel is going to take a surprising turn, which made the interest of this novel increase. At least in my opinion.

I've given my impressions of the beginning, but godden's narrative is not traditional, or linear. We will see, which pastes leaps in time, intersperses events, which will occur later, also introduces reflections, and conversations of nuns. They explain to us why Philipa makes this decision.

However, and I warn you, this novel does not focus on a main character, accompanied and enriched by a gallery of brilliant supporting characters, which enhances the qualities of the principal. This is not the case, in fact, I dare say, that Sister Philipa Talbot is not the main protagonist, but is the Benedictine abbey in which it is located. Which rumer Godden brilliantly does (by the way, and I'll tell an anecdote, to lighten the tension of my critique, and make it more enjoyable. If that were possible. I didn't know it, but I've seen it on Wikipedia, it seems that both Bruce Willis and Demi Moore named his daughter Rumer after Rumer Godden. It seems that both are great admirers of this writer, so they prove to have excellent taste). Because with this novel Rumer Godden wanted to make a tune of the Rule of St. Benedict in a female monastery https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... if you want a more simplified vision, or an approach to the figure of St. Benedict of Nursia we recommend Louis de Wohl's wonderful novel"Citadels of God" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , qit is also very interesting, because it speaks of three other interesting historical characters Theodoric, Boecio, and Cassiodorus https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... In any case, the abbey stands the great protagonist of the novel. It's a microcosm with a rich hummus, which makes it possible for all stories, and subtramas to converge in this place. The novel is also a choral novel in which Philipa Talbot's character is highlighted, but is not the only character, but another character, whose story has an interest, but also that of the other nuns. This may be one of the catches, or the flaws, that could be put on this novel. There are several the first is that the novel is somewhat slow, and it takes a while to start, but when it does it hooks you without remission, especially to me it hooked me from the second part. Another flaw is the large number of nuns, in fact, this is a choral novel, and the fact that there are so many characters can throw back the potential readers of this novel. However, because even if there are so many characters, only ten nuns will be interested. My friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... has done this same technique with his wife to indicate the ten most important nuns. Another matter, which may displease readers is that there is no plot, based on other subframes, but several subframes some are almost anecdotal, but I like the structure, which Rumer Godden has followed, because this is the life of a convent, and I think, that structure is the one that best suits history. However, this may do, despite Rumer Godden's interest that Philipa was sometimes delegated, or blurred against other stories, that are happening. This distinguishes itself a little from Henry Morton Robinson's "Cardinal" https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...# where it is analyzed, or focuses on a character. In this case in Stephen Fermoyle, really very inspired by Cardinal Spellman https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., where the interest is focused on seeing the cursus honorum,or the social rise of the protagonist. Nor is it analyzing the life of a priest, and what goes on for a lifetime, as would happen in"The Keys of the Kingdom" by A.J. Cronin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., we must also discard the ecclesiastical plots of Morris West https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., nor is the system used by Bruce Marshall, telling the life of an annoid priest https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... though one thing if they have in common Bruce Marshall, and Rumer Godden in this novel, and it is that it is not a linear story, and there are several stories that is whatboth have in common. It's not the same either, but there were times when this novel reminded me of J.F. Powers' novel"Morte D'Urban" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., however the structure is different Rumer Godden as I said does not follow a linear structure going forward, going backwards. Tell stories of various characters, put in disgresions. Comment on aspects of the abbey's history and experiences. We see its origin from the havoc caused by the emergence of Protestantism (I refuse to call it, and I apologise to my non-Catholic audience, because that is not a Reformation, but an attempt to try to destroy the Catholic Church, creating national Churches subjected to secular powers), as you could already seein "With what authority?" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and see the havoc of the other great European Revolution. Gertrude von Lefort already spoke of this subject with "The Last of theScaffold" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... or his remake written by Georges Bernanos https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... (by the way very intelligent Goodreads who puts as co-authors the two), or the books of Hochwalder https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... or the books of Philip Trower https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (although in this case I think Trower more than talking about the bestthe church of the Revolution of what he speaks of is those exercised by the depotic illustration against the Jesuits. Recently following Hitler's persecution of gypsies at COPE it was said that the first attempt to destroy the Gypsies occurred during the illustration in the reign of Ferdinand VI with his prime minister El Marqués de la Ensenada). In fact, brede nuns exiled in France are expelled from there during the revolution and have to return to England with the only gift of a wooden cross donated by a Savoy princess, which will then be crucial in one of the novel's most important subtramas. In fact, this novel analyses two abbesses the octogenarian Esther Proctor Cunnighame, with a group of faithful, who initially gave a lot of glory to the convent, but in its final moments gave it as a kind of syndrome of Louis XIV, or of the crowned architect, and began to have favorites. The novel gives the reader two choices to believe that Esther Proctor Cunnighame is a visionary, as her supporters believe, or to believe that dementia ruined her later years, endangering Brede's future. Anyway, we'll see how her behavior toward Sister Julian isn't so illogical. We'll see a lot of deaths, which are going to condition Brede's future. Power struggles mostly between Sister Maura and Sister Agnes. How to opt for one of the two factions can unbalance Brede's ecosystem, and as Sister Katherine's choice is the best. As the plot of Sister Veronica the still life is solved, the subframes in which this character is wrapped are resolved with great skill, and intelligence, and how it is decided to take advantage of such a complicated character, and that will sometimes be a stone of scandal. The plot of the money issue led us to Catholic Book Club for a great debate. There were people, who opted for the providential vision of trusting in God, which is why Godden chooses. To base everything on prayer, and to despise Sister Philipa's involvement in worldly affairs. I opted for one of the extremes without rejecting the power of prayer. I opted for worldly intervention and Sister Philipa Talbot to use her experience in the world of work, to save the convent. But there were people who didn't applaud my vision. Anyway, the end of this sub-goal (which was not the one I was most interested in is a little brought by the hair). However, it was not the subtrama that displeased me the most, for example The character of Sister Cecily produced me a certain fed-up is true, which causes the events to go off and increase the drama, but I found this character too deachirent, and also tended to take the novel to the soap. Nor do I like your relationship with Sister Maura very much, I will never get to know if your union was friendship or the hint of a lesbian plot (if I am too ill thought out). Also the plot of the family opposition in this case the mother who had very ten-night prejudices a mentality of the convent, as if it came from a novel by Diderot https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... and the subject of the groom. It is true that it happens as discussed in the novels of Juan de Valera, or Armando Palacio Valdés or his story of"La San Sulpicio". It is true that Sister Cecily remains true to her vocation, but her interventions are too histrionic, melodramatic, and because she does not tell them hairy and tends to take this novel to the soap opera. Besides, I think, she's the spoiled child of the convent. Which made this character not as much to my liking as others.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What price ecstasy, she thought … when you can have love.”

Rumer Godden takes us inside Brede Abbey, the centuries old home for Roman Catholic nuns of the contemplative Benedictine Order. Our entrance is in the mid-1950’s with her character Philippa Talbot, who arrives after living a full life on the outside as wife, mother and successful administrator.

Inside Brede Abbey is a world unto itself and we see how the skills that served Philippa well in her prior life are sometimes hindrances in this new life.

When the book begins, you think it will center on Philippa, but all of this changes once she becomes one of the sisters. There is a shift (possibly to emphasize that everyone is equal), and the plot’s focus branches out. But as a reader, this posed a big problem for me.

“'All these dames and sisters,’ Hilary had said. ‘I’m lost.’”

We all have limits on how many names we can keep track of at any given time, and my limit is extremely low. So after 50 pages or so, with introductions to dozens of “Dames” and “Sisters,” I was lost and frustrated. Eventually I had to let all of that go, stop trying to remember who was who, and just let the story flow along. Philippa’s dramas are told, but so are those of the many others, and it does seem none is held above the other by their author just like by their creator.

“In those days she still had illusions about nuns.”

I think many of us on the outside of these communities have lots of assumptions about the religious folks inside and what their lives are like. So this was a fascinating window into a world. I would have hoped their lives were full of peace, but we learn here there is a surprising amount of drama! Personal struggles impact the whole community, societal changes make their way eventually to the sisters, and the Catholic Church itself makes changes to their practices. I suppose everywhere we deal with difficulty and disruption.

Among Brede Abbey’s challenges were personal upheavals, illness and death, the shift to becoming a multi-cultural house, and adjustments to changes brought on by the Second Vatican Council.

For all of us it seems, life requires selflessness for many reasons and in many ages and stages of our lives, and requires us to weather unexpectedly difficult storms. To follow the nuns’ struggles and efforts in this story was inspiring and helpful to me.

And, of course, there was this little bonus:
“'In the days of Lent,’ said the Rule, ‘they (the religious) shall each receive a book from the library to be read straight through from the beginning, nothing missed.’”

Now there’s a Lenten practice I can be enthusiastic about!

[Plateresca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read a book about monastic life, and readers agree that this account, though fictionalized, is a good one.

The nuns in the story are contemplative Catholics. 'Contemplative' means they're in some respects closer to Buddhists than to other Catholics.
Now, I am, as my friends know, a witch, and I could see many interesting similarities between us witches and Catholic nuns: our love for ritual, religious festivities...
'In religion a different year revolves within the natural one.'
Very recognizable, isn't it?

Even the worship of a goddess is there somewhere. Where we witches are often lacking is obviously discipline. Could we devote our whole days to our spiritual practises, not to mention whole months, years, our whole lives?..

'After living long years on what is a supernatural plane... many of the nuns had a sensitivity to trouble as unerring as if it had a shape, or colour or smell.'
It was certainly very refreshing to be reading about a large group of people who all believe in miracles, supernatural occurrences - in what one calls magic.

This is an inspiring book. Reading about the devotion of the nuns makes it easier to stick to daily routines. Reading about their dedication to doing the right thing makes one kinder.

That said, there are two harrowing episodes in the book. A woman is forced to make an abortion; a mother loses her child in tragic circumstances.

There's a character list in the beginning, but I advise you to make your own, with notes on each nun's personality; or make highlights on Kindle. I struggled with the first 50 or so pages because I couldn't really remember who was who, but then I went back to the beginning and made notes and the rest was much more pleasurable.

Also, the storytelling is peculiar in that the author focuses more on concepts than on the linear succession of events. What I mean is, when she's describing, say, novices, she may jump backwards and forwards in time telling us what various people said about them at different times. Again, this was a bit confusing in the beginning, but then I got used to it.

An interesting read, I do recommend it.

[Sonia Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in my teens, all through the Christmas Vacation of 1972. I neglected my studies, but have never regretted it. I have reread it many times and it never fails to grip me, 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, leaving her friends astounded.
The life that she had led, so far, was simply not enough. Yes, she chooses to leave all her worldly possessions in pursuit of a life as a Cloistered Benedictine nun.
She knocks on the door of the Abbey of Brede and softly 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 in choir and personal prayer alone at the foot of the Cross.
Prayer says one of the nuns 'Is our craft. . . . The craft of a contemplative religious, as a good workman, and as an artist loves his craft, we must delight in ours.' The nuns 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 of 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 of us fantasize a cloistered life to be.
Love, becoming a nun means you are in the midst of women from very different backgrounds, who you are not related to and who you have to love regardless. Love is not naturally innate. Indeed, as a nun, love towards the other sisters is many times a great sacrifice and a gift that requires the grace of God.
By continuous prayer, sacrifice, the thought of others before self, Philippa learns to love each of the nuns equally, cherishing their varied foibles and their different natures.
However, just like in any marriage, where there are times when it is so very difficult to love one’s spouse, This House of Brede tells us that it is equally difficult to find the will to love the Nuns, in a cloister.
This beautiful book emphasizes that what one does with one's own life is a personal choice, the choice aided by God. Thus, although we might want our lives to take a certain path, 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 a certain something, it could be a person, it could be a job and we pray for it with all our heart.
We need to 'get this one thing' but there are times 'this desire' turns out to be truly unsuitable for us but God in his infinite capacity for Love helps us through these difficult time of our lives too.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 5 out of 5]

2025 Review
In my goal to read this book in successive seasons of the liturgical year, this round was Christmastide, and I started it on the eve of the new year--fitting, since the book begins on New Year's Day. I talk about this book all the time on here, but I rarely recommend it in real life--like the gifts of contemplative prayer, it yields its treasures to true seekers. (The few I've recommended it to IRL love it, though. Bless.) My fifth time reading it, but certainly not close to my last. I marked up my copy this time, for the first time. There was more than one occasion in the past year when I went hunting for a passage and couldn't find it! Not anymore. If you like the slow, interior rhythms of Elizabeth Goudge's writing or wished all of The Brothers Karamazov was monastery scenes, consider making a retreat to Brede.

2023 Review
Re-reading this book annually is like going on my own personal spiritual retreat, from the comfort of my own reading chair. Every reading brings to light new interpretations, a new intimacy with the characters, a new appreciation for this marvelous book.

I love it. I love, love love this book. And I miss Brede every time I have to leave it.

Until next year, my dear.

2022 Review
Another annual re-read if my very favorite novel that was a balm to my soul. I waited until October because next year I will have to wait for Advent to read it again...and I am already ready to start it over! Godden's grasp of life in community continually edifies me. As a ~sensitive~ INFJ I often wonder if other people feel and see Social Dynamics™ like I do. Godden has that sensitivity, that pulse on the interior motivations and meanings. And (some) of her characters do, as well. It's like Austen, but with a much bigger cast of characters, and there is not a conventional marriage among the lot. As usual, the nuns of Brede spoke to me powerfully again, in ways I did not expect but certainly needed.

This year was extra special because I found a new-to-me copy. On a very dreary, rainy Saturday, when I was already transported, (being in the middle of The Scent of Water) I chanced upon a 1969 hardcover edition at my local used bookstore. They were only charging five dollars--and the dust cover was nearly intact, and the paper is such high quality that there is not a spot of foxing on the pages!!! I clutched the copy to my chest and nearly wept in the middle of the bookstore. Such bookish serendipity I never dreamed of having. Now I have a doughty hardcover copy that will hold up to annual re-reads, as my previous used paperback copy had come to me very worn. That edition has gone on to bless a deacon at my church, because she was intrigued by the premise and I knew she would cherish the story as much as I do. If you can get your hands on a 1969 copy...the signatures are sewn, the paper is luscious, and the endpapers are a marvelous study.



2021 Review
If I were in a perpetual state of reading this novel and no other, I'd be perfectly happy. My "desert island" novel? Check. Do I actually, for once, have a favorite novel? I think I might.

Last year, when I read it just as Lent started (and our whole world began to change), I thought I'd re-read it every Lent. But I nudged it into Holy Week this year. Next year, perhaps Eastertide, and so forth, in successive seasons of the Christian year. Brede speaks to all of them. Spacing my readings just over a year apart feels right, for now. Enough time to let one reading soak in before I, well, return to the source, ad fontes, as Vatican II called the church to do!

As much as I loved reading Brede the first time, I wasn't entirely sure it would be as impactful the second time around. It was, somehow, even better. For all my reading and re-reading, there are hardly any books that I'll commit to reading once a year. Brede has joined Revelations of Divine Love in my heart's hall of fame. Oh, such riches in these works of exquisite spiritual beauty!

A further note on the accessibility of Brede: some Roman Catholics, especially those well-acquainted with enclosed orders, might find monastic life over-explained. Godden is never lengthy in her explanations, preferring to show life under the Rule through narration. However, this makes it all the more accessible for those who have not taken vows, and more familiar readers can skip the explanatory bits. At the end of the day, it's the wisdom, insight, and characterization that make Brede such a good novel--and readers of all kinds can appreciate that.

I just...love this book so much. Absolutely, unequivocally wonderful.



2020 Review
A deeply affecting novel of tender power.

"Isn't that what you came for? To give yourself away?...A little thing, thought Philippa, but the greatest anyone can give: yourself." (627)

I've long been intrigued by the religious life. In many ways, the cloistering of contemplative orders appears attractively simple--they don't have to worry about the thousand troubles of everyday modern life. I, for one, would welcome the freedom of not ever having to watch or read the news again. The monastery at Brede, pre-Vatican II, had its worldly burdens, but was also pleasantly bereft of them, focusing instead on its Daily Office and life of prayer. However, each woman at Brede committed her whole self to the order, to the Rule, and to a vulnerability before each of her sisters. This refinement of character and conscience requires extreme humility that all nuns struggle to give.

The structure of Brede intimidated me at first--how am I supposed to remember all the Dames and Sisters and their roles and changing names and offices? Godden, in her authorial wisdom, reminds us every few hundred pages who was who. Each personhood sparkles, making every nun memorable. Brede has a down-to-earth rather than ecstatic spirituality, which is easier to grasp for the non-mystic. I have never felt the presence of God so vividly in a novel before.

The difficulties of monasticism--the constant rubbing against one another that sands the conscience to smoothness--remind me in some ways of Christian marriage, and why Roman Catholics consider it a sacrament. In marriage, daily rhythms of life bring one together with one's spouse in unromantic, troubling, and exasperating ways. Yet, under these daily eddies, the current of the marriage covenant flows forward. At Brede, the nuns who have made their Solemn Profession know they are yoked to their monastery for life. This long commitment, to me, is the most striking and beautiful part of the monastic lifestyle. Yes, even more striking (pardon the pun) than the fact that they still practice the discipline. My tender Protestant soul was NOT prepared for that. The lack, or rather the fear and suspicion, of monasticism in American evangelicalism is one of the major flaws that Protestantism has had since the Reformation.* Our anemic view of celibacy and our easy capitulation to the idols of the age are things that monasticism corrects with its adherence to ancient wisdom, its keeping of spiritual practices, and its stubborn following of the Christian year rather than the economic, calendar, or academic year.

I didn't intentionally pick this up as pre-Lent reading, but as usual, the book knows me better than I do, and it came at an opportune time. Alongside Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love, I'd recommend In This House of Brede as a classic of women's spirituality. Particularly, Brede would be helpful to anyone who leads a community. Since the book follows a postulant's journey into the novitiate and her Solemn Profession, I believe it would be accessible to those unacquainted with monasticism, Roman Catholicism, liturgy, pre-Vatican II Catholic life, et c.

*Anglicanism has monastic orders, but Anglicanism has a much more complex relationship with Roman Catholicism than the rest of Protestantism. It did not have the tidy birth that Lutheranism or Presbyterianism enjoyed. On the one hand, you have the dissolution of the monasteries; on the other, you have contemporary active orders. The Oxford movement, Anglo-Catholicism, Cardinal Newman, et c. just complicate things further.

[Rtriptow · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 profile of the cloistered life. Godden researched the book by spending three years in an abbey herself.

In This House of Brede is primarily the story of Philippa Talbot, an extremely successful businesswoman and leader, a widow in her 40s who startlingly gives it all up to become a Benedictine nun. The challenges she faces as a postulant detail for the lay reader just how difficult it is to leave the active "outside" world to start a new life in a reflective order. Yet Philippa can never leave the past completely behind. It affects how she fits into the monastic order and the roles she must play, sometimes reluctantly, and she continues to be haunted by the loss of her family in the war. The final revelation of how she lost her young son is astonishing, horrifying, and very moving.

Ultimately, however, In This House of Brede is the story of the entire community of religious women, their interactions and characters. A very satisfying read on that level.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book following a personal recommendation, and I'm very pleased that I did read it. What I do know is that without this recommendation I probably wouldn't have looked at this book.

That is because of the subject matter i.e. life for nuns in a Benedictine monastery. It's to the credit of the author that I found the book interesting, and the characters believable and well rounded. I enjoyed reading about the various rituals, although my favourite parts of the book were actually the author's descriptions of the countryside, the seasons, the plants and things like that.

I found it relatively easy to distinguish between the various people that appeared in the story, and I followed their progresses with interest.

Another book that I read recently was Conclave by Robert Harris. This look at life in the Vatican around the time of choosing a new Pope didn't interest me at all, and I found the characters written in a shallow way. What I now know after reading this book is that it wasn't the subject matter that stopped me being interested in Conclave, it was the writing style.

I'll definitely be reading other books by Rumer Godden.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this back in 2006 or soon after it was published.

When I was a girl I read several biographies of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus (took her name for my Confirmation name) and also much about the Carmelite cloisters of France- and how she had lived her life. It is not that dissimilar (different era, different context of knowledge maybe)than this woman's experience. And I also went to Catholic All GIRLS High School at the same location as the Sisters of Mercy Novitiate near Chicago and so have spent time (years) within the Novitiate there too, as a friend had joined. So this book, to me, is not just words. Some of it brought back real memories.

In this age of ethics that are basically "if it works for me" it is "ok"- I love the idealism and the contemplation of the faithful, those women who are full of love who hold this set of morality and example. The truly faithful who are not diverted by the "more evolved" intelligensia of modern group think and media fodder. Those who come to God on their own, so to speak. And also believe in hope and a strong personal responsiblity.

But then, I am Catholic. So I understand how the sacrifice of negation to a personal life that holds numerous human or family relationships with lots of communication except the relationships with each other, how giving that up, could be worth it.

The relationships of those nuns, if you liked reading about those connections within cloister, you might like to read Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny.

All the peace will eventually come from their hours. Not from the wise and logical and knowing better. I'm sure of it.

[Rick Slane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently looking for books that aren't about war, concentration camps or genocide, since I feel I've read enough of them recently. This was a book recommended to me by the Goodreads Bot because I read Kristin Lavransdatter and Island of the World both Catholic books. I'm not Catholic, but I enjoyed all three books very much. Why would a 40 year old woman with a successful career want to become a nun? The answer unfolds slowly and gently along with at least two other engrossing subplots. If you enjoyed Jayber Crow or At Home in Mitford I recommend this book to you.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 500-page novel about the life of a group of cloistered Roman Catholic nuns who live in a monastery called Bede Abbey in England. The story starts in 1954, with 42-year-old WWII-widow Phillipa Talbot working as a successful business executive deciding to enter life as a nun at Brede. She is the story’s protagonist and the reader’s focal point and heroine. We evaluate the events of the story through their effect on Sister/Dame Phillipa. She is a well-constructed heroine with intelligence and skills beyond most of her fellow nuns enabling her to be an immediate asset. But like the many other nuns, she has flaws that affect both her abilities and relations.

There are 90+ nuns at Brede and, at first, the number of characters introduced seemed overwhelming, especially as they share one of two first names, Sister or Dame, depending on their experience and function. Luckily, there is a character list which is helpful. However, gradually, as the nuns actively involved in the storyline emerge, the reader soon gets to distinguish between the key players. The story will follow these nuns from Phillipa’s entrance to Brede in 1954, through the changes of the Second Vatican Council of the early/mid 1960s and afterwards, up to the time that Godden was drafting the novel, which was published on January 1, 1969.

The story consists of various events that happen to Phillipa, other nuns and to the abbey as a whole over these years. These include individual nuns’ personal crises, difficulties between nuns, the death of key nuns, the severe need for cash due to a risky contract for an artistic altar, adapting to cultural and doctrinal changes, and the arrival of novitiates, including a group of Japanese ones. Running concurrently with these events is the continuous evolvement of Phillipa and her ability to cope with the events from her past life while in this cloistered life she has chosen.

During the telling of these events, Godden deftly and effectively portrays the interaction of these nuns and presents insights into the characters of the women choosing to lead this this life, along with consistently detailed and interesting depictions of how a monastery and the individual nuns function.

The story had a slow start for me and I wondered about why it was rated so highly. I thought, really, what can be interesting about the relations between a bunch of cloistered nuns choosing to spend a life of quiet prayer while married to their God? But gradually I came to see this as one of the quite interesting portraits of a community of people living together in a life that is far different from my own experience, a type of story that I often seek out and, when well written, become some of my favorites. So I viewed this as a similar reading experience as my read of countless novels, such as tales of life in foreign villages such as The River Between, tales of small religious-based communities such as Babette’s Feast, Jerusalem and The Followers and even tales of life in small communities of the past such as The Awakening Land, The Master of Hestviken and The Brother Cadfael Mysteries,

However, in overall experience, this read probably most resembled the experience I had of reading R.F. Delderfield's To Serve Them All My Days. Both books center on many years of the experience of a person serving in a community at a fairly sheltered isolated residential institution, one at a boarding school the other at a monastery. Both center on one of the community residents and tells how they and others at the institution deal with the yearly life events at the institution. The personalities examined, and the personal growth that is witnessed make all the events at these insular institutions interesting and meaningful.

After the slow start, this story eventually became quite engrossing to me. The book was a 3 star book for the first third of the book but then grew to more than 4 stars for me. Overall I rate this as a solid 4-star book.

[Kavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Ebert once began a review of the film Chariots of Fire by saying that he did not know why he enjoyed the film so much as he was neither British or a particular fan of exercise. I found myself in a similar quandary while reading In This House of Brede. I am neither Catholic, nor British and yet I found myself utterly transfixed by Rumer Godden’s tale of a community of cloistered Benedictine nuns. Each evening when I opened the book I felt utterly transported to another world, and its one I’m rather sad to have exited.

Philippa Talbot, the novel’s ostensible protagonist, is a successful career woman who seems to have it all. Yet, she is leaving behind a position of power, and a man who loves her to join a nunnery. She arrives at the front door of professing her desire, “To try my vocation as a Benedictian in this House of Brede.” Godden’s novel follows her journey over the next decade. However, while Philippa is a fascinating character in a sense she’s a conduit, our way of peering into a community of fascinating women.

And each specific nun has a very particular personality which allows Godden to explore various themes. Above all, as others have pointed out The House of Brede excels at showing just how difficult it is to lead a contemplative life. The nuns are constantly being affected and reacting to outside forces. These women are attempting to lead a contemplative life but their problems follow them to Brede. Likewise, Godden shows how even the good nuns are still subject to sin, misdeeds and ill thoughts.

Godden grounds the narrative in the day to day business, and seasonal activities of the Nuns. We watch Philippa as a sister and later as a dame in a variety of occupations. Philippa believes she can leave behind the power and decision making of the world. Gooden contrasts Talbot’s decision to forgo authority, with new Abbess Catherine who must take on the cloak of decision making with her new role. As Philippa learns to let go of her burdens, likewise the Abbess must learn to take up hers and struggles with how to balance decisions and roles in the house. Nuns are moved around like chess pieces, all to supplement deficits in their own characters and or to help them learn things about themselves. This is not a novel where faith is a finished belief. Indeed, the novel shows self-examination and self-recrimination to be a daily burden for even the best of Nuns.

And as the years pass the nun’s make mistakes, cling to false figures and sometimes behave against their best instincts. That is to a degree the power of the novel. Godden shows us how even our best impulses sometimes fail, she also argues that sometimes being right is less important than being kind. And after difficulty, anguish and struggle Philippa finally absorbs the lesson.

This is a marvelous book that allows you to ask hard questions of your own behavior and choices. I will not soon forget the women who occupied The House of Brede.

[Susan in NC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing, this book doesn’t really have a plot, but follows an older successful British widow as she gives up her civil service career to enter a Benedictine monastery.

I was amazed at how absorbing it could be to get to know this diverse group of nuns, following them through the years, broken up into liturgical seasons. So much happens in this closed community, it was lovely and I know I’ll want to reread it again! A peaceful, contemplative read that I enjoyed very much - read with the Retro Reads group.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! My new favorite book! Amazing! It’s a huge book and one to be read a little at a time, to be savored. I started in January and finished in May, but still it seemed to go by too fast. I was dreading it’s ending - one of those books for me , so rare and so very good to find. It’s the story of a group of cloistered nuns in England in the 1950s. Sounds so boring but truly wasn’t - a testament to the writer. This is the second book of hers I’ve read, the first being 5 for Sorrow, 10 for Joy. I love this one far better.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story of life in a Benedictine abbey. The hierarchy of the nuns/sisters/dames was very interesting and how each woman brought something of themselves into this religious order and learned to surrender and serve made this enjoyable to read. Phillipa was somewhat of an enigma but she carries this story wonderfully.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reread for me of course, but it just does not disappoint! So rich in human experience and Godden has such a way of making the interior dramatic.

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and engaging read about life in a monastery as we follow Phillipa, a successful businesswoman who gives up her career for a life as a nun.


Perhaps this is a flawed work but still a wonderfully engaging work. The novel divides into two parts, first resolving a financial crises and, second, the entrance of postulants from Japan with the intent of creating another monastery in the far eastern country. Not only are the two narrative movements disjointed, but each come with some flaws. In the first a patently artificial resolution, and in the second a rather superficial treatment of the Japanese characters.

So why read this novel? Is it a bad read? I still gave it four stars. I think it’s a flawed work, but it still has positive attributes that overcome the flaws. What I listed above are the two main plot lines but there are a variety and abundance of subplots that create a uniform work, despite the two disjointed main plots. Each of the nuns in the novel have their own irregularities in their nature—aspects of personal disorders—which need to be brought back into balance.

Some have said that the monastery itself is the central theme. I don’t know if I would phrase it quite that way. I think the stability of the monastery set against the evolving and mutable secular world is one of the themes. But is it the monastery that is the theme or perhaps the Benedictine Order? Perhaps it isn’t even the order but this chapter in the order who maintain the stability and traditions. It is hard to separate the monastery from the Order from the chapter. They are interconnected. The interwoven web of subplots from the lives of the individual nuns forms the theme. The subplot of Philippa’s experience and development is the spine that runs through the novel and which is at the core of the central theme.

So what is this central theme? It’s actually given to us by Godden through a quote from the medieval past articulated by the character who encapsulates the sole source of wisdom from the secular world in the novel, Pilippa’s ex-boss, Daniel McTurk. The only secular person who understood why Philippa was entering monastic life, McTurk provides Phillipa a quote which then runs through Philippa’s mind as she wonders if she will sustain her vocation. It’s in Chapter 2, and we get Philippa’s thoughts:

Even if I don’t succeed they honour me for trying, for coming, and words had come into Philippa’s mind: ‘Not what thou art, nor what thou hast been, beholdeth God with His merciful eyes, but what thou wouldst be.’ It was McTurk who had quoted that; McTurk who alone had understood. ‘What thou wouldst be.’ Philippa’s eyes had been suddenly blinded.

“Not what thou art, nor what thou hast been, beholdeth God with His merciful eyes, but what thou wouldst be” is a well-known quote from The Cloud of Unknowing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clo... (from chapter 75), an anonymous medieval work of mysticism, who’s central theme is that one needs to surrender one’s will to God in order to understand Him. It is not important what you have been, nor what you are now. The only thing that is important is what you will become, and that is the person that God made you to be. And so we see not just in Phillipa’s progress but in the novel every nun’s process of development to be conforming to the will of God.

Through Philippa we see the woman God intended her to be emerge and take shape as she takes on different responsibilities and sacrifices her will to God’s will. But Dame Philippa’s “becoming” is accentuated in the other nuns “becoming.” Catherine becomes a wise abbess; Dames Veronica, Maura, and Agnes become balanced from their individual irregularities; Sister Cecily and the Japanese postulants become mature nuns.

All these subplots form a wonderful web of interest and overcome the disjointed plot line. Through the varied subplots Godden creates life at a monastery in a way that one single plot could not accomplish. It allows the reader to see, and that is the primary function of literature, according to Joseph Conrad. We see the life and complexity at a Benedictine monastery as the characters live their lives before us, spanning some fifteen years, and relating to an outside world that is increasingly secular. We enter a different world, an unfamiliar world to us, and engage in lives that have fundamentally different objectives and routines and purposes than ours. For the span of the novel, we live in the rhythm of their lives.

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect read for self-isolating, a story of women monastics. I felt so deeply immersed in Benedictine spirituality that when I looked out my front window I almost expected to see a cloister. If prayer were an Olympic event, the nuns at Brede would be gold medalists. Seven times a day, from Vigils at 4 am to Compline at 8.30 pm they chant the daily office in Latin, praying for their community, for the world, and for people outside who have asked their intercessions. Though they would appear cut off from the world, they are continually involved. The monastery is a kind of spiritual power station, generating praise, thanksgiving, and intercessions for those in need.

The story begins in the mid 1950s and the main character is Philippa Talbot, a forty year old senior civil servant, apparently in something like the Treasury. Her husband died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and we discover much later that she is also a bereaved mother. At mid life she discovers a vocation to join a cloistered order of nuns. In the book we follow her career from postulant to taking her final vows, which bestows on her the title of Dame Philippa. The standard of obedience and humility, as well as the primitive washing facilities, would frighten most contemporary readers away. As the Abbess reminds them, they endeavour to live like the poor, and fifty percent of English families then didn’t have bathrooms.

The nuns regard themselves as ‘Brides of Christ’ and the ceremony of being accepted by the order, called ‘Clothing’ involves an actual wedding ceremony with a bridal gown, much to the chagrin of the rejected fiancé and the mother of one of the characters. As C. S.Lewis remarked of Spenser’s allegory, it wasn’t that Spenser was Catholic, it’s that the Catholic Church is allegorical. Some of the trapping, like the grills that separate the nuns from visitors, do rouse in me some Protestant misgivings. Yet I admired them greatly.

Still, after I finished I felt some artistic flaws. It seemed a little too convenient that Philippa had lived in Japan and spoke Japanese, and we’re not told when or how she got there . And the gripping story of the death of her young son, which she finally tells the Abbess, surely would not have been concealed so long. It would have formed a major element of the process of discerning her vocation. An episode containing a crush between two members of the order was handled well, and generally Abbess Catherine was a wonderful portrait of a spiritually and practically wise woman.

Now, some sixty years later, this species of spirituality is yet rarer. I notice that the monastery that served as the model for Brede is now a luxury hotel and a venue for wedding parties - how ironic. And as an Anglican, I thought that the Abbess ought to be ordained and preside at the eucharist. They certainly were expert liturgists and Dom Gervase, their chaplain, rather a wimp. Vatican II is a crucial event in the book for the nuns, but when this book was published in 1969 I doubt many of us realised this form of spirituality would be almost extinct in half a century. But it always will be an ideal and a model for all of us who are following a spiritual path, whether in a cloister or out in the open world. Everybody works, everybody studies, everybody prays whether indoors or out.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read: 4/30/2015. Devastating every single time, and I hate when it's over, because I just want to read about these people forever. Everybody should read it.


This is quite a book.

What is so interesting and wonderful about In This House of Brede is that while it is in effect a novel about one woman's journey from successful career woman to Benedictine nun, Godden reveals to us the struggles and thoughts of a multitude of women. As several of the nuns point out throughout the novel, it is so easy to forget that nuns are women first. The monastery is a community of people, some of whom are witty, some of whom are kind and gentle, some of whom are elegant and beautiful. But you forget that women who have chosen the contemplative life are in fact living a life. And it was amazing to me how the time went by. It took me a few days to read this book, but over ten years passed in the rich life of this monastery.

I need to also note that this book brought me to tears several times. One of the most powerful scenes I have ever read was the whole sequence of the electing of Abbess Catherine Ismay. I found myself in tears when, overwhelmed, the new abbess collapsed into the arms of Sister Ellen, the claustral (lay) sister who was in charge of tending the abbess' rooms. And later, when Dame Philippa told the abbess and prioress about her son's death, twenty years earlier. Devastating. And then again, when Dame Maura confessed to the abbess that she was too fond of Cecily and had to go to Canada for five years. Oh, and then when Dame Colette died so suddenly--elegant Dame Colette. It is a testament to Godden's talent that I felt so attached to these women whose lifestyle and beliefs are so disparate from mine.

Astonishing, beautiful, moving book.

Upon re-reading, 10/2013: I'm not sure I have anything to add. I had forgotten many of the plot specifics, so re-reading was a real treat. This book is a masterpiece. It might be time for me to own a copy.