Black Narcissus [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Rumer Godden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 1994

In the days when it was the General's harem' palace, ladies with their retinues and rich clothes could be seen walking on the high windy terraces. At night, music floated out over villages and gorges far into the early hours. Now the General's son has bestowed it upon the disciplined Sisters of Mary. Beginning work in the orchards and opening a school and a dispensary for the mountain people, the small band of Sisters are depended for help on the English agent, Mr Dean. But his charm and insolent candour are disconcerting. When he says bluntly This is no place for a nunnery', it is as if he already knows their destiny ...Black Narcissus ...bears comparison with A Passage to India ' Arthur Koestler A very remarkable novel indeed. One in a thousand' Observer The writing is lovely, subtle, gentle, humorous and apprehensive' Hugh Walpole A genius for storytelling' Evening Standard

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Black Narcissus... bears comparison with A Passage to India' Arthur Koestler; 'A very remarkable novel indeed. One in a thousand' Observer; 'The writing is lovely, subtle, gentle, humorous and apprehensive' Hugh Walpole; 'A genius for storytelling' Evening Standard"

About the Author

Rumer Godden was one of Britain's most distinguished authors, with many justly famous and much-loved books for both adults and children to her credit, including Black Narcissus and The Greengage Summer . She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books; Unabridged edition (July 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330324705
• ISBN-13: 978-0330324700
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful novella of place and culture clash, September 14, 2004

By 

Laurie Mcpherson (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Narcissus (Paperback)

English and Irish nuns work to establish a convent in a disused palace, in a remote tea-growing area of India. Ancient debaucheries seem to echo in the carved hallways, and finally the sensuous and pagan spirit of the dwelling saps their strenuous ideals. Tragedy forces the mother superior faces up to her own character flaws and emerge a wiser person. Elegantly and sparsely written,with a poetic and keen perception.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No place for a nunnery, June 2, 2007

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Black Narcissus (Paperback)

The story is simple. Nuns are sent to an old palace in the mountains near Darjeeling to start a nunnery. They plan to open a school and a dispensary, to run the orchards. But things are not as easy as they seem. The Sisters find themselves haunted by the beauty of the mountains, their memories, even the very air.
They question why they are there and why they are Nuns. Each and every Sister has to fight her own battle and, sadly for them, they don't win. But they learn from it and, therefore, it is not their final defeat either.
The story has a clear theme of how one needs to either join a land or ignore it. You can't live there and pretend to be a visitor. But the Sisters could not join it nor could they ignore it, and therefore they were trapped in a limbo of unhappiness and memory.
I can see why it was made into a movie. Mr. Dean is a great character. He isn't rude, just honest and his views on religion is remarkable. This book is a must for anybody.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rumer Godden's Rungli-Rungliot and Black Narcissus, September 10, 2011

By 

GLdotorg - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Black Narcissus (Paperback)

Rungli-Rungliot was Rumer Godden's first attempt to introduce her autobiographical anecdotes. It was published by Penguin Paperback which she had donated for free distribution to the Armed Forces. The episodes of Black Narcissus and Rungli-Rungliot or its redacted version 'This Far and No Further' are intertwined in substance, that Rumer Godden had written it to celebrate her own father's eternal love life in the neighbouring tea estate of Gielle, before he went down to the Plains to manage a jute factory.

The story of Black Narcissus revolves around a Convent, which was in real life called Greenshield, a Boarding School run by two very resourceful English women, Phyllis Hill and Blanche Whitehall for the benefit of Gurkha Mem's children. Kanchhi, the prominent character of the book as well as the film, was Mr Godden's Gurkha wife, Rumer Godden's step-mother; she is seen being "educated" here, and who was actually the Black Narcissus.

In those halcyon days, most of the Managers of the tea estates were married to local Gurkha wives and those Managers had taken pains to tutor their wives to be refined and sophisticated enough to comfortably fit in Western Society. Unfortunately, the film makers have totally ruined the spirit of the Black Narcissus by Indianising it and so a beautiful chapter of the Raj Era where the Brits had interacted with the Gurkhas at social circle in the tea estates of Darjeeling is forever lost to the reading public.