The Dean's Watch [Mass Market Paperback]

Elizabeth Goudge (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Coronet (1981)
• ASIN: B000U11LQ6
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful depiction of the power of love to change lives., November 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dean's Watch (Hardcover)

This novel takes place in a remote Cathedral city in England; the reader is drawn into various peoples'lives, central among them the Dean of the Cathedral. It is the story of the way that this humble man, who is unaware of the impact of his simple love for God and his fellow man, deeply affects many in his city. It is a beautifully told story of the healing power of love. Highly recommended.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A charm that dispells scepticism., April 26, 2002

By 

P J Bower (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deans Watch (Paperback)

...I became enchanted by the tale Goudge tells. The setting for the story is a cathedral city in the fens. The city is populated with charmingly depicted characters that ooze quaintness from every pore. The main character is the old Dean, known in the town as a fierce and relentless man due to his hunting down of the city's corruption. And yet, the Dean is a misunderstood man. His love and fidelity are often met with indifference in the town, and this is even more true of his own wife who is deterred by his ugliness and who finds his devotion to her repulsive. Yet help is at hand, for the Dean owns a beautiful watch: a watch that becomes the starting point for a new friendship for the Dean, and new hope.

Goudge's tale is clearly Christian in content. It is a tale of redemption, grace and love in a world of ugliness and pain. It is never, I think crass, and retains a note of ambiguity to the end, which is appropriate to her theme. Readers will find that something of this story can speak to them if they let it, and indeed, I suspect it speaks to Everyman. Yet it is never moralistic, didactic or triumphalist: often the worst sins of the Christian novel.

A lovely tale, with enough depth to grasp sceptical readers like myself.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written, fable-like story with a deeper message., July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dean's Watch (Hardcover)

This is my favorite Elizabeth Goudge book. I read this every December before the Christmas holidays. This is a very well-written story about people in a small English cathedral village thrown together by a humble clockmaker. Lives are being changed and we are told how and why. It's a gentle story, and told with much insight into human behavior.