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Black Narcissus

A Virago Modern Classic

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Black Narcissus

By: Rumer Godden
Narrated by: Jilly Bond
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About this listen

 NOW A HAUNTING BBC DRAMA, STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON AND DIANA RIGG

'A remarkable and beautiful book' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'I envy anyone reading it for the first time' AMANDA COE

'[Godden has] a genius for storytelling' EVENING STANDARD

High in the Himalayas, the mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General's harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. Now it sits abandoned, windswept and haunting.

The palace is bestowed to the Sisters of Mary, and what was once known as 'the House of Women' becomes the Convent of St Faith. Close to the heavens, the nuns feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital. But as the isolation and emptiness of the mountain become increasingly unsettling, passions long repressed emerge with tragic consequences . . .©1939 The Rumer Godden Literary Trust (P)2014 Oakhill Publishing Action & Adventure Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Classics Village
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Having recently watched the slightly unconvincing and CGI heavy BBC mini series and the superior 1947 feature film starring Deborah Kerr, I wanted to read / listen to the original Rumer Godden book on which these are based.
Neither of the screen productions seem to have waivered too far from the storyline of this original book. Whilst the BBC mini series gets carried away with the scenery, this book and the Deborah Kerr film concentrate more on the relationships between the good sisters and the outside world and the mysterious past of their new home. Although the writing is very much of its time (published in 1939) it is easy to see how this remarkable story has inspired the re-telling on the big and small screen.

Himalayan nunnery fantasy

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Found it all a bit too much madness going on- felt my head swimming myself!

A bit too much madness

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Great listening well read
I was enchanting listening to this narrative.
one of the best books I've listened tobyet

very enjoyable

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Rumer Godden expresses quite profound insights in very brief but incisive sentences. She also has the habit of switching the narrative point of view very freely. One minute you are in the head of Clodagh remembering an image from her teenage romance with Con in Ireland, the next you are with Sister Phillipa, imagining how her latest planting scheme will transform the garden. These are not trivial daydreams. Each of the nuns in St Faith’s is transformed by the contact with the mountain that looms over their convent. The mountain and Mr Dean. It is quite a shock to find yourself also, very briefly, in the head of Mr Dean when mad Sister Ruth breaks all the rules and comes stalking after him. In some ways this technique is not suited to an audio book. You really have to concentrate as the point of view can shift several times in the space of a minute. But it is read with great accuracy and precision by Jilly Bond so that every nuance of meaning is conveyed. This made me want to seek out another reading by Jilly Bond and another novel by Rumer Godden. This is one of the few audio books that I listened to more than once, to savour the details.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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It's one of the best novels I've read/heard recently. Very convincing in a way of expressing human emotions and facing hardships.

Brillant writing

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