About this ebook
Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house in this masterful work of fiction from a New York Times–bestselling author.
Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane is the last of his family to occupy the house at Number 99 Wiltshire Place in London. Now, in the early days of World War II, the elderly former general has been told that he must vacate the premises when the ninety-nine-year lease is up, leaving the only home he has ever known.
But Sir Rolls and his longtime butler, Proutie, are not the only remaining residents. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow share the same space inside the old house, and every occupant from the past hundred years lives there still: Rolls’s ill-fated mother, Griselda; his father, the all-seeing “Eye”; his eight sisters and brothers. Even Rollo, the young boy Sir Rolls once was, continues to reside in Number 99, as does Lark, the adopted orphan whom he loved but let slip away.
A century of a family’s history remains alive and vibrant within these walls, the events that defined their lives unfolding over and over again. But that living history is not ending quite yet, for the war is bringing a stranger from America to Number 99 Wiltshire Place to leave her indelible mark on it.
A different kind of ghost story, Rumer Godden’s poignant, stylistically brilliant A Fugue in Time is a story rich in wonder, imagination, and heart—a favorite of the many devoted fans of the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
Sir Roland Ironmonger Dane is the last of his family to occupy the house at Number 99 Wiltshire Place in London. Now, in the early days of World War II, the elderly former general has been told that he must vacate the premises when the ninety-nine-year lease is up, leaving the only home he has ever known.
But Sir Rolls and his longtime butler, Proutie, are not the only remaining residents. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow share the same space inside the old house, and every occupant from the past hundred years lives there still: Rolls’s ill-fated mother, Griselda; his father, the all-seeing “Eye”; his eight sisters and brothers. Even Rollo, the young boy Sir Rolls once was, continues to reside in Number 99, as does Lark, the adopted orphan whom he loved but let slip away.
A century of a family’s history remains alive and vibrant within these walls, the events that defined their lives unfolding over and over again. But that living history is not ending quite yet, for the war is bringing a stranger from America to Number 99 Wiltshire Place to leave her indelible mark on it.
A different kind of ghost story, Rumer Godden’s poignant, stylistically brilliant A Fugue in Time is a story rich in wonder, imagination, and heart—a favorite of the many devoted fans of the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.
About the author
Rumer Godden (1907–1998) was the author of more than sixty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature, and is considered by many to be one of the foremost English language writers of the twentieth century. Born in Sussex, England, she moved with her family to Narayanganj, colonial India, now Bangladesh, when she was six months old. Godden began her writing career with Chinese Puzzle in 1936 and achieved international fame three years later with her third book, Black Narcissus. A number of her novels were inspired by her nearly four decades of life in India, including The River, Kingfishers Catch Fire, Breakfast with the Nikolides, and her final work, Cromartie vs. the God Shiva, published in 1997. She returned to the United Kingdom for good at the end of World War II and continued her prolific literary career with the acclaimed novels The Greengage Summer, In This House of Brede, and numerous others. Godden won the Whitbread Award for children’s literature in 1972, and in 1993 she was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Nine of her novels have been made into motion pictures. She died at the age of ninety in Dumfriesshire, UK.
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