The Mysteries of Glass

It's the winter of 1860 when Richard Allen, a young curate, travels to a small hamlet outside Hereford to take up his first position. It's in this quiet place of wind and trees, birds and water that Richard is to fall passionately in love - but he cannot find fulfilment, for his lover is Susannah Beddoes, the wife of the vicar of his new parish. As Richard's feelings challenge him to his core, he develops a strange relationship with another woman, the solitary and eccentric Edith Clare. Against the backdrop of immense social and industrial change, the consequences of Richard and Susannah's affair are dramatic as they - as well as Oliver Beddoes - grapple with doubt and what it means to lose faith when the great certainties are in question. And throughout it all, the crossing-keeper's daughter Alice Birley - an observer of incidents and events she does not fully understand - has her own part to play...

“'Written with the delicate fluency of a storyteller utterly at ease with her craft...[a novel] alive with the cadences of the natural world, the gentle rhythms of a world still unspoiled by the comings of industry'”

This is the work of somebody profoundly connected to the countryside. The Mysteries of Glass casts its own spell, which is the essential requirement of a novel - Daily Telegraph

Gee's gentle and restrained story celebrates the sanctity of the ordinary and the beauty of holiness. In a cynical age, such innocence is startling. - The Independent

This is the work of somebody profoundly connected to the countryside. The Mysteries of Glass casts its own spell, which is the essential requirement of a novel. - Times Literary Supplement

Written with the delicate fluency of a storyteller utterly at ease with her craft - Times Literary Supplement

'Her work is so good it is unforgettable... Gee's books may be unashamedly romantic and sensual, but they are also so sparely written that the economy of her writing is often breathtaking... a beautiful, redemptive book' Jackie McGlone, Glasgow Herald - Jackie McGlone, Glasgow Herald

This is a novel that takes place on the borders of things - between genre and literary, erotic restraint and progressive desire, between Victorian faith and twenty-first century rationalism - Times Literary Supplement

What could have been just another historical romance becomes a powerful meditation on faith, love and happiness thanks to the intensity of Gee's faultless prose. - City Life, Manchester

This exquisitely written novel transports you to the simple beauty, poignancy and hypocrisy of the Victorian era in a way that makes you feel you've been there. I cannot recommend it highly enough - Katie Fforde

Sue Gee is is the author of nine novels. She is Programme Leader for the MA Writing Programme at Middlesex University, and lives in London.

It's the winter of 1860 when Richard Allen, a young curate, travels to a small hamlet outside Hereford to take up his first position. It's in this quiet place of wind and trees, birds and water that Richard is to fall passionately in love - but he cannot find fulfilment, for his lover is Susannah Beddoes, the wife of the vicar of his new parish. As Richard's feelings challenge him to his core, he develops a strange relationship with another woman, the solitary and eccentric Edith Clare. Against the backdrop of immense social and industrial change, the consequences of Richard and Susannah's affair are dramatic as they - as well as Oliver Beddoes - grapple with doubt and what it means to lose faith when the great certainties are in question. And throughout it all, the crossing-keeper's daughter Alice Birley - an observer of incidents and events she does not fully understand - has her own part to play...

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