Chapter Ninety: The Green Knowe Chronicles

I re-read the first five Green Knowe Chronicles this summer, and I read the sixth book in this series by L.M. Boston for the first time ever.  Although the books were all originally published between 1954 and 1976, somehow when I first heard of these books only the first five had been re-issued by the publisher. Anyway, I've read them all now, I'm happy to say, and thoroughly enjoyed them. They are gentle, rather slow stories centered around Green Knowe, which is an ancient manor house in the English countryside, and its various past and present inhabitants. The only unpleasant aspect of the series is that there are often references to people of color that seem dated, or even offensive to current sensibilities.  While they don't seem to be meant to be hurtful if one bears in mind the time the novel was written, they're still unfortunate. Still, overall, these stories highlight the importance of family and--and it's not necessarily the families characters are born with, but the ones they create.  Many of the stories focus on Tolly, a young boy who finds more of a family in his great-grandmother, who owns Green Knowe and whom he spends school vacations with, than in his father and step-mother, who are off in colonial Burma.  The two welcome a young Burmese refugee into their home for a while, and he becomes part of the family, too--as does a gorilla who has escaped from a zoo.  And one of the home's former inhabitants--still present in spirit--forms a deep connection with a black companion whom her father purchased out of slavery in the Caribbean to aid her since she is blind.  These connections, as well as the ones formed across history between the home's present occupants and its past occupants, who often show up as ghosts, make these stories rather touching.  And the pastoral idyll of the setting is not unpleasant, either.  If you're looking for a gentle, old-fashioned story about the importance of family and the magical presence of history, these are the stories for you.