[This is a review I wrote in 2008]

** Beautiful, lyrical story of restrained love and old-fashioned values.**

Sue Gee has created here a love story with true depth of feeling, displaying the sometimes darker side of country life in Victorian England. A melody of prose surrounds her central character, a young curate sent to assist an ailing vicar at a Herefordshire parish in the winter of 1860.

The young Richard Allen, still mourning his father's recent death, displays a genuine love for his God, his family whom he has left behind, the rural community he is to serve, and the countryside around his new basic and rustic home. However, all of his simple and profound ideals are challenged when he falls helplessly in love with a young married woman of important social standing. There is a wonderful purity and innocence to this love, and yet the young curate clearly also has a geniune talent for his vocation serving God... a very difficult predicament to be in and you can only feel sympathy for this young idealistic man.

The story is beautifully told; a compelling read. You cannot rush this book - you simply have to go with it at its own pace and I slowed my, usually quick, reading pace to appreciate this novel at its best. So much more than just another historical romance, I can recommended this novel highly. ( )

The fact that this is very well-written makes up for its being a particular sort of book which I'm not reading much at the moment, viz. a serious book where people fall in love and are all torn. It's set in a corner of Herefordshire which is beautifully described without crossing over into purple prose. Well done Sue Gee! Though it occurs to me that there's a gap in the market for a novel where the church wardens are nice people. ( )

I listened to this book on audio. The voice (I don't know the name, unfortunately) was perfect. I can still hear it in my head. The story was wonderful. In a nutshell, 1860s England. A young curate leaves home for the first time for a job near Herfordshire as the assistant to the pastor at the local church, and there are well-written descriptions of everyday life and also the excitement of small-town life as well as the prejudices that existed then and the class system. The book is slow-moving, but that is not a criticism at all. The slow pace allows the reader to come to fully know the characters and also to place themselves in that time period. Absolutely loved it and would definitely recommend the audio version. ( )

It’s the winter of 1860. Following the death of his father, the young Richard Allen takes his first position as curate in an isolated Herefordshire parish. At first Richard is eager to do well in his new post – but then he falls in love and finds that his faith is put to the test.

The Mysteries of Glass was nominated for an Orange Prize back in 2005 and I can see why, because Sue Gee’s writing is beautiful. I have rarely read a book with such a strong sense of time and place. The book is set in an isolated village in 19th century England and the rural Victorian setting felt entirely believable.

The opening chapters perfectly evoked a winter atmosphere. Although I was reading this book in July, I could still picture the cold, wintry landscape, the snowy fields, the frozen paths leading to Richard Allen’s lonely house, the skating party on the lake. Later in the book, as time passed, I could feel the temperatures rise and the seasons change.

Unfortunately, I had one or two problems with this book. I found it very, very slow – I had to force myself to read at a slower pace than I normally would because I felt I was starting to skim over the words without really absorbing them. After the first few chapters, in which very little actually seemed to happen, I had to make a decision whether or not to continue reading. I was glad that I persevered with it, though. I don’t like abandoning books and this one was so well written and had such a haunting, dreamlike atmosphere that I really wanted to love it.

The characters were realistic and well-drawn, from Alice Birley, the crossing-keeper's solemn little girl to Edith Clare, the mysterious woman who lives in the woods. However, I thought some of the characters who were potentially the most interesting were very underused, such as Richard’s strong, hot-tempered sister Verity.

Another problem I had was that the religious aspects of the book were a bit too much for me. Knowing that the story was about a curate, I was prepared for this to some extent but I wasn’t really expecting the church scenes to be quite so dominant. If you don’t like that type of thing, you should be aware that it forms a very large part of the book and that the central theme of the story is the portrayal of a man’s inner turmoil as he tries to reconcile his feelings and emotions with his faith and his belief in God.

If this book sounds as if it might interest you at all, then please do give it a try as I definitely seem to be in the minority! The Mysteries of Glass wasn’t a bad book by any means – it didn’t appeal to me but maybe it will appeal to you. ( )

Full of mistakes eg. swallows flying to Africa - this was not known until 100 years later!
Could have been so much better. I would not read another book by this author. ( )