GERVASE

by Ann Moray ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 20, 1970

This is one of those overwhelmingly fragrant Christmas garlands constructed of familiar materials, including a wisp of Christian theology. It's a 19th century Maine tale replete with village patois, villain and community functions, which concern the earthly and extra-terrestrial communion of the child, Maeve, and the great stag Gervase, who had been raised from a fawn by Maeve and her grandparents. Gervase talks and talks (he sounds something like Judge Hardy) while Maeve absorbs some poetic verities about the unity of all life and the ultimate triumph of good. Animal symposiums, to which Maeve is a devoted spectator, a Christmas miracle of dancing animals, Gervase's frightening reversion to his animal nature and then finally the vision of an afterlife, a continuity in which ""all worlds are one."" With remnants from Hugh Lofting, Laurence Housman's Rocking Horse Land, and C. S. Lewis--a Yuletide comforter.

Pub Date: Oct. 20, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION