Hilda Beauchamp believes that God guides the life of every believer—and that it is her job to guide God. Hilda’s plans meet many complications, but at least one of her prayers gets answered when the winds of spiritual revival sweep England, stirred by the great evangelistic campaigns of D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey. Word of Hudson Taylor’s mission to China fires imaginations and missionary fervor … fervor within the Cambridge community. But Hilda and the charming Kynaston Studd—whom Hilda has slated to marry her sister—find their plans sidelined. Kynaston was the leader, the first within his circle to catch the vision of going to China. But God seems to be calling his friends there instead of him and Hilda is horrified to find herself falling in love with the man she had intended for her sister.
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I don’t remember just whom but someone’s newsletter pointed me to this book as needing reviews. I was a bit wary about the ‘love’ bit as the love that happens as part of a story is ok for me but I really resent soppy romances. But the blurb convinced me in these ‘corona’-times as it’s about an outbreak of a disease in China in 18.. But that doesn’t seem to the story of this book.
What does surprise me is that this isn’t a new book, this version was brought out already in 2016 but the original was printed as early as 1997 (when books usually appeared in print and e-books was a niche). I also wasn’t aware that this was the last story in a series of 6 books. As they all describe a different generation and time period of the same family, this wasn’t a big setback and I could make out what happened in the past fairly easy from the information given in this book.
The story starts in 1881 when Hilda Beauchamp, daughter of a baron seeks to tie her sister Ida to Kynaston, the handsome friend of their brother. But the young man shows more attraction to herself and confesses that he’s only reading medicine to engage as a missionary in China. Both of their families have been ‘converted/fallen victim’ to the American Baptist(?) preachers
Although I’ve read several historical novels about Victorian times in England and the US, this is a totally new point of view. China or the colonies are hardly ever mentioned and if so, it’s usually seen as a place to get rid of unruly relatives. The idea of ‘Christianising heathens and bring them civilisation’ is now seen as aggressive imperialism and condescending colonialism but at the time, most of the missionaries were people who genuinely believed that they were doing God’s work and helping the spiritual enlightenment of those poor creatures. It never even occurred to them that those ‘wretched souls’ could be happy with their lives, society, belief and lifestyle as it was. In retrospect, it’s preposterous to think and act as we’ve done, but I don’t think that those people meant any harm. What’s not the same as ignoring the bad things that have happened, but that’s not the focus in this book. I’m a catholic and have relatives that were missionaries in Africa and Papua New Guinea, so I can relate to many of the concerns that the main characters have.
I don’t care much for Hilda. She’s a meddling and nosy busybody who tries to wrap the world around her little finger. Needless to say that this doesn’t happen. It is completely absurd and at least preposterous and hypocritical when she goes praying to God that Kynaston will see the light and forget about becoming a missionary (= doing the work of God)
Both families that feature most prominent in this story are extremely religious; I wonder if that is my modern interpretation of their behaviour or that the average person would also frown about their level of zealotism. All I can say is that religion doesn’t feature this prominent in other novels written at the time. And don’t forget this a modern work that looks back into history. I don‘t know if this theme is accompanied by others because I didn’t read on.
I’m really sorry but despite trying several times to get into this story, it just wasn’t for me. I’m not saying that this is a bad book if you like this sort of thing it might even good. For me, it was a waste of time and I didn’t finish it.
I thank the author for a free ARC and this is my honest review.
I first read this book 22 years ago when it first came out. I’m thrilled that it’s been re-issued so more people can read it. I just re-read it, and was amazed again at how Crow has taken “dry” historical facts and transformed them into a very readable, fascinating story of the power of prayer, the ways God can transform lives that are surrendered to Him, and the results when committed believers start obeying God and going into all the world to share the good news about Jesus.