The Raven in the Foregate

The Raven in the Foregate (1986) Ellis Peters

Set in England in 1141

The 12th Brother Cadfael mystery finds the war between Maud and Stephen again shifted, this time in favor of Stephen, and the political machinations have reached to Shrewsbury when a new priest is sent for the town.

“From here where I stand now,” said Cadfael, pondering, “these things seem strangely distant and unreal. If I had not been forty years in the world and among the armies myself, I doubt if I could believe in the times we live in but as a disturbed dream.”

This one took me awhile to read, mostly because I kept being interrupted with other books.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, for it is. And has a lot of striking passages.

For even the pursuit of perfection may be sin, if it infringes the rights and needs of another soul. Better to fail a little, by turning aside to lift up another, than to pass by him in haste to reach our own reward, and leave him to solitude and despair.

“Again, it is not enough to abstain from evil, there must also be an outgoing goodness. The company of the blessed may extend justifiably to embrace even men who have been great sinners, yet also great lovers of their fellow men, such as have never turned away their eyes from other men’s needs, but have done them such good as they might, and as little harm as they must. For in that they saw a neighbour’s need, they saw God’s need, as he himself has shown us, and inasmuch as they saw a neighbour’s face more clearly than their own, so also they saw God’s face.

Publisher: MysteriousPress.com
Rating: 7/10

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