A magical, heart-warming novel the Hartford Courant calls “a thing of loveliness, fresh, alive, and with a faint glow, The Springs will gladden many a heart,” is now finally back in print for the first time in nearly 75 years.
Alice MacGowan is a sheltered young woman coming of age in the early 1900s when a resort hotel opens at the hot springs in her small Tennessee town. Everything she knows about the outside world comes from books, but now her experiences with the various summer guests, arriving from near and far, have a profound impact on her. Most of all, there’s William Mason, who is more than twice her age. He opens her mind to new ideas, even though he knows his love for her can never be…so he guides her instead toward Brian Mason, a young Brit her own age, against a backdrop of scandal, sudden violence, and warm romance.
“Written with quiet charm and unhurried grace. It’s humor is nostalgic and of the gentle, literary variety. This is a delightful novel for a quiet evening by the fire.” Boston Globe
“One of our finest Southern writers. She is a skillful artist. The Springs is worth reading for its artistry, its thought-provoking conversations and philosophical ideas. There is a restful, dream-like quality throughout.” Lexington Leader
“Marked by a fastidious artistry and delicate perception, she examines lives that are outwardly uneventful but rich in psychological subtleties. A reveries of youth, a gentle, pastel-colored study of the flowering of a sheltered, adolescent girl,” The Evening Star
“A charming and penetrating study of a girl into womanhood, written in a quiet style of understatement. Like a watercolor, its shades are pastel, its technique suggestive, evocative.” Richmond Times-Dispatch
“[This book is] blessed with her understanding and her understatement, her gentleness and gentility, her warm ability to create a shimmer of nostaligia and to give the reader a feeling of intimacy with a life he could never have know. The Springs is fragile and soft, but there is much strength in it, too.” Chicago Tribune
“A tender, graceful novel, bubbling pleasantly and delicately and refreshingly. Written with a quiet distinction and urbane charm. The result is a restrained but infinitely satisfying accont of a young girl’s awakening.” Ashevile Citizen-Times
“Her book is a thing of loveliness, fresh, alive, and with a faint glow. One of the tenderest love stories of recent years.” Hartford Courant
Anne Goodwin Winslow /
Historical, Literary Fiction, Romance
