Passionate love does make a guest appearance but the couple in question is not Mrs. However, while the ending fulfills the conventions of a love story the frank, brisk banter that characterises Lucy and Daniel’s friendship exhibits neither flirtatiousness nor dewy-eyed romanticism. Muir labelled as a classic romance, and no doubt it has inspired authors of modern genre fiction. Please be warned that what follows does contain spoilers here and there for anyone who is unfamiliar with the film. That is the book I thought I was reading when some of the elements on the way to the last chapter made stumble, pause, and mull. The most common, I assume, is the straightforward, amusing, occasionally touching tale of two people meant for each other but divided by an unusual obstacle. Josephine Leslie’s prose has a cheery vintage quality, and particularly in passages that describe nature her imagery shines: “On the beach below the sea was coming in with crested green waves, curving over like powerful steel springs before they shattered themselves in a flurry of white, swirling broth, that sucked and dragged at the grey pebbles, rattling the loose stones back into the hidden engine of the seas” (67). The humour is offset by, as Lucy phrases it, “this problem called life”, a shadowy counterpoint that lends the light-hearted drama variety and moments of melancholy and poignancy.

The snappy dialogue and comedic interaction between Lucy Muir and the ghost of Daniel Gregg are the stars of the story.

This is a fairytale for adults, and an entertaining one at that. The mention of cars and mourning attire in the first chapter lets us know we are in the early twentieth century, an England with Beatrice stoves and later, careers for women, but an illusory place, too, from which wars and the Depression are conspicuously absent. The seasons change, the children grow up, dogs succeed each other, and Lucy ages, but despite minor adjustments in definitions of modesty or progressiveness, the outside world remains as static as a painting. Muir follows Lucy Muir from her mid-thirties to the end of her life as a grandmother the reader is given few external clues to mark the passing of time. Neither Lucy nor Captain Daniel Gregg fully grasps the significance of the friendship that buds between them until well-intentioned interference causes a rift of silence that brings a new kind of loneliness to them both.Īlthough The Ghost And Mrs. Haunted or not, the house is exactly what Lucy wants and she refuses to be bullied any longer – especially by a rude-tempered ghost who does not possess the common decency to move on and leave earthly matters to the living. But although the grey stone house has stood vacant for years the real estate agent is curiously reluctant to let it to “a single lady”.Īn amateurish but impertinent portrait, an improbably clean brass telescope in the main bedroom, and an uncooperative gas stove are Lucy’s introduction to the irascible sea captain who is believed to have committed suicide here years ago. Situated at the edge of green, rolling country that slopes down to the sea, neglected Gull Cottage meets the requirements both of her meagre purse and her longing for solitude. To assert her independence after years of submitting herself to the meddlesomeness of others, recently widowed Lucy Muir decides to move with her young daughter Anna and son Cyril to the little coastal resort of Whitecliff.

Famous for the charm of the crisp exchanges between widow Lucy Muir and ghostly Captain Daniel Gregg, the book also offers some surprises: an unsentimental, individualistic assessment of motherhood and a single-minded rejection of the perceived necessity to become a useful member of larger society. The paperback edition is about as slim as novels come, and the story, a very readable humorous fantasy, is not much beefier. Muir on a whim (originally published in 1945 under the pseudonym R.A. Having pleasant but vague memories of the film version featuring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison, I snapped up Josephine Leslie’s The Ghost And Mrs.

The ghost and mrs muir