A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep by Rumer Godden

First published: 1987

Type of work: Autobiography

Time of work: 1907-1946

Locale: England and India

Principal Personages:

• Rumer Godden, a writer
• Arthur Leigh Godden, her father
• Katherine Hingley Godden, her mother
• Jon, ,
• Rose, and
• Nancy, her sisters
• Laurence Foster, her first husband

Form and Content

Rumer Godden, the second of four daughters of Arthur Leigh Godden and Katherine Hingley Godden, was born December 10, 1907, in Eastbourne, Sussex. Taken to India in infancy (her father worked for the oldest Indian inland navigation company), she began a childhood that was divided between India and England and that was to have great influence on her career as a writer. A prolific author of children’s books, poetry, novels, and works of nonfiction, Godden has seen six of her stories become films. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep, the first volume of her autobiography, covers the years 1907 to 1946.

It is clear that Godden’s memories of childhood in India with her sisters are happy ones. Her contacts with servants and villagers of the smaller towns of India introduced her to the variety of religions, ethnic backgrounds, and class systems that made up the social fabric of the great subcontinent. This exposure developed in her a tolerance for diversity and a compassion for those who suffer economic or social exploitation. Unlike many of her compatriots, who never understood, or wished to understand, the rich cultural traditions of the various peoples of India, the young Godden immersed herself in them. Her own experiences as she moved from the warm, exotic beauties of India to the cold, rather puritanical household of her paternal grandmother in London, or a school run by an order of Anglican nuns, taught her the problems of being different. She has retained strong sympathies for Eurasians, who seemed suspended between two worlds, welcome in neither.

There is a balance in her memories of India, golden as they are. Not only did English children suffer separation from their families, but in residence in India they also endured many dangers, illnesses, and accidents. Bitten by rabid dogs, the Godden girls had to endure the painful procedures of the Pasteur treatment to protect them against hydrophobia. Moreover, English husbands and fathers such as Arthur Godden spent months away from their families pursuing their work, and often their vacations were spent on hunting or exploratory expeditions. Of great benefit to the young Goddens was that they traveled widely over India, seeing its great cities and its outlying provinces. Godden’s autobiography is characterized by themes that appear in her novels: the isolation and pain of being different, the contrasting and sometimes insurmountable differences between the outlooks of East and West, and the vagaries of relationships threatened by alienation, separation, and indifference.

Trained as a dancer from childhood, Godden dedicated the years from 1920 to 1925 to study of ballet in London. Returning to India, she opened a dancing school for children in Calcutta in 1928. In 1934, she was married to a young stockbroker, Laurence Foster. Following the birth of their son David, who lived only a few days, Godden continued teaching and began writing, something that had interested her from the age of five, when she had begun writing poems. Two daughters were born to Foster and Godden, Jane in 1935 and Paula in 1938. Both daughters were born in England. The publication of Godden’s first book, in 1936, brought her some success, and in 1939 she achieved international attention with the publication of Black Narcissus.

In 1939, she returned again to India, fearing danger to her daughters as World War II began. Her husband joined the army, leaving her in serious financial straits because of his free-spending habits. The deteriorating marriage continued formally, but there was little left of the relationship. Godden’s account of her struggle during the war years in Kashmir, in beautiful but primitive surroundings, is one of the most gripping parts of her memoir. Although this period ended in illness, fear, and eventually flight, she knew great happiness and satisfaction there.

Godden’s last tour of the province of Bengal was undertaken for the Women’s Voluntary Services to chronicle the part played by women of that province during the war; her report was published as Bengal Journey: A Story of the Part Played by Women in the Province, 1939-1945 in 1945. In that year Godden returned to England, and in 1946 she wrote one of her finest stories of India, The River.

Her autobiography is characterized by the author’s gift of storytelling, by her ability to handle time and flashbacks gracefully, and by her descriptive powers, which critics have always found formidable.

Critical Context

Rumer Godden is one of the last English writers to have been influenced by the British colonial experience in India. As in the case of many others before her, she loved and hated much of what she remembered from her life there. The physical beauty of the country and the graciousness of many aspects of its culture clash with the cheapness of human life amid the grim poverty of great numbers of the population. The strict divisions of class and religion and the fanatic hatreds bred between groups contrast with the decency, devotion, and wisdom of individuals. The contrast with English traditions and behavior is often described in striking paradox. Parallel construction is one of Godden’s preferred techniques, and her life in two cultures affords ample opportunity for its employment.

The autobiography also recalls the uneasy history of the period it covers, an era of two world wars which dislocated lives and too frequently caused loss of loved ones. Godden seldom baldly states her personal or political points of view, but she does recall that with many others of her generation, she had signed a peace pledge, vowing never to fight for king or country. With the suicide of her Jewish doctor, who had learned of the suffering of his people in Germany, she realized that she must renounce that pledge.

Despite her care in avoiding political stances, Godden does imprint her own vision and personality on the work. One of its greatest achievements is the illumination of her literary work. Clearly, art follows life here. Time after time Godden’s experiences are mirrored in her work; indeed, no part of her experience seems wasted.

Finally, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep is the portrait of a remarkable woman who through the changes of her life has developed a discipline and serenity of spirit, a “willed composure” that some have found very “close to wisdom.”

Bibliography

Billington, Michael. “Three Passions in Calcutta,” in The New York Times Book Review. XCIII (January 3, 1988), p. 3.

Booklist. LXXXIV, December 1, 1987, p. 600.

British Book News. Spring, 1987, p. 594.

Glamour. LXXXVI, January, 1988, p. 110.

Godden, Rumer. “On Words,” in The Writer. LXXV (September, 1962), pp. 17-19.

Godden, Rumer. Two Under the Indian Sun, 1966.

Kirkus Reviews. LV, October 15, 1988, p. 1496.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. February 21, 1988, p. 3.

The New Yorker. LXIII, January 25, 1988, p. 112.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXII, November 6, 1987, p. 53.

Simpson, Hassell A. Rumer Godden, 1973.

The Times Literary Supplement. February 26, 1988, p. 216.

Tindall, William Y. “Rumer Godden, Public Symbolist,” in College English. XIII (March, 1953), pp. 297-303.

Wilson Library Bulletin. LXII, April, 1988, p. 91.