Halcyone

Description of book

"Halcyone" is a novel about a young girl's encounter with a mysterious old gentleman who schools her in the Greek language and mythology. Halcyone had only been six years old at her mother's death, but she kept a crisp memory of the horror of it. The crimson, crumpled-looking baby brother, in his long clothes, whose coming somehow seemed responsible for the loss of her tender angel, for a long time was viewed with resentful hatred. It was a terrible, unspeakable grief. She remembered perfectly the helpless sense of loss and loneliness. And soon after that, Halcyone had come to La Sarthe Chase to her great-aunts Ginevra and Roberta, in their tumble-down mansion which her father had not lived to inherit. Under family arrangements, it was the two old ladies' property for their lives. But as the young woman undergoes her schooling under governesses, she also encounters a strange old man who invites her for tea. He offers to teach her Greek and tell her about the stories of the old Greek Heroes…