5 h 50 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the woman of your dreams is a dream no real person can match?
Richard Lancelyn carries a picture of the perfect woman in his mind. Ordinary pleasures cannot satisfy this young poet, so he sets out to seek his Golden Girl. In Richard Le Gallienne’s The Quest of the Golden Girl, longing becomes a journey from place to place, meeting to meeting.
Along the road come landscapes, weather, inns and company, all described with affection and gentle humour. The search also raises a question: can Lancelyn love an ideal and a real person at the same time? This romance lets longing lead, while its playful narrator pauses to comment, joke and sigh with the reader.
What you’ll discover
- A dream worth pursuing Follow a young poet whose imagined perfect companion makes ordinary life feel incomplete.
- The pleasures of wandering Travel through landscapes and inns where encounters give the search its light, affectionate character.
- Love beyond an ideal Explore the tension between wanting perfection and loving a person rather than a dream.
- A narrator with humour Enjoy a companionable voice that steps aside to share a joke or a sigh.
- Prose with a musical turn Linger over poetic, ornamental sentences that make room for longing as well as laughter.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian and Edwardian romance, poetic prose and gentle comedy about love, and anyone drawn to dreamers, romantic quests and the gap between ideals and real people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young poet decides to seek his ideal
- The road is a story of encounters
- Love as an ideal and love as a person
- A playful, ornamental style of the 1890s
Who’s who
- Richard LancelynA young poet and dreamer who sets out to find the ideal woman he has long imagined.
- The Golden GirlThe ideal woman of the hero's imagination, the object of his long search.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La ricerca della Ragazza d’oro
by Richard Le Gallienne · 1896
Richard Lancelyn seeks the woman of his dreams, as his romantic quest explores the gap between ideals and real people.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Quest of the Golden Girl is a romantic novel by Richard Le Gallienne, published in 1896. It belongs to the English 1890s, a decade of poets, aesthetes and playful, ornamental prose.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young poet decides to seek his ideal
The story begins with a simple idea. A young man cannot be content with the ordinary pleasures of life, because he carries in his mind a picture of the woman who would complete it. He calls her the Golden Girl. Richard Lancelyn is the hero, and he decides that this picture deserves a real search.
This is the classic shape of a quest, borrowed from medieval romance. The knight rides out for a holy cup or a lost lady, and Le Gallienne gives that pattern a modern, half-smiling turn. His hero is no armoured warrior but a poet with a taste for beauty, books and the open road. The author uses the old story form to talk about a very ordinary human hope.
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What is The Quest of the Golden Girl about?
It is a romantic novel about a young poet, Richard Lancelyn, who goes in search of his ideal woman, the Golden Girl. It treats love, longing and the gap between dreams and real people with gentle humour.
When was The Quest of the Golden Girl written?
Richard Le Gallienne published it in 1896, during the English 1890s, a decade known for aesthetic and decorative writing. It is a work of fiction, not a true story.
Who is the Golden Girl in the book?
She is the hero's ideal of a perfect woman, an image of beauty and love that he carries in his mind. His search for her drives the whole story.
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