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Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living in Restoration England. But when this precocious child witnesses the horrifying death of her beloved Aunt Isobel, unjustly executed as a sorceress, she makes it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. A self-educated "natural philosopher," Jennet is inspired in her quest by a single sentence in a cryptic letter from Isaac Newton: "It so happens that in the Investigations leading first to my Conjectures concerning Light and later to my System of the World, I fell upon a pretty Proof that Wicket Spirits enjoy no essential Existence." Armed with nothing but the power of reason and her memory of Isobel's love, Jennet cannot rest until she has put the last witchfinder out of business.--Publisher description.… (altro)
Morrow has tangled often with religion and its sins, so you'd expect he has a lot to say about the history of witch hunting. He spares no punches when describing both the scale of witching hunting in England and the US, and just how horrible it was. But there is much going on in this novel to carry the reader along through the darknss. The novel is written by the soul of Newton's Principia Mathematica. It turns out some books are so real they take on a life of their own, and often turn to possessing authors to write more books. The hero of the story is the daughter of an English witch-finder. Her lifelong quest is to end the practice by creating a grand proof that witches can't exist, based on Newtonian scientific principles. The novel includes a series of classic historical story forms, from a child's life in England, to capture by Indians in America, to castaways on a remote island, to a brief time with pirates, and finally an extended witch trial. Newton, Robert Hooke, Benjamin Franklin, and various other characters play important roles. The story is fantastic though not fantasy. I loved it.
This book can only be described as historical fantasy. Morrow uses the horrific history of witch finding from England to America through the character of Jennet Stearne who spends her life trying to come up with a grand argument that would legally undermine witchfinders, the livelihood of her father and brother. Along the way, she is abducted by Algonquin Indians, shipwrecked with Ben Franklin, and accused of witchcraft herself. The narrator is Newton's Principia Mathematica, the text that Jennet used for her argument, and in the interludes, the book describes its battle against the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch hunting handbook. Here's where fantasy really takes over. The writing was rich and evocative, often ironic, and sometimes just fun. ( )
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If the Judge wishes to find out whether she is endowed with a witch's power of preserving silence, let him take not whether she is able to shed tears when standing in his presence, or when being tortured. For we are taught both by the words of worthy men of old and by our own experience that this is a most certain sign, and it has been found that even if she be urged and exhorted by solemn conjurations to shed tears, if she be a witch she will not be able to weep: although she will assume a tearful aspect and smear her cheeks and eyes with spittle to make it appear that she is weeping; wherefore she must be closely watched by the attendants.
Heinrich Krämer and James Sprenger Malleus Maleficaru, A.D. 1486 Part III, Question XV (Excerpt)
Then came out of the House a grave, tall Man carrying his Holy Writ before the supposed Wizard as solemnly as the Sword-bearer of London before the Lord Mayor; the Wizard was first put in the Scale, and over him was read a Chapter out of the Books of Moses, and then the Bible was put in the other Scale, which, being kept down before, was immediately let go; but, to great Surprise of the Spectators, Flesh and Bones came down plump, and out- weighted the good Book by abundance. After the same Manner, the others were served, and their lumps of Mortality severally were too heavy for Moses and all the Prophets and Apostles.
Benjamin Franklin "A Witch-Trial at Mount-Holly" The Pennsylvania Gazette October 22, 1730
Dedica
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TO THE MEMORY OF Ann Hyson Smith
Incipit
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Introducing Out Heroine, Jennet Stearne, Whose Father Hunts Witches, Whose Aunt Seeks Wisdom, and Whose Soul Desires an Object It Cannot Name
May I speak candidly, fleshling, one rational creature to another, myself a book and you a reader?
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Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living in Restoration England. But when this precocious child witnesses the horrifying death of her beloved Aunt Isobel, unjustly executed as a sorceress, she makes it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. A self-educated "natural philosopher," Jennet is inspired in her quest by a single sentence in a cryptic letter from Isaac Newton: "It so happens that in the Investigations leading first to my Conjectures concerning Light and later to my System of the World, I fell upon a pretty Proof that Wicket Spirits enjoy no essential Existence." Armed with nothing but the power of reason and her memory of Isobel's love, Jennet cannot rest until she has put the last witchfinder out of business.--Publisher description.
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(3.71)
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Highly recommended. (