The Salem Witch Trials is a stunningly thorough discussion of the witch trials, giving us a nearly day-by-day history of what happened in Salem, nearby Topsfield, and throughout Massachusetts.
While many explanations have been given for the afflicted girls seeing apparitions, Roach shows there are no easy answers to the situation. The details of supernatural sightings seen by countless people make one almost believe there were supernatural forces at work.
Part of my fascination with this book was that many of my family members were involved in the events at Salem, including the Cloyse, Nurse, Esty, Towne, and Smith families. It made me feel for all those involved, and it provided a larger context of the political situation in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the witch scare.
Based on twenty-seven years of original archival research, including the discovery of previously unknown documents, this day-by-day narrative of the hysteria that swept through Salem Village in 1692 and 1693 reveals new connections behind the events, and shows how rapidly a community can descend into bloodthirsty madness. Roach opens her work with chapters on the history of the Puritan colonies of New England, and explains how these people regarded the metaphysical and the supernatural. The account of the days from January 1692 to March 1693 keeps in order the large cast of characters, places events in their correct contexts, and…
English medieval history has always fascinated me, and I can trace my own ancestry back to King Edward III and his ancestors so I loved this book, which focuses on the queens of Kings Edward I, II, and III, most of whom were my ancestors.
This is the third book in Weir’s series about medieval English queens, and I found it the most interesting of them all. I was particularly fascinated by information about Philippa of Hainault that I did not know, but I also loved how she depicted Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, showing what a strong woman she was and justifying many of her actions in her rebellion against her husband who let his love for other men interfere with his ability to rule.
Packed with dramatic true stories from one of European history’s most romantic and turbulent eras, this epic narrative chronicles the five vividly rendered queens of the Plantagenet kings who ruled England between 1299 and 1409.
“A thorough and illuminating survey of the Plantagenet dynasty.”—Publishers Weekly
The Age of Chivalry describes a period of medieval history dominated by the social, religious, and moral code of knighthood that prized noble deeds, military greatness, and the game of courtly love between aristocratic men and women. It was also a period of high drama in English history, which included the toppling of two kings,…
Jane and Maria Porter were the true founders of the historical novel, but they remain in the shadow of Sir Walter Scott.
This book is the first full-length biography of the sisters and how their novels, including The Scottish Chiefs (Jane) and The Hungarian Brothers (Maria) were forerunners of the genre. In my opinion, The Scottish Chiefs equals or excels anything Sir Walter Scott wrote. Looser does a wonderful job of making the sisters feel like real people through her extensive research and quoting from their letters.
We feel sympathy for the sisters who felt compelled to write to support their family, and we find out the details of their relationship with Sir Walter Scott, allowing us to draw our own conclusions on whether or not they influenced him.
For readers of Prairie Fires and The Peabody Sisters, a fascinating, insightful biography of the most famous sister novelists before the Brontës.
Before the Brontë sisters picked up their pens, or Jane Austen's heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names, the literary world was celebrating a different pair of sisters: Jane and Anna Maria Porter. The Porters-exact contemporaries of Jane Austen-were brilliant, attractive, self-made single women of polite reputation who between them published 26 books and achieved global fame. They socialized among the rich and famous, tried to hide their family's considerable debt, and fell dramatically in and out…
When John is found unconscious at the Huron Mountain Club and brought back to Marquette, Michigan to recuperate, everyone assures him it's the year 1900, but somehow John's memories of automobiles, televisions, and other modern devices seem to suggest he doesn't belong in this time.
Soon several people are trying to help John regain his memory, including his teenage friend Hugh Allen. But despite how many times John walks around Marquette, and no matter how many people he talks to, he can't seem to remember anything and no one recognizes him. Then Hugh suggests John accompany him and his friend Howard Longyear on a canoe trip to the Huron Mountain Club. Desperate for answers, John agrees but is hardly prepared for what will happen next.
