I've read innumerable books about the Salem Witch Trials, as well as the "witchcraze" phenomenon which gripped western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and I have to say that I'm ambivalent about this one. My first reaction to it on the whole is: sensationalistic, but that is highly simplistic. "Lyrical prose," a phrase found in the description, is generous; overwrought might be a more apt description. The books is exhaustively researched, but some of its conclusions are questionable, based on rather flimsy evidence and poetic license. The work as a whole consists essentially of "thick description," which certainly has its place, but the style borders on theatrical, which to me is out of place, as the entire episode at the time was, so there's no need to continue to make it a spectacle.
It purports to take the form a minute-by-minute account of the strange episode that gripped this otherwise-unremarkable community in the year 1692, in an almost journalistic fashion (the writing does seem to lend itself to that style) but it's often difficult to follow because of the plethora of tangents. On the whole, it's definitely a worthwhile read, however. It provides a wealth of information about the most prominent persons involved in the events, as well as a masterful untangling of all the competing interests, which contributed as much as anything to what many have called one of the most shameful episodes in American history.
-------------Notable Passages------------
The two most notable passages to me seem to offer at least a fair theory on why this episode occurred at all. The first: "From those things the devil promised we can glimpse what the seventeenth-century girl dreamed of: splendid finery, travel abroad, fashion books, leisure, gold, a husband, help with the housework.... Insofar as they dared to dream, these girls dreamed-at the ashen end of New England winter-of journeys to exotic realms and in supersaturated color. From Tituba's on down, the Salem testimony explodes with invigorating , over-the-rainbow intensity. It is all bluebirds and canaries, yellow dogs and rats, red meat, red bread, red books. Deprivation, however, had its limits. Even with the regular fasts, there was no hungering after (or enticing with) food. No daughter, niece, cousin, servant, or slave longed for a roast beef with pumpkin sauce or a luscious apple pudding or a dish of sugared almonds. Rather the girls appeared starved for color, expressionist splashes of which light up their testimonies, nearly conjuring ruby slippers.
The second: History is not rich in unruly young women: with the exception of Joan of Arc and a few underage sovereigns, it would be difficult to name another historical moment so dominated by teenage virgins, traditionally a vulnerable, must, and disenfranchised cohort. From the start, the Salem girls made themselves heard. Theirs quickly proved the decisive voices. By April a core group of eight girls assumed oracular import. Twitching and thrusting, they played the role of bloodhounds, soothsayers, folk healers, moral authorities, martyrs to a cause.
It purports to take the form a minute-by-minute account of the strange episode that gripped this otherwise-unremarkable community in the year 1692, in an almost journalistic fashion (the writing does seem to lend itself to that style) but it's often difficult to follow because of the plethora of tangents. On the whole, it's definitely a worthwhile read, however. It provides a wealth of information about the most prominent persons involved in the events, as well as a masterful untangling of all the competing interests, which contributed as much as anything to what many have called one of the most shameful episodes in American history.
-------------Notable Passages------------
The two most notable passages to me seem to offer at least a fair theory on why this episode occurred at all. The first: "From those things the devil promised we can glimpse what the seventeenth-century girl dreamed of: splendid finery, travel abroad, fashion books, leisure, gold, a husband, help with the housework.... Insofar as they dared to dream, these girls dreamed-at the ashen end of New England winter-of journeys to exotic realms and in supersaturated color. From Tituba's on down, the Salem testimony explodes with invigorating , over-the-rainbow intensity. It is all bluebirds and canaries, yellow dogs and rats, red meat, red bread, red books. Deprivation, however, had its limits. Even with the regular fasts, there was no hungering after (or enticing with) food. No daughter, niece, cousin, servant, or slave longed for a roast beef with pumpkin sauce or a luscious apple pudding or a dish of sugared almonds. Rather the girls appeared starved for color, expressionist splashes of which light up their testimonies, nearly conjuring ruby slippers.
The second: History is not rich in unruly young women: with the exception of Joan of Arc and a few underage sovereigns, it would be difficult to name another historical moment so dominated by teenage virgins, traditionally a vulnerable, must, and disenfranchised cohort. From the start, the Salem girls made themselves heard. Theirs quickly proved the decisive voices. By April a core group of eight girls assumed oracular import. Twitching and thrusting, they played the role of bloodhounds, soothsayers, folk healers, moral authorities, martyrs to a cause.
