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摘要
摘要
After her father's sudden death, fourteen-year-old Rose Rives finds that sixteenth-century France is a dangerous place for women, when some greedy, vindictive men charge her mother and others with being witches.
评论 (5)
《学校图书馆杂志》(School Library Journal)书评
Gr 6-10-This well-written historical novel set in early 17th-century France offers an unusual perspective on a perenially popular, often sensationalized subject. Rose Rives, 15, and her mother are shocked by the sudden accidental death of Rose's father, but their tragedy has just begun. Madame Rives, a midwife and healer, is accused of being a witch and, along with several other village women, is tortured until she both confesses and names other supposed ``witches.'' Rose is also accused, but manages to escape capture with the help of friends. The story is fast paced and suspenseful, with briskly drawn but convincing characters. Matas suggests the real reasons why females may have been accused of witchcraft: professional jealousy on the part of male medical practitioners; greed for land or wealth (which was forfeited to the church); resentment of strong, independent women; and the settling of long-standing grudges between neighbors or family members. The scene in which Rose's mother is tortured is graphic and compelling, allowing readers to understand just how the accused might have been forced to give false testimony. Rose's difficult choices are well drawn, and there is real drama as the plot quickly draws to a close. While the events depicted are generally grim, some hope is offered in a brief epilogue that helps to lighten the overall tone without trivializing the topic or weakening the book's impact. Matas's ability to write gripping stories that bring the past alive is well displayed in this enlightening and involving novel.-Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
出版社周刊评论
"`I dreamed a fire consumed us all!' Mme. Trembley shook her gnarled finger at us and screamed.'' Such are the portentous opening lines of this feverish novel about a witch hunt in 16th-century France. Through no fault of her own, Rose Rives's mother has earned the enmity of many neighbors: the doctor bitterly resents her midwifery skills, which far surpass his own; the priest hates her for spurning his sexual advances; her late husband's brothers want control over her land; jealous wives accuse her of bewitching their husbands. When a judge arrives in town demanding the names of witches, Mama's is among the first submitted. As she did in Daniel's Story, Matas insists on casting her protagonist in every scene, and she seeks out the extreme: Rose watches the vicious torture of her mother, eavesdrops on the judge's deliberations with the lewd priest, sneaks in and out of her mother's jail cell. The overweening injustice of it all may grab YA audiences; however, Matas limits her impact with her inability to convey historical drama through any but the crudest filters. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
《儿童读物杂志》(Horn Book)书评
When her mother, a healer and midwife, is accused of witchcraft, fifteen-year-old Rose must decide how to save her -- and herself. Set in sixteenth-century France, the story is dramatic but disappointing, with a formulaic plot, an unconvincing historical setting, and characters that fail to come to life. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus评论
Matas (Daniel's Story, 1993, etc.) depicts the persecution of women accused of witchcraft in a 16th-century French village. When a witch-hunter with full power to condemn arrives, Rose's mother, Suzanne, is the first suspect. She's a healer who has earned the local doctor's enmity by saving the countess in childbirth. Rose's father, whose mercantile prosperity has aroused his peasant neighbors' envy, has just died in a fall from a horse and his pretty, independent widow has rejected sexual overtures from both her brother-in-law, who covets her inheritance, and the parish priest. After Suzanne is imprisoned, Rose (with the help of a friend at the castle) secretly visits her cell. Forced to hide in another room before she can leave, she witnesses Suzanne's torture and confession; later, accused herself, Rose returns with a suicide potion for her doomed mother, then escapes. The historical injustice resonates, but Matas's earnest dramatization is sabotaged by an excess of unlikely contrivances; and though her details are plausible, there are too few particulars to make the milieu more than generically medieval, while the focus on Suzanne's torment borders on sensationalism. (Fiction. 12-16)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Gr. 6-9. During a witch-hunt in a medieval village, a strong woman is summarily accused and horribly tortured until she confesses to being an agent of the devil. The subject of this docunovel is dramatic. Unfortunately, the characters are formula types: the jealous doctor, the licentious priest, the dull serf, and the greedy landowner are all out to get rid of the proud, beautiful, wise, gentle healer, so they brand her a witch. The story is told by the healer's daughter, Rose, who's also spirited, proud, beautiful, etc., but who speaks in a contemporary voice, like a modern teenager having a bad day. In a concocted plot, Rose escapes with the help of a romantic young man and a brave "sister," but not before Rose witnesses, many times, her mother stripped and tortured with a thumbscrew, boiling water, and other diabolical instruments. The cover depicting beatific mother and daughter in the prison cell (quite unmarked despite the horrific abuse) expresses the political message that overwhelms the novel. But what the story fails to show is that the witches are people. It's the history that's compelling here, the facts that are left out of the traditional textbooks, the role played by those strong women outsiders who threatened the male hierarchy. ~--Hazel Rochman