The butcher's daughter / Victoria Glendinning.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781468316339
- ISBN: 1468316338
- Physical Description: 327 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: New York : The Overlook Press, 2018.
- Copyright: ©2018.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Nuns > Fiction. Abbeys > Fiction. Reformation > England > Fiction. Great Britain > History > Henry VIII, 1509-1547 > Fiction. |
Genre: | Historical fiction. |
Available copies
- 9 of 9 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 9 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Rupert Library | Glen (Text) | 33294002107357 | Adult Fiction - Second Floor | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2018 May #2
Most people in sixteenth-century England weren't royalty or famous, yet a focus on the well known predominates in historical novels. Evincing deep knowledge of Tudor-era society, award-winning biographer and writer Glendinning helps remedy this skewed perspective by centering on a young woman left homeless after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and forced back into a world that slots women into tidy, repressive categories. In 1535, the witty, curious Agnes Peppin is sent to Shaftesbury Abbey after bearing an illegitimate child and finds a home among the nuns. Agnes is literate, and as the abbess' assistant she is in a prime place to see Thomas Cromwell's destructive plans for England's religious houses coming to fruition. Glendinning's psychologically astute novel shows how significant an upheaval this was. Monasteries and abbeys served as social safety nets and economic engines, and their residents' heartbreak and confusion are palpable as the sanctuaries are dismantled. Agnes' sudden freedom, both a burden and an opportunity, sets her on an entertaining, picaresque journey toward self-fulfillment across England's West Country. Through the experiences of Agnes and others, Glendinning thoughtfully explores womanhood's many facets. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews. - ForeWord Magazine Reviews : ForeWord Magazine Reviews 2018 - July/August
The Butcher's Daughter follows a Tudor English girl, Agnes Peppin, from the cocoon of her youth in her small market town, to consignment to a nunnery after an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, through to her wiser, bittersweet middle yearsâor, her thirties.
The story takes place during "the bitter spring of 1539." The grand Shaftesbury Abbey's walls are smashed, and Agnes and the other sisters, some of them senile and frail, must forge new lives.
Even as a novice, Agnes chafes against the strictures of her sex and class. In this unabashedly feminist novel, her internal dialogues, words, and actions describe unexpected reserves of strength, smarts, and acid wit that fortify her.
The Tudor period was a tumultuous and earthy time, and Glendinning packs her heroine's salad days with vibrant, sensual descriptions of living conditions, festivals, and religious customs, as well as encounters with historical figures, like the odious royal rent collector Sir John Tregonwell and flawed and impulsive rebel leader Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger.
Agnes's acerbic and surprisingly modern observations about society are a delightful and an unexpected counterpoint. She sees through the nuns of aristocratic backgrounds whose moral scruples and compassion are limited to public displays. She learns to hold her tongue when her admired abbess kowtows to Tregonwell's demands and excuses his sexual harassment.
There are obvious, disheartening parallels from this ruthless and unsettled era to contemporary kleptocracy, misplaced blame for sexual and domestic violence against women, and breakdown in civil and societal norms. However, this elegant, intelligent, compulsively entertaining historical novel also demonstrates the power of individuals with inner strength and determination to work for change.
© 2018 Foreword Magazine, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - ForeWord Special Section Reviews : ForeWord Special Section Reviews
The Butcher's Daughter follows a Tudor English girl, Agnes Peppin, from the cocoon of her youth in her small market town, to consignment to a nunnery after an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, through to her wiser, bittersweet middle yearsâor, her thirties.
The story takes place during "the bitter spring of 1539." The grand Shaftesbury Abbey's walls are smashed, and Agnes and the other sisters, some of them senile and frail, must forge new lives.
Even as a novice, Agnes chafes against the strictures of her sex and class. In this unabashedly feminist novel, her internal dialogues, words, and actions describe unexpected reserves of strength, smarts, and acid wit that fortify her.
The Tudor period was a tumultuous and earthy time, and Glendinning packs her heroine's salad days with vibrant, sensual descriptions of living conditions, festivals, and religious customs, as well as encounters with historical figures, like the odious royal rent collector Sir John Tregonwell and flawed and impulsive rebel leader Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger.
Agnes's acerbic and surprisingly modern observations about society are a delightful and an unexpected counterpoint. She sees through the nuns of aristocratic backgrounds whose moral scruples and compassion are limited to public displays. She learns to hold her tongue when her admired abbess kowtows to Tregonwell's demands and excuses his sexual harassment.
There are obvious, disheartening parallels from this ruthless and unsettled era to contemporary kleptocracy, misplaced blame for sexual and domestic violence against women, and breakdown in civil and societal norms. However, this elegant, intelligent, compulsively entertaining historical novel also demonstrates the power of individuals with inner strength and determination to work for change.
© 2018 Foreword Magazine, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2018 May #2
When Agnes Peppin enters the cloister at Shaftesbury Abbey in 1535, she expects to live out the rest of her days as part of a quiet community of nuns. It isn't long, however, before whispers of coming cataclysmic change reach her ears. Following his break with the Catholic Church, Henry VIII dissolves the kingdom's religious houses, and Agnes must try to find a new place for herself in the tumultuous world outside the abbey's walls. Shrewdly intelligent and curious, Agnes takes to the road and explores several potential paths, always constrained by the Tudor period's rigid expectations for even the brightest women. Though this era is a popular one for historical fiction, novelist and biographer Glendinning (
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.Electricity; Flight ) finds a fresh perspective by setting her book entirely away from the royal court. Agnes's tale unfolds more as a meandering series of vignettes than as a story with a compelling central conflict, but Glendinning's research convincingly depicts the bustling and frequently ruthless world of Henry VIII's England. Readers will enjoy Agnes's wry and frequently irreverent commentary on her encounters.VERDICT Recommended for fans of literary historical fiction in the vein of Hilary Mantel'sWolf Hall or Rose Tremain'sRestoration .âMara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL