She reaps gold in particular with church minister George Burroughs, a villain out of the Simon Legree School of Baddies. Salem is a playground of complex and fascinating people, with more characters than one could find in a Tarantino film. Against a backdrop of devastating winter, villagers revel in rumors and accusations are tossed like rutabaga stems, as ministers plot to keep a firm grip on their flock.Īs the best-selling biographer of Cleopatra and Vera Nabokov, Schiff has a particular ability to bring to life historical figures in a rich environment. The Witches is also one of the most seamlessly colorful and atmospheric books I've read in some time. So, you will marvel, as I did, at how exhaustively and painstakingly Schiff recreates 17th century Salem-its fear and dread, hysteria and isolation, misogyny and madness.
According to Schiff there is more misinformation about this American tragedy than actual facts. Like me, you will have to throw out much of what you thought you knew about the notorious witch trials. Perfect as a post-Halloween recovery, Schiff's rich social history is a compulsively gripping and deliciously fun page-turner, filled with gossip, deceit, suspicion, and lots of creepiness.
Just when I thought I'd read everything about colonial Massachusetts, along comes this latest tour-de-force from Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff. The strictness of the Puritan culture in the early days of American history has a sordid mystical quality that endlessly fascinates me. I can't explain my obsession with the Puritans, but I know I have one, and I know I'm not alone.
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