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A review by apechild
Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell
4.0
Read as part of a larger volume.
26/02/2022 Lois the Witch
This was traumatic. Just heartbreaking and infuriating. Possibly one of the most effective accounts of witchhunts and witchtrials that gets to the heart of the awfulness of it all, and what it was to be accused. And just to witness the idiocy of mass hysteria and people blindly doing and believing what they are told and never stopping to think things out for themselves.
Lois Barclay is 18 and recently orphaned. This is the 1600s in a village in England, and with no one to take her in, she decides to travel to live with her mother's brother, in accordance with her mother's dying wish. Her brother had emmigrated to the New World, and lives in Salem. History tells us that moving there was a really, really bad idea.
Gaskell creates this world brilliantly, reminding us that in those times people took their bibles literally and truely believed in all the witchcraft nonsense. So much so that Lois actually wonders at one point if the accusations must be true, and later is terrified when the city goal is full and she's told she'll have to share her cell - with a witch! I was also impressed by the comments and sympathy towards the native Americans portrayed in the story, and the note that they had had their lands taken from them.
26/02/2022 Lois the Witch
This was traumatic. Just heartbreaking and infuriating. Possibly one of the most effective accounts of witchhunts and witchtrials that gets to the heart of the awfulness of it all, and what it was to be accused. And just to witness the idiocy of mass hysteria and people blindly doing and believing what they are told and never stopping to think things out for themselves.
Lois Barclay is 18 and recently orphaned. This is the 1600s in a village in England, and with no one to take her in, she decides to travel to live with her mother's brother, in accordance with her mother's dying wish. Her brother had emmigrated to the New World, and lives in Salem. History tells us that moving there was a really, really bad idea.
Gaskell creates this world brilliantly, reminding us that in those times people took their bibles literally and truely believed in all the witchcraft nonsense. So much so that Lois actually wonders at one point if the accusations must be true, and later is terrified when the city goal is full and she's told she'll have to share her cell - with a witch! I was also impressed by the comments and sympathy towards the native Americans portrayed in the story, and the note that they had had their lands taken from them.