Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-century English Tragedy - Rilegato

Gaskill, Malcolm

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0719561205 ISBN 13: 9780719561207

Casa editrice: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 2005

Riassunto

In the spring of 1645, at the height of the English Civil War, a minor gentleman from Essex named Matthew Hopkins initiated the most savage witch-hunt in English history. By the autumn of 1647 at least 250 East Anglian innocents -- most of them women -- had been captured, interrogated and hauled before the courts. More than a hundred were convicted, condemned and hanged. Their alleged crimes ranged from destroying property and inflicting fatal illnesses, to feeding animal familiars with blood and having sexual intercourse with the devil. Accompanied by John Stearne, a godly neighbour from his parish, the twenty-two-year-old Hopkins toured the eastern counties on horseback, meticulously extracting evidence of satanic pacts and dispatching suspects for trial. Hopkins fashioned himself into the 'Witch Finder General' although the torture techniques used had no justification in religion or law, nor was his campaign officially sanctioned. The witch-hunt was an extraordinary event, and would long be remembered as the poisonous fruit of religious extremism, grown wild in a political vacuum, never to be repeated.Witchfinders tells the true and terrible story of Matthew Hopkins and his horrifying crusade as witch-hunting fever gripped the country. Malcolm Gaskill uses his great story-telling talents to bring mid-seventeenth century alive.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

Gaskill has become an expert on the Great British witch-hunt ... a completely readable non-fiction book on a gripping subject.' (Suffolk Journal, Norfolk Journal, The Essex Magazi)

A very lucid and humane writer (Hilary Mantel)

Very highly recommended (The Couldron)

He writes with sympathy, respect and deep human understanding (John Guy, Sunday Times)

It is a riveting subject, engagingly told, and worth a read. (Catholic Herald)

A must ... a lucid companion piece to the classic horror movie Witchfinder General. (Guardian)

Gaskill presents a compassionate, measured view dispelling several myths along the way. (Independent on Sunday)

This is a terrible tale marvellously told ... This is how history should be known. (the oldie)

A wonderfully detailed, well-written and judicious account of a tragic yet fascinating episode in our social and religious history (Saul David, Daily Telegraph)

A brilliant new study ... In the vivid three-dimensionality of its dramatis personae, the eloquence of its writing, and the richness of its evocations of vanished worlds of landscape and belief ... Gaskill displays a masterly wizardry all his own (John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph)

L'autore:

Malcolm Gaskill was born in Suffolk but grew up in Kent. He attended Cambridge University where he read History. He completed a PhD on early modern England, then taught at Keele, Belfast and APU, before becoming Director of Studies in History at Churchill College, Cambridge, in 1999.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: John Murray Publishers Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0719561205
• ISBN 13: 9780719561207
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 384