James Morrow: The Last Witchfinder
A Thought-provoking Read for Lovers of Historical Fiction
Dec 16, 2007
Who is James Morrow?
Morrow was born in Philadelphia in 1947, and his first foray into the creative arts took the form of independent film-making, producing short fantasy films such as an adaptation of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He is perhaps best known for his series of books known as The Godhead Trilogy: Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon and The Eternal Footman.
Other full-length works include This is the Way the World Ends (1986) and 1990's Only Begotten Daughter, which won the World Fantasy Award. He has also written and published a number of short stories, some of which are collected together in Bible Stories for Adults.
The Last Witchfinder
This novel represents a move away from Morrow's fantasy work. The story begins in England in 1688, and follows the fortunes of Walter Stearne, Witchfinder General, and his inquisitive daughter Jennet. When Jennet's beloved Aunt Isobel attracts the wrong kind of attention for her interest in science and philosophy, and is tried and found guilty of witchcraft, Jennet decides that she must use her resourceful and intelligent nature to get the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act overturned and thus ensure that innocent women can no longer be wrongly persecuted.
Jennet's mission takes her on a series of adventures across England and America, encountering a young Benjamin Franklin and getting mixed up with the Salem Witch Trials. Morrow has been a little creative in some of the historical details here, but cheerfully admits that some of the events of the novel are pure speculation and that he has altered some of the dates slightly to suit his story.
Nevertheless, the main concerns of his novel are based firmly on fact: there really was a Parliamentary Witchcraft Act, in 1604, and this remained law until as late as 1736, resulting in the deaths of thousands of supposed witches.
Is the Novel Worth Reading?
This book is a little hard-going at first, but the effort the reader must make to comprehend the historical and scientific context is richly repaid once the gripping story gets going. Jennet is a complex and believeable character: likeable but not perfect, and the reader cares deeply about her ultimate fate and whether she will survive the witch-hunts or not.
The supporting characters are well-drawn, and include the highly entertaining Dr Cavendish with his travelling freak show as well as real-life figures such as Franklin and Isaac Newton.
The only area of the novel that has attracted criticism is the fact that the narrator is actually a book - Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. Although those sections in which the book addresses us directly rather than continuing the story of Jennet require a little more effort, the strategy works thanks to the skill of the writer, who defends his choice as a way of incorporating "a contemporary perspective...a sentient book living outside the bounds of time and space".
The Last Witchfinder is published in paperback in the UK by Orion Books (2006), 541 pages, ISBN 978-0-7538-2153-4. You may wish to find out more about James Morrow at his website.
Other books you may enjoy if you liked this: Jane Harris, The Observations; Jennifer Donnelly, The Winter Rose
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