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August 21, 2008
Newes from the dead
If you enjoy morbid historical fiction, like I do, I recommend that you check out the book Newes from the Dead. The book is based on a true story of a young English girl in the year 1650 who is accused of infanticide, and later hanged, for giving birth to a stillborn baby. As if that weren’t unfortunate enough, she wakes up on the dissection table in the middle of her autopsy. And you thought you were having a bad day.
Anyway.
Anne Green’s predicament begins when an affair with a wealthy aristocrat goes wrong. As a lowly servant girl, she is easily influenced by the advances of Geoffrey Reade, the aristocratic grandson of her employer, Sir Thomas. Of course, the affair goes awry, leaving a pregnant Anne to deal with the consequences, and the charming Geoffrey decides to marry another rich aristocrat and make… lots of baby aristocracy elsewhere. Or at least that's my theory. Anne tries to miscarry by drinking various concoctions, but that seemingly doesn’t help matters much - until she gives birth to a stillborn. This doesn’t sit well with the 17th century Englishfolk, and Anne is accused of being a murderess and a liar, since nobody believes that she gave birth to her master’s illigitimate grandchild. Very soap-opera. Without witnesses to the stillbirth, she is off to the gallows after an awful stint in jail. Her corpse is received for dissection by Robert Mathews, a young medical student at Oxford, and she is presumed dead. Once Robert notices her eyes twitching, it is up to him to convince others that she is still alive (or as fans of the Princess Bride would say, mostly dead).
Overall, I felt the book had a very chilling feel, especially when describing how she felt being in limbo. The author used different narrative voices to split the tale into Anne’s voice and the medical students, offering two different perspectives and a slow build to the plot. There was also a reprint from the actual historical event that the book is based on at the back of the book, which lends authenticity if you can get past the Olde English spellings. This novel is a good choice for fans of historical fiction who like to add a twist of real-life horror to the mix. I found it enjoyable and creepy at the same time.
Posted by egoldberg at August 21, 2008 8:21 AM