Philippa Gregory's The Wise Woman
A Tale About a Woman's Desire and Dark Ambition in Medieval England
Philippa Gregory, perhaps best known for her books about royal personalities in England, has written a chilling novel based at the same time, but of a different nature.
The Wise Woman (2002 Harper Collins) is a disturbing novel about a woman's ambition to rise above her station during Henry VIII's reign and the increasingly dark side of witchcraft she uses to achieve her goals.
The Characters:
Alys: The young woman who flees to a nunnery to escape the dirty witch's hovel she has grown up in. The nunnery is sacked by Henry's people, and she is forced back to the witch's house, where she chafes under poverty. Eventually, she finds her way into the castle, and into a royal bed. But can she stay there?
Morach: The old witch who has taken Alys in. She is despicable, and her reasons for doing the things she does are known only to her. Neither evil nor good, she is versed in what the people then called witchcraft, and teaches Alys all she knows.
Hugo: The feudal lord, Alys finds her way into his bed, and falls madly in love with him. He is married, and of a station far above Alys'. He is often petty and childish, but in the end, the reader feels for him.
Lady Catherine: Hugo's wife. While she is made shrewish by her husbands constant flings with other women, she takes out most of her anger on the women around her rather than the husband she adores. She and Alys are intricately linked in their desire for the same man, and the power that being a Lady holds in a land where women are chattel.
There are a vast number of characters besides these, all of whom are important to the story, but in a more subtle manner.
The Story:
Alys, desperate to escape the drudgery of the witch's hovel she lives in, runs away to a nunnery, only to have it sacked years later. She flees back to the witch's hovel, and eventually, through reputation, makes her way to the Lord's manor, where she falls in love with the feudal lord, Hugo, even though he has a wife. While Hugo has no compunction about seducing the young Alys, she does try to keep her pledge to God to remain a virgin, but once she loses her heart, she also loses her pledge.
The chilling aspect of this novel is that of witchcraft and its use. Alys tries not to use it, but weakens and learns all she can from Morach. Desperation causes her to use dark magic that she cannot control, and the reader watches as it changes her for the worse. Also at issue is the personality and motivations of Alys herself. Like Morach, she is neither good nor evil, but her actions make the reader exceedingly uncomfortable, even as the reasons seem (somewhat) valid. The grey areas of love and desire, of power and poverty, make this novel an immersion into the occult and its profound effects on those who use whatever means necessary to achieve their needs an enticing read.
The Author:
Philipa Gregory as written a plethora of novels, such as The Tudor Court Novels, The Wideacre Trilogy, and other historical novels. She writes in a flowing, story-teller manner, and the prose is so rich the reader is compelled to continue reading into the wee hours. Her work makes the past come alive, and her ability to portray people in their whole complexity is laudable indeed. She lives in the North of England, and helps run a charity building wells in Gambia.
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