Name: The Witches
Rating: 5 (0 reviews)
Author: Stacy Schiff

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Summary

Book Summary

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials.

It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death.

The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic.

As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, The Witches is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story-the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.

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Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Compulsively readable... The best-selling Schiff never disappoints, and her eagerly anticipated account of the Salem witchcraft tragedy lives up to expectations, providing a fascinating account of one of the most infamous years in American history." - Booklist

"This retelling succeeds as a work of gripping popular nonfiction, but for those already familiar with the subject, it will serve only as light reading." - Publishers Weekly

"This fully documented narrative, if a bit exhausting and disorganized, will find a welcome audience among readers of witchcraft or colonial histories as well as Schiff's legion of fans." - Library Journal

"As history, The Witches is intelligent and reliable; as a story, it's a trudge over very well-trod ground." - Kirkus

This information about The Witches was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cathryn Conroy

Serious Nonfiction Ideal for the History Buff
The 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials and executions can be considered America's first true-crime story. And a helluva story it is! Mass hysteria turned the idle chatter and bizarre accusations of several bored little girls into mass hangings of innocent people. It happened 325 years ago and lasted less than a year, and we still do not fully understand it!

To appreciate the magnitude of what happened in 1692 in Salem requires an understanding of the times. While today we scoff at the notion of sorcery or witches, the Puritans believed both were just a real as the sun shining at noon. Besides, what better way was there than witchcraft to explain why a child died or why a young wife had black and blue marks on her arm? It was also a convenient way to get rid of society's least desirable and often annoying people--the homeless, the desperately poor and the mentally ill, as well as smart, sassy, strident and outspoken women.

This solid, nonfiction account, which reads a lot like a textbook in places, is meticulously researched. But it is not all dry. Some of the descriptions are so vivid that you will feel you are in the courtroom or on the hillside as the noose is pulled over a condemned witch's head. On the other hand, the account of the trials is very long and a bit meandering. It's hard to keep the players straight because so many witches and so many accusations and so many stories all blend into one. At times, reading this book takes work and intense concentration.

Author Stacy Schiff offers an excellent account/theory of what caused it all--and that alone is worth the price of the book if this is a subject that interests you. In addition, there is a fascinating list of celebrity Americans who are descended from the Salem witches (Lucille Ball) and the trial judges (Walt Disney).

This book is ideal for the serious history buff. If you're looking for a more gossipy, lascivious account of the Salem witch trials, this is not for you.

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Author Information

Biography

Stacy Schiff

Stacy Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, Pulitzer Prize finalist; A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize; and i>Cleopatra: A Life. Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Named a 2011 Library Lion by the New York Public Library, she lives in New York City.

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