The witches : Salem, 1692 / Stacy Schiff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schiff, Stacy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Trials (Witchcraft)--Massachusetts--Salem--17th century.

Trials (Witchcraft).

Witchcraft--Massachusetts--Salem--History--17th century.

Witchcraft.

Women--Massachusetts--Salem--History--17th century.

Women.

History.

Massachusetts--Salem.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 498 pages, 16 pages unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Salem, 1692

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

Summary:

"Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff, author of the #1 bestseller Cleopatra, provides an electrifying, fresh view of the Salem witch trials... Along with suffrage and Prohibition, the Salem witch trials represent one of the few moments when women played the central role in American history. Drawing masterfully on the archives, Stacy Schiff introduces us to the strains on a Puritan adolescent's life and to the authorities whose delicate agendas were at risk. She illuminates the demands of a rigorous faith, the vulnerability of settlements adrift from the mother country, perched -- at a politically tumultuous time -- on the edge of what a visitor termed a 'remote, rocky, barren, bushy, wild-woody wilderness.' With devastating clarity, the textures and tensions of a colonial life emerge; hidden patterns subtly, startlingly detach themselves from the darkness. Schiff brings early American anxieties to the fore to align them brilliantly with our own. In an era of religious provocations, crowdsourcing, and invisible enemies, this enthralling story makes more sense than ever. The Witches is Schiff's riveting account of a seminal episode, a primal American mystery unveiled -- in crackling detail and lyrical prose -- by one of our most acclaimed historians"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The diseases of astonishment

That old deluder

The working of wonders

One of you is a devil

The wizard

A suburb of hell

Now they say there is above seven hundred in all

In these hellish meetings

Our case is extraordinary

Published to prevent false reports

That dark and mysterious season

A long train of miserable consequences.

Notes:

LC copy 1 and copy 2 signed by author.

Color map on endpages.

Includes bibliographic references (pages 481-482) and index.

ISBN:

9780316391009

031639100X

9780316353700

0316353701

9780316200608

0316200603

OCLC:

902831328