Rating: 
Summary: Medieval Window
Review: Ann Baer's "Down the Common - A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman" is a unique experience; here we are given an unvarnished account of the daily life of a lady of the middle ages that contains the profoundest beauty, and which manages to remind the reader of what the necessities of life really are. It is a harsh world at times, but one which simultanenously has us longing for its authenticity and simpler elements. The gratitude expressed for the appearance of the sun on a pleasant day, the ecstasy of a stolen bit of honey, the rainfall, fills the modern reader with the desire to penetrate to the core of real happiness - we are somehow reconnected to the essential joy(s) that attended the primeval and innocent world of Eden.
Rating: 
Summary: Medieval Medium Is The Message
Review: Ann Baer's 'Down The Common' is one of the best anecdotal pieces of historical fiction I have read in a long time. A a former college instructor I long for more books like this to whet the interest of students today who often have no background and little patience with history. Her attention to detail overall is good and her books should be required reading for both students of history and for those who play characters in medieval Renaissance Faires, even if the time period is a bit later. A rattling good yarn!
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Summary: excellent detail and storytelling but historically vague
Review: Down the Common is a really captivating book, full of great detail and an occationally slow-moving but generally quite good story, but is annoyingly vague on specific historical details that could nail it down in time and place. Overall, it's a good book, but by the middle ages, there was more trade and travel than this story would suggest. I'm sure she's trying to balance the "upper-class-heavy" historical sources by stressing that Marion is a peasant and bound to the land, but in my oppinion, she takes it too far. Marion would have known things like who the King was, what the nearest town was, she would have heard stories of the big developments in the world... Not only has she attempted to make Marion "everywoman", but she's also tried to make her generic for a time period that lasted some 500 years of major world changes. So, to make her everywoman, she had to keep one segment of her life very, very vague.
Rating: 
Summary: The author seriously needs to research her resources
Review: I was intrigued by the subject of a woman surviving in the medieval times of england. The author seriously needs to research her resources since the circumstances she describes seem more befitting biblical times. Any person somewhat familiar with medieval history should be thrown off! However her style was pleasing.
Rating:
Summary: okay
Review: It says on the back cover that this book takes place in the "World of Medieval England" so I don't think it's fair to criticize someone for thinking it might actually have something to do with that period. I myself had difficulty figuring out at what point in Medieval England (1066 through the War of the Roses in 1485) the book takes place because the people Ann Baer describe here seem to be living about 500-1000 years earlier, in the "World of Dark Ages England." On the other hand, they do have corn which would put them well into the 17th century (corn is native to the New World).Contrary to what another reviewer wrote, we have a wealth of information about the English Medieval period. There are contemporary letters and diaries; household records; religious texts and decrees; legal documents; paintings, music, poetry and folklore. We know about their clothing; machinery and buildings; harvests and other food sources; and medical procedures and herbology. Yes, Medieval life was difficult and many people were sick or injured and died early but it wasn't as bleak or isolated as Baer describes it here. There should have been local fairs and markets (some with traveling minstrels and actors) they could attend with people from nearby villages as well as periodic visits from other itinerant merchants, craftsmen, monks traveling the countryside and even the occasional scribe. People worked six days a week but they also took off for numerous saints days. I'm not surprised that Marion didn't know who the king was -- during this time feudal lords and barons were far more powerful than any king -- but I was surprised at how little she knew, or cared, about the outside world. I loved Alice, Dame Margaret and Marion's brother's family but I really began to lose patience with Marion herself along about November. I know she has a very hard life but she seems to lack any intellectual curiosity or creativity, she does everything by rote. I am sure there were people like Marion but she just seemed so much more interesting in the first part of the book. A much better book on the general period is "The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium: An Englishman's World" by Robert Lacey and Danny Danzinger. This also follows a calender year but focuses on numerous people from the ruling class to peasants to the local monastery.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating and realistic
Review: Not a romanticized story with a plot of medieval politics, monks or kings. The reader never even learns the year of the story because the peasant woman from whose perspective the tale is told isn't aware of such things. Even life outside the confines of the 30-person village is unknown and therefore completely feared. Life was cold, tiring, perilous, and stinky. After reading this book, you'll gain great insight into what real life was like, but you'll never wish you lived then. A tough book to put down. The worst part is that it is so short, would that it were another 100- or 200-pages.
Rating:
Summary: Just a Note on "Corn"
Review: One reviewer commented on the presence of "corn" in Marion's village, and pointed out that "corn" is a New World crop that would not have been present in England until the 17th century, but she's only partly correct.
Maize is a New World crop. The word "corn," when used by a British author, actually simply means "grain," which is probably wheat, or possibly another grain crop.
I am a medieval historian, and found the book quite realistic. I agree with the critical reviewer that it is possible or even probable that a woman like Marion would have had more experience with nearby markets, though I doubt how many of those would have had "traveling minstrels." As for the inability of the reader to ascertain the date of the book, I think that is actually quite telling and appropriate (and personally, I date the "beginning of the Middle Ages" to sometime in the 6th century or so!).
For those who would like a less fictionalized book about the experience of a woman in a medieval English village, I strongly recommend Judith Bennett's A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock.
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Summary: Womanhood, Motherhood, and Wifehood of any era
Review: Regarding Ann Baer's novel "Down the Common, A year in the life of a medieval woman" I complement the author's insight into the awesome burdens, the small joys, and the weighty responsibility accompanied by womanhood, motherhood, and wifehood of any era. Most of the reviews listed here are complimentary but, I wish to address those who found fault with this novel's medieval history accuracy. This story represents the lives of ordinary people. I see no need to attach it to a specific year or location. Though modern-day historians do possess considerable record of life in the Middle Ages I challenge anyone to *prove* the village represented in this book to be inaccurate. The only improvement I can imagine, for this thought provoking, pleasurable novel, would be for it to cover more than one year in Marion's life.
Rating:
Summary: Down the Common
Review: Simply the best historical novel ever. Smashing! Volney V. Brown, Jr.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book allows the reader to gain insight into the way that the "ordinary" people of the Middle Ages lived by following one year in the life of a peasant woman. It shows the characters as multi-dimensional and very human, and is a very enjoyable and educational read
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