Down the Common

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!

Rating:
Summary: excellent detail and storytelling but historically vague
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.

Rating:
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: An Extraordinary Book
Review: This book, which details the life of an ordinary woman living in a remote, poor medieval village is extraordinary. I had it from the library, but I am buying a copy to send to my daughter who is in China for her Junior Year Abroad. I cannot remember when I last read a novel with such moving power, and one which I was so reluctant to end, for all that I stayed up until 2 am this morning to finish it. It is simply remarkable.

We learn only as much as Marion herself knows about her village and its communal life. It is certainly medieval, but she does not understand that years have dates, nor does she understand geography. From the internal evidence her nameless village seems to be in Kent, some time after the Norman invasion (1066) as is evidenced by the names, but probably before the beginning of the Hundred Years' War (circa 1340). My best guess is that it takes place in the thirteenth century, give or take a few decades.

In English medieval (and later) parlance, a "corn" was any grain kernel, not American maize. In Marion's village this is wheat - barley is called barley. I wish those whose knowledge of medieval Europe comes primarily from movies and romance novels would read actual history, so as not to mislead others through their ignorance.

Marion's village is remote, backward, and poor. Sir Hugh, the local landowner, is such minor gentry that he does not seem to be a knight. The village receives supplies from the outside world in return for its wool once a year, and the only other visitor it might have is a tinker who occasionally appears to mend broken pots, knives, and the like. It is tremendously difficult for modern people to understand how extremely isolated some places were, and how slow things were to change. Still, the first glimmerings of change appear in the village that year, which I will not mention as I do not wish to spoil the pleasure of new readers.

Marion herself is a wonderful creation; a fully actualized woman, with ideas of her own, skilled in housewifery, kind to others, but not a fool. She has a hard life, and she knows it, but she also has many pleasures, and is constantly aware of the beauty around her. John Wain, in his masterful biography of Samuel Johnson remarks that those of us who live after the Industrial Revolution can only imagine how physically beautiful England was, and Marion appreciates the world she knows. She has a strong attachment to her home village, and its people, even though she is quite clear-sighted about many of their faults. Seeing her year and her home through her eyes was a marvellous experience for me, and I am glad I had the chance.