Mr. Wroe's Virgins Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Mr. Wroe's Virgins Book

There is something seductive about cults--a fascination, a temptation into the lurid and unknown. In her fifth novel, Mr. Wroe's Virgins, award-winning author Jane Rogers has delved into the history of one such sect. In northern England, amid the religious fervor of the 1830s, Mr. Wroe presents himself to the Christian Israelites as their prophet. Several accurate premonitions cement his authority, so when he informs his congregation that "the Lord has instructed me to take your number seven virgins for comfort and succour," they send their daughters without question. The story is told through four of the women, beginning with Leah, who sets out to win Prophet Wroe's favor and gain sole dominion over the household. Once Leah arrives, her life as a "sister in God" consists of backbreaking domestic labor. While she fails to corner Wroe's earthly attentions, she is granted permission to bring her son secretly into the household. Focused both on wooing the Prophet and on her baby, she is unaware of the other "sisters": Hannah, the cynical one, may leave soon, and the pious Joanna suffers a wrenching sacrifice for the sake of her faith. As factions of the church grow skeptical of both Wroe's powers and his domestic situation, Leah suspects that the Prophet has taken another woman for his mistress. A sudden loss fuels her anger, and she begins to plot Wroe's exposure and ruin. When she makes her accusations public, no one is prepared for the truth. Rogers's narratives are sparked with some exceptionally lyrical passages, as when Hannah describes the church music as "a sound so hauntingly plaintive a stone would melt to hear it." And Mr. Wroe's Virgins is particularly strong at evoking an era,weaving together the different social forces of the time into the context of this one uncommon household. --Joannie Kervran StangelandRead More

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  • Product Description

    When God told Prophet John Wroe to comfort himself with seven virgins, his congregation gave him its daughters. So begins this provocative and immensely powerful novel, set in nineteenth-century England and based on actual events.
    Jane Rogers chronicles the nine months these women spend together until accusations of indecency and the trial that follows bring Wroe's household to its dramatic end. There is a cripple, a badly beaten mute, two underage sisters who can barely read, Joanna "the Saint," Hannah the unbeliever, and Leah, who secretly mothered an illegitimate child. And then there is Prophet Wroe, as enigmatic and attractive to each of the virgins as he is an iron hand. With an impeccably crafted narrative and utterly beguiling prose, Rogers delves deep into the conflicts surrounding faith, love, and passion. Ultimately each of the virgins comes away with a powerful lesson in independence.
    MR. WROE'S VIRGINS casts a spell on readers from the outset, playing on our expectations and touching a chord of desire that could lead to disaster on nearly every page. With an intelligence and skill that recall the work of A. S. Byatt and Margaret Atwood, Jane Rogers has given us novel of ideas that is not so much to be read as to be devoured.

  • 0618066136
  • 9780618066131
  • Jane Rogers
  • 10 October 2000
  • Mariner Books
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 320
  • 1 Reprint
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