Customer Reviews

The Bewitching of Anne Gunter : A Horrible and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder and the King of England

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Bewitching of Anne Gunther is a short book and a quick read that tells the story of one witchcraft trial and, yet, somehow encompasses a glimpse at a period of history. From the reviews from other readers I was not expecting much and was delighted that it was better than others have stated. It is light pop history but manages to touche on family relations, politics, views of witchcraft, village life (and disputes), poverty, and religion in the telling the story of how Anne Gunther and her father faked possession and witchcraft. This leads them (and the reader) from their small village to the court of King James I and then back again. A fun, light read.

The author, a historian, obviously spent a great deal of time going over old records, letters, and anything he could find to gather information about Brain Gunter and his daughter, Anne, who was "bewitched" according to the accusations. By doing so, the author provides an encompassing view of the life and times and beliefs, and also explains how many people so easily accepted witchcraft accusations while others maintained their skepticism. All witch trials were not like those at Salem.

Anne Gunter, a 20 year old woman, lived in the Oxfordshire village of North Moreton. In the summer of 1604 she fell ill. Yet witchcraft was not being discussed, but it was when the illness recurred on the 23rd of October and continued over the following weeks that people began to make more note of the symptoms. Doctors could not find natural reasons for her illness. The inevitable was thought and assumed - that she was bewitched. Anne vomited pins and other unnatural things, she had fits and trances and one time during a trance she named three women as witches that bewitched her: Agnes Pepwell, her daughter Mary Pepwell and Elizabeth Gregory. Agnes Pepwell managed to run away, but the other two women were tried for witchcraft, but both were found not guilty. Anne's father Brian Gunter took the case in front of the court of King James I. He was known as a witch-hunter, but during the trial Anne confessed that her father forced her to act as bewitched and also forced her to accuse the three women as witches. He made her drink strange things and she had to hide pins in her mouth in order to vomit them up whenever people were there to visit her. Brian Gunter and the Gregory family had a feud, which was the result of a football game some years ago. Anne's father killed two members of the Gunter family and got away with it. He orchestrated Anne's fits to have the family branded as witches. The King's churchmen were not fooled or amused and brought Brian and Anne Gunter before the Court of the Star Chamber in 1606 for perjury and false accusation.

"The Bewitching of Anne Gunter - A horrible and true story of deception, witchcraft, murder, and the King of England" is highly recommendable. But it depends on what you want to do with the book. If you expect a novel on witchcraft that is exciting, entertaining and full of suspense until the end - than this book might be the wrong one for you. James Sharpe, a professor of history at York University, took a very interesting historical events and narrates it in three pages. The other 227 pages are background information. The historian goes back to the Oxford connection of Brian Gunter, he explains very detailed what happened at that football match were the feud between the Gunter's and the Gregory's started. Other chapters explain terms like possession or exorcism. Everything that is essential for this case is investigated. The facts of the story are taken apart in it's component parts and the many names of people are a little confusing. There is also a lot of repetition, some things are explained more than two times. However, if you are interested in a historical book, if you are interested in witchcraft this book might be the right thing for you. If you are looking for an exciting novel on witchcraft you better should keep on searching.....

First i would like to point out, as a PHD student in history I have read many case studies. Case studies tend to be overwhelming with facts, well that is the way history is supposed to be written....imagination is for fictional books, not history.

Next, If you think the numbers, etc are overbearing...stay away from In the Devil's Snare.

Last, compared to all case studies on witch craft that I have read this is well done. James Sharpe is very concise in his evidence unlike many others. He used just enough to show his point. Now for all of you or some of you at least who complained about things disregarding withcraft....I am sorry you missed the point of the book. What Sharpe is trying to do is show that there is a link between withcraft trials and domestic disputes. In a society that is hyper-sensative to non-Christian beliefs or "dark" arts, it would be easy to wipe out an enemy if you could convince local authorities of their guilt concernign witchcraft. That is precisely Sharpe's goal. He wants to show this link, and how it ultimately failed.

If you missed that point, then I would suggest re-reading the book.

If that thoroughly bored you I have a good suggestion.

Read "Strange Revelations: Magic, Poison, and sacrilidge in Louis XIV's France" by Lynn W. Mollenauer.

Mollenauer's book is wonderful and very enticing. Much more "exciting" than Sharpe's. She explores the use of magic, poison etc in the court of Louis XIV.

After experiencing James Sharpe's Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, which was both an excellent and superior academic effort, I was eagerly hoping for a repeat performance with The Bewitching of Anne Gunter... and boy did he deliver! Intended for the general reader, I can't state enough how exceptionally fun and informative this was to read, and I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in witchcraft persecutions. Kudos, again, Mr. Sharpe!

The Bewitching of Anne Gunter by James Sharpe tells the true story of 20-year-old Anne from North Moreton near Oxford, who in the summer of 1604 fell sick with symptoms that the age considered indicative of demonic possession or witchcraft: She had fits during which she writhed and contorted, she fell into trances or comas and vomited foreign bodies, particularly pins. As she suffered her fits she called out against her supposed tormenters before an ever expanding audience of fascinated spectators and named three women from her village as having bewitched her: Agnes Pepwell, her illegitimate daughter Mary and Elizabeth Gregory. In March 1605, when one of the accused women had escaped and the two others were acquitted in a trial, the case was still not over for Anne's father Brian Gunter. He decided to gain sympathy at the highest level, by arranging a meeting between his daughter and King James I, who was well known as a witch hunter. The plan misfired badly, though. The king, as well as the archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Bancroft, was rather sceptical and by October Anne had confessed to the king that she had simulated bewitchment under parental pressure. Her father had made her swallow a mixture of "sack", or sherry, and "sallet", or salad oil, in order to make her fits more believable. Brian Gunter's motive was some bad blood between him and the family of the chief of the accused witches, Elizabeth Gregory. The feud had begun some years before when Gunter had inflicted fatal injuries on two of the Gregorys at a football match. Proceedings were initiated against Brian Gunter and his daughter Anne for falsely accusing the three women.

Although the story itself is a fascinating one, it unfortunately gets spoiled by the author's unnecessary repeating of names, dates and side-events, which make it hard to stick to the story without losing interest. Sharpe is without a doubt an excellent historian, which he proofs in giving such a thoroughly detailed reconstruction of this English witchcraft case, but still, I think, this is not what most people would expect from this book. Especially the promising subtitle A HORRIBLE AND TRUE STORY OF DECEPTION, WITCHCRAFT, MURDER, AND THE KING OF ENGLAND may lead the reader to the wrong assumption that this might be a sensational, gripping novel, which it obviously is not. It is rather a historical account of a true witchcraft case, embroidered with detailed background information.
What comes clearly out, are the reasons why people might have participated in the so-called witch craze.
Not exactly thrilling, but still informative.

In the summer of 1604, a 20-year-old woman called Anne Gunter, daughter of Brian and Anne Gunter in North Moreton, fell ill. Her illness was first ascribed to "the disease called the mother", which is hysteria. But the symptoms returned in October. Doctors were called in and all agreed that the fits from which Anne suffered could not be due to illness but must have some supernatural cause. In her fits she contorted and writhed, fell into trances and vomited foreign bodies, especially pins. These symptoms were at that time considered to be signs of demonic possession or witchcraft. And indeed, Anne named three women, Elizabeth Gregory, Agnes and Mary Pepwell, as her supposed tormentors and said they had bewitched her. At the Abingdon witch-trial of 1605, though, the judges did not find the evidences convincing and decided against her father's accusation: two of the three alleged witches (one had fled by that time) were not found guilty and acquitted. However, Brian Gunter did not want to leave it at that and took his daughter's case to a higher instance, namely that of King James I of England. The king, who was known to be a witch hunter, though, was sceptical and passed Anne to the care of Archbishop Bancroft and then to his chaplain. It was at then, when Anne was away from the influence of her father for the first time, that she confessed that she had simulated bewitchment. Consequently, a story of deception became uncovered which began with a game of football some years ago. This game turned violent, Anne's father intervened and beat two young men of the neighbouring Gregory family, who both died from their injuries (apparently). The result of this incidence was a feud between the two families. When Anne became ill with "the mother" hysteria, Brian Gunter had obviously found a convenient way to discredit the Gregorys and accused Elizabeth Gregory of having bewitched his daughter. He forced his daughter Anne to play the role of the bewitched and made her swallow "sack and sallet oil" and a "green mixture" to make her fits more convincing. This physical and mental pressure nearly drove her into suicide. But Brian Gunter's plan failed and in 1606 a Star Chamber interrogation was initiated against him and his daughter for falsely accusing the three women.

In "The Bewitching of Anne Gunter" James Sharpe closely investigates a case of witch-hunt of the early 17th century with the thorough methods of a historian. He looks at witchcraft as a social, political and economic phenomenon by bringing to the surface all the factors which seemed to have pushed people to accuse fellow citizens of witchcraft or demonic possession. He does so by giving detailed accounts of parish and other registers of that time, records of trials and further authentic material. However, as a reader (and more or less layperson in the field of historical research) I sometime had problems keeping track of the story itself. Although the book is written in a light and easily accessible style, the endless listings of names, dates and figures very often hinder comprehension and distract from the more significant issues. These facts, which they doubtless are, may trigger off a feeling of boredom and at some point or the other, I really had to force myself not to skip entire pages in order to keep up my attention. The case of Anne Gunter surely is an interesting one, because it provides us with an insight into the credulous (and hypocritical) world of the Jacobean age and depicts the culturally rooted forces behind the witch-crazes of that time. So on the whole I would say it is a passable read. However, reduced to its essentials by, for example, avoiding unnecessary repetitions of details, descriptions and explanations, it would be an even better one (at least for people who do not want to engage themselves too much with, for instance, genealogy)!

The book of James Sharpe "The Bewitching of Anne Gunther" contains the story of,I quote :"The best-documented English witchcraft case ever".
The book tells us the story of a girl named Anne Gunther who was "bewitched" by three women,"witches", and whose names I will not mention, because if you decide to read the book you have to be aware of the fact that you will have to cope with LOTS of names.
Although the subject metter discussed in the book is familiar to everyone, it is surprising that the girl actually did not act and simulated fits by her own will. The most familiar case of, so to say, witchcraft and "bewitching" is the one of Salem witches in America, and it is well known that those girls from Salem did not do it against their will.
Anne was forced by her father to act as if she was bewitched, and by doing that she had to suffer a great deal of pain, physical as well as psychological. The sad thing is that she was not a little girl, ( which would explain her obedience to her father), she was a twenty year old woman. So, this book also gives us a clue what was the position of women in that society. Brian Gunther, her father, drogged her, and forced her to do all kinds of "sick" things, to make the bewitchment more authentical. Later on, she was trialed at the Star Chamber court ( the most notorious court in English history) and I will leave it up to you to find what happened to Anne.
The story is rather interesting, and it really shows us what are some people caoable of doing just for the revenge. However, the book contains a lot of facts that are rather boring and that could be left out.
But anyway, the book should be read. At least, do it for the sake of your knowledge!

I would give this book no stars but I can't so I gave it one. I bought it for 18 dollars and after reading it wished I hadn't spent anything on it! They should be giving this book away for free! It was awful! For one it didn't make any sense. It was incredibly slow and never picked up! Most chapters mentioned nothing on the case of witchcraft and was about the town they lived in and who owned what land and where! WHO CARES! It also kept switching topics that had nothing to do with where the book was going. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! It was the worst book I have ever read and unless you want to be bored out of your mind don't buy this book.