The Burning Times: A Novel of Medieval France [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jeanne Kalogridis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2001

"Of the Black Death, they said it was the end of the world; I knew better. The world can withstand the sickness of the body, but it remains to be seen whether it will survive the sickness that eats at the souls of our persecutors..."

So professes Mother Marie Franoise, born Sybille, a poor midwife who is taught pagan ways and magic by her grandmother and is forced to take refuge among the Franciscan sisterhood as the Inquisition threatens. Her extraordinary life story unfolds when a monk is charged with determining whether the mysterious abbess is a saint or a witch.

Sybille is possessed of exceptional powers, and she is in full command of them -- practicing white and black magic, winning the hearts of people with her wisdom, and terrorizing church authorities with her cunning. But even witches are not immune to earthly love, and Sybille embarks on a passionate, dangerous quest to be reunited with her beloved. As she confronts an exceptional destiny -- one that will require her to face the flames in order to save others like her -- she relates a tale of impossible triumph that forever changes the inquisitor who hears it.

"The Burning Times" brilliantly weaves the mythology of the Knights Templar, witchcraft, and gnosticism against a backdrop of actual historical events: the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the catastrophic defeat of France by England. Demonstrating the same meticulous research and page-turning plotting that made her "Diaries of the Family Dracul" series a success, Jeanne Kalogridis crafts a vivid portrait of this turbulent and fascinating period in world history and, at the same time, delivers a searing love story with a redeeming moral of itsown: The greatest magic is that of compassion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dracul, turns from fangs and bloodsucking to gnosticism and witchcraft in this paranormal romance-cum-medieval fantasy. In 14th-century France, Franciscan abbess Marie Fran?oise is arrested by the Inquisition on charges of heresy and communion with the devil. As the inquisitors prepare to burn her at the stake, Dominican scribe Michel is ordered to secure Marie's confession. Yet Michel is inexplicably drawn to the abbess, convinced of her holiness and determined to find her innocent. Marie, whose true name is Sybille, confesses to her pagan upbringing at the hands of her loving yet hedonistic grandmother. Following her sexual initiation into the cult of Diana, known as the "Race," and the burning of her grandmother at the stake, Sybille flees to a nearby abbey, impersonates a nun and tends to the victims of the plague with her magical touch. Hailed as the Goddess Diana incarnate by her fellow nuns, who are revealed to be female members of the beleaguered Knights Templar, she continues her quest for her "Beloved," Luc de la Rose, whom she must couple with in order to continue the Race. The author is at her best relating in gruesome detail the sweeping effects of the Black Death on provincial life. Otherwise, this meandering narrative is plagued by the sophomoric use of proper nouns (Evil, Race, Sight, etc.), overwrought dream sequences and one-dimensional characters. Kalogridis aims to depict Sybille as an incandescent and mysterious heroine, but she comes across as a melodramatic caricature. Agent, Russell Galen of Scovil, Chichak and Galen. (Apr.) Forecast: Fans of Kalogridis's vampire trilogy will be drawn to this novel but they won't be satisfied with it. Negative word-of-mouth may contribute to depressing sales.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Carcassonne, France, October, 1357: Michel is a dedicated Dominican monk learning the rules of the Inquisition. He adheres to the church doctrine to rid it of heretics. In only his second inquisition, the scribe encounters Mother Marie Franchise (born Sybille) in the depths of a dungeon. She stands accused of witchcraft and will confess only to the novice. Over three days, she tells the story of Marie Sybille de Cavasulle, born with a caul over her face. She speaks of her grandmother's lessons in magic and healing, and talks of descending from a race of goddesses, all of which led her from her village to seek her future disguised as a nun searching for her people and her soul mate. In learning about her life, Michel learns about his identity. So begins an adventure full of dangers, mythology, witchcraft, and Gnosticism. Kalogridis re-creates with colorful accuracy the Inquisition, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Although the dream sequences are confusing, the historical depictions are done well. While not a must, this engrossing tale is a nice addition.

Linda G. Sinclair, Alexandria Library, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684869233
• ISBN-13: 978-0684869230
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a missed chance to write a really good book on this topic, April 20, 2001

By 

Anja Be (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Burning Times: A Novel of Medieval France (Hardcover)

I read this book because the subject matter really intrigued me - 14th century France, the Inquisition, The Goddess versus Christianity. The book tells the story of Marie Sybille, a poor immigrant's daughter, whose destination it is to become a reincarnatin of The Goddess, and of Luc de la Rose, the son of a nobel man, who is destined to become the lover of the Goddess, and both together will have to save their ancient people from the Enemy. (what the ancient people is exactly is never explained, unfortunately) There are interesting facts (and fictions) about life in the 14th century, about the church and the Inquisition, but mostly not told with convincing detail, the scene doesn't really spring to life before your eyes. What is even less convincing are the accounts of the Goddess cult which remain too vague and fantasy-like to really inspire the reader. The twist of the plot towards the end makes interesting reading but if the author had taken care to make her characters more human and less black&white it could have been even more interesting. But when the good guys are always beautiful, tall, noble and trust-inspiring and the bad guys ugly, fat, mean-looking or otherwise dislikable, it becomes easy to guess what will happen next. In my opinion this could have become a really good book if the author had spent some more time and effort researching the background and making the book a bit more substantial. A story like that lives from the details, not from the plot. If the subject matter interests you I would recommend to read The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer-Bradley, which is far better told than this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange book, but intesting indeed, November 11, 2005

By 

Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Burning Times: A Novel (Paperback)

The Burning Times is a pretty odd little book. The main character Abbess Marie Franchise, whose secular name is Sybille, is about to be put on trial for heresy and attacking the Pope (something that's never explained in the book.) At the start of the book she is offered the chance to confess to two Dominican monks, one of whom, Michael, subscribes to the popular peasant belief that Sybille is a saint with healing powers. None of this, of course Michael knows, will affect the inevitable guilty outcome of her trial and subsequent being burned alive.

From the start Sybille refuses to admit any guilt, but says she will confess, to Michael only. The other monk, father Charles, doesn't want his young scribe to do this because he feels the temptations of the young and comely Sybille will be too much. But he is stricken ill and Michael goes to take Sybille's confession.

And that's what most of the rest of this book is: Sybille confession to Michael the monk. Because it's told as a narrative instead of the normal third person omniscient voice of novels a lot is left out that could have been included, so parts of this book feel sparse. But over all, the author pulls it off.

I do have to say that all refrences to magic and paganisum in this book made it feel like a fantasy novel. I know some authors who can pull of real pagen themes in historical fiction and not have it be sci-fi ish, but this isn't one of them.

I found the ending of the book to be very strange and not at all believable, but it did intrigue me and I may read it again to see it comes off as more plausible.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing narrative, but weak climax, October 30, 2005

By 

Andrew D. Kennedy (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Burning Times: A Novel (Paperback)

Whether this book is framed as “fiction” or “historical fiction” became important to me. I am not referring to the magic; Kalogridis assumes a world in which magic is real, and as readers we have to accept that. If you aren’t willing to suspend disbelief, you simply should not read this book (or any other book with a fantasy or science fiction element).

What I am referring to is the characterization of the Catholic Church. The idea of magic-practitioners masquerading their devotion under the guise of the Church is intriguing, and finds its real-life embodiment in syncretistic religions such as Santeria and Voodoo. However, details of the operations of the Church, and how religious officials of the time would have thought & acted, just don’t jive with the historical record. Maybe it is just me, but being somewhat familiar with the period & the Church, I found a lot of what they did in the book hard to swallow. Maybe this wouldn’t have been such a problem if the bookstore hadn’t sold me the book as “historical fiction”.

The narrative is characterized by frequent interruptions & temporal shifts. I would say you need to be prepared to read this book over a short period of time... otherwise it would seem easy enough to get confused. That being said, I don’t think this is really a defect in the narrative—in fact, it is essential to it. In my opinion the narrative was only really deficient in that the climax was too wimpy, and the resolution too brief. Without revealing too much, we’re supposed to get a sense of impending doom—but events earlier in the book clearly establish that we shouldn’t really feel a sense of doom over what we’re expecting. This relieves much of the dramatic tension, depriving the climax of its bite.

That being said, this isn’t a bad book. The concept is intriguing, the writing is good, and the background & setting are very good. But for the weak climax, I would have given it 4 stars.