Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman [Hardcover]

Ann Baer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1997

A novel of the strength and beauty of one woman, and all women.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

More a feat of historical imagination than a conventional novel, this 82-year-old author's first fiction presents a year in the life of a rural peasant in medieval England. Marion, wife of Peter Carpenter, has had a life marked by tragedy--most importantly, the deaths of several children, one of whom she still most especially mourns. She has also enjoyed some relative good fortune, with a generally reliable husband and, as the miller's daughter, automatic respect in the community. As the year passes, Marion is principally occupied with preparing for the winter ahead and tending to her children. She worries about the future of her lame son Peterkin, who will never be able to do an adult man's work, and she is pleased, if bemused, by the rapid development of her gifted young daughter Alice. Marion's year is filled with chores--baking, spinning, gardening--and with routine hardships--dealing with cold, hunger, illness, and pain. Meanwhile, some change occurs: Marion's sickly daughter Margery dies; a friend's husband, whom Marion once loved herself, falls victim to an infection; M'Dame, wife of the feudal lord, becomes pregnant; Peter acquires new authority after participating in a successful expedition to get salt; and a neighboring family descends into squalor. But as Marion goes about her day-to-day activities- -figuring out how to put out a fire when her only pails are full of milk, wondering what she really looks like when she has seen her reflection only in pools, mediating Peter's anger at his son's carelessness, or enjoying a rare good night's sleep--her greatest concerns are immediate, practical, and intimately related to the circumstances of time and place. The need to turn Marion into Everywoman sometimes puts an undue burden on the novel, but, still, Baer has crafted a persuasive and scrupulously detailed account, locating the universal in the specifics of one modest life. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

While Down the Common is actually a novel and could have been featured in our fiction section, it also provides plenty of realistic scenes which will prove complimentary and compelling to any nonfiction study of women in Medieval England. Descriptions are exact and well done, while the plot of a carpenter's wife who struggles to hold her life and family together provides an involving story line. Down the Common is easy to pick up, hard to put down. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: M.Evans & Company (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871318180
• ISBN-13: 978-0871318183
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #933,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just a Note on "Corn", November 30, 2004

By 

L. Burnham - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman (Paperback)

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.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Book, December 13, 2004

By 

A Wisconsin Reader - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman (Paperback)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Medieval Medium Is The Message, July 3, 2000

By 

gordon d v wiebe (Spanish Springs, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman (Paperback)

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!