Poison [Hardcover]

Kathryn Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 1995

A story set during the Spanish Inquisition follows the experiences of silk-grower's daughter, Francisca, whose obsessive love affair with a priest results in a witchcraft charge, and Princess Maria Luisa, who is attacked when she fails to conceive. 35,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Perhaps Harrison's most signal achievement in this story of two doomed women is her reflection of their time and place: Spain in the 17th century, a sordid and barbarous era. Harrison (Exposure) is totally in command of her tragic narrative, which proceeds with the stately, mesmerizing pace of a pavane, stepping to one side to look behind, to the other to look ahead. Francesca Luarca, a humble silk farmer's daughter, is arrested for witchery. Her story parallels that of Queen Maria Luisa, the French Bourbon princess married to the impotent king of Spain, whose inability to produce an heir to the throne condemns her to death as surely as imprisonment in the Inquisition's prisons dooms Francesca. Francesca commits several sins: she begs a priest to teach her to read (a dangerous ambition for a woman); he also introduces her to carnal delights and impregnates her. Francesca is destroyed by passion, the queen-who is also called a witch by the jeering mob-by its complete absence. Hovering over everything is the ominous shadow of the Inquisition, fed by a greedy, corrupt church that plays on fears of devils and witches but forgives "sins" on the payment of hefty fines. Harrison weaves a marvelous tapestry of almost palpable details: people in Madrid wore enormous jeweled spectacles, "an enhancement to dignity rather than eyesight"; "the Spanish nobility's desire for loftiness was so intense and so literal that aristocratic women balanced on stilts." This is hardly an historical novel in its accepted sense, however, since Harrison pulls free of exact historical documentation. While richly imagined, the narrative is sometimes overwrought; being confined inside the heads of the poisoned, delirious queen and the peasant woman torn by the Inquisition's rack is a feverish experience. This claustrophobic darkness, the unremitting misery of the story, may deter some readers. For others, it will be an illuminating portrait of a woman's lot in an age poisoned by superstition and the church's tyranny.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Harrison examines the lives of two women in 17th-century Madrid. One, Maria Luisa, the French-born queen of Carlos II, is dying of poison because she has not produced an heir in ten years of marriage. The other is Francisca de Luarca, a silk grower's daughter, who lies in the Inquisition's prison, accused of witchcraft. As Francisca reviews her life and that of the queen, a panoramic view of Spain emerges, from the superstitious peasants of Castile to the equally superstitious nobility of a fading country. The evocative historical setting is a departure for Harrison (e.g., Exposure, LJ 12/92), whose previous novels viewed contemporary life. However, her brilliant descriptions and compelling examination of the minds and motivations of her two heroines, each condemned by society for wanting happiness, will maintain the author's reputation as a writer of power and rare sensibility. For most collections.
-?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (April 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679431403
• ISBN-13: 978-0679431404
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,717,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author Photo by Joyce Ravid.

Kathryn Harrison was born in 1961 in Los Angeles, California, where she was raised by her mother's parents. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop, where, in 1986, she met her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison. They had a first date on Friday, April 25, and on Monday, April 28, they moved in together. The Harrisons married in 1988, and live in Brooklyn with their three children. Kathryn writes novels, memoirs, personal essays, biography, and true crime. She is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and teaches memoir at Hunter College's MFA program in Creative Writing, in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terror, turmoil and passion in 17th century Spain, September 4, 2000

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poison (Paperback)

This 1996 novel by Kathryn Harrison is a work of pure artistry. The reader is plunged into 17th century Spain and hurled into the contrasting lives of Francisca, the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, and Marie Louise de Bourbon, the young and tragic Queen of Spain.

The words are pure poetry and filled with fascinating historical details: silk worms and exotic poisons, court life and the dungeons of the Inquisition, wet-nurses and dwarfs, religion and politics. It's all there.

The world she describes made me squirm. Pulled me into the story, and kept me turning the pages.

Against this background, and with exquisite detail, the reader is thrust into the lives of these two women. Our hearts race with forbidden passion and we shudder with fear of the Inquisition carts. We visit the royal bedchamber as well as the torturer's rack.

There's love in this book, and lots of sadness. There are lessons to learn and metaphors for life. People to care about. Sin, deception, betrayal. And, when the book is over, there is the feeling of having lived for a short while through the terror and turmoil that defined 17th century Spain.

This book is not for the squeamish. Or for those who are looking for a light pleasant read. But for those who are willing to experience the harshness of the world it describes, this is a really fine book.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extremely Beautiful Book!, June 10, 2000

By 

Lauryn Angel-cann (Frisco, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poison (Paperback)

The language Kathryn Harrison uses to tell this story is exquisite. Reading this novel was like running your fingers over a fine brocade; the novel has a rich texture and an intriguing plot. I love the way Harrison approaches the questions of religion and heresy, making these themes of the novel particularly important by placing her narrative in the time frame of the Spanish Inquisition. I have to take issue with those who dismiss this novel as a glorified romance novel. There's a lot more to Francisca and Alvaro's relationship than sex, and the juxtaposition of the situations of the two women highlights this difference.

This was the first Kathryn Harrison novel I ever read, and it made Harrison one of my favorite writers, deservedly so. This novel will remain one of my top ten all-time favorite books, mainly because of Harrison's gorgeous prose.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This was a good read...but.., October 25, 2002

By 

"mendara" (Woodhaven, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poison (Paperback)

I fell in love with this book, with the darkness, with the hopeless love...*spoilers* I felt her love of Alvaro - I felt her need to have him..it felt real to me..but I did not enjoy what happened to her child and her journey to find a miracle - it was very depressing and her description of that time was unbearable -but I think this fact alone proves that Kathryn Harrison is a great author, she had the talent to destroy me with one sentence...even when describing the queens sickness - i too felt ill - I had to put the book down..!! I did wish however, that she would gain some type of vengeance against her sister, or at least the queen would be blessed with the knowledge that her killer did not go unpunished. there was NO happiness in this book, even the happy thoughts were clouded with the despair up ahead. I loved this book because it stayed with me even after I put it down. I still to this day remember how she described her love for her child.
phew..it is exhausting to think about.