The Resurrection of Anne Hutchinson [Hardcover]

Robert H. Rimmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1987

When Anne Hutchinson, the first American religious dissenter and feminist, showed up on Bob Rimmer's doorstep, he was at first sceptical but soon succumbed to Anne's earthy charms. This is the story of two weeks in 1985, when a woman who was banished from Massachusetts in 1638 came back to preach her ideas of freedom in love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Rimmer's use of the available literature on Anne (from the diaries of the governor who banished her, John Winthrop, and from Anne's trials) is brilliantly used to evoke seventeenth-century America in a way no history book ever could.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 419 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879753706
• ISBN-13: 978-0879753702
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,527,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the most absorbing portrayals of A.H. I've yet read., July 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Resurrection of Anne Hutchinson (Hardcover)

Though I had a high level of motivation to read this book in only a few days' time, I have no doubt it would have been an entrancing read under almost any condition.

I am currently writing a book about Thomas Cornell, a man who probably knew Anne fairly well. He came to Portsmouth, RI from Boston two years after she did, then left there at or near the same time as she, with both his family and hers moving to the same immediate area near today's East Chester, NY. Rimmer even mentions him twice, under the spelling of Cornhill.

But I found Rimmer's novel intriguing on other levels as well. Though there are a few factual errors here and there, overall it is obvious that he researched this book quite thoroughly. In fact, the relatively few errors should be laid at the steps of Prometheus Books, which apparently (at least in 1987) lacked an adequate editing staff.

Rimmer's understanding of the political and religious AND spiritual differences and controversies in 17th century New England is, in my view, on target and totally applicable to today's world. His notions about sexuality are provocative and, I am sure, for some unsettling, but I thought that for the most part he made his case quite well.

This book deserves much more exposure than it's gotten up 'til now. If I didn't think that Hollywood would totally misconstrue its beauty and message, I'd say, let's see it made into a film. But, all too likely, Demi Moore would play Anne . . . and change the ending.

Terence Duniho

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This is fiction, not history., March 24, 2006

By 

A reader in New England - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Resurrection of Anne Hutchinson (Hardcover)

This is a novel, rather than a work of biography or history.