Morality Play (Paperback)

by Barry Unsworth (Author) "IT WAS A DEATH that began it all and another death that led us on..." (more)
Key Phrases: sun mask, horned mask, true play, Thomas Wells, Play of Adam, Simon Damian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Set in 14th-century England, Unsworth's novel revolves around a theater troupe whose decision to enact a recent murder leads them to uncover a conspiracy.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The author of the Booker Prize-winning Sacred Hunger (LJ 7/92) brings 14th-century England to life in this imaginative medieval mystery, which will inevitably invite comparisons with Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (LJ 4/1/83). Its narrator is Nicholas Barber, a young monk who has forsaken his calling and joined an itinerant troupe of players that gets caught up in the real-life drama of a small-town murder. The crime presents Barber and his fellows with an opportunity to attract a larger-than-usual audience, and they turn sleuths, weaving the bits of information yielded by their investigation into an improvised play that eventually reveals the surprising, sordid truth. Rich in historical detail, Unsworth's well-told tale explores some timeless moral dilemmas and reads like a modern page-turner. Recommended for fiction collections.
David Sowd, formerly with Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393315606
• ISBN-13: 978-0393315608
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable mystery....., June 4, 2000

By	Bruce B. Hancock (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This simple story serves as a framework for a history lesson as well as a depressing yet fascinating glimpse into life in fourteenth century England. Although nowhere near as ambitious or complex, Morality Play has many of the same attractions as "An Incidence of the Fingerpost." It is a window into a world long gone, alien and difficult for us to imagine, and all the more enthralling because of it. It is a fascinating book that can be read in a few hours.

Fleeing the rigors of the priesthood, as well as an outraged husband, Nicholas joins a band of actors to survive in this nearly lawless land. The small ragged group travels together for protection and to perform stylized plays in small villages along the way for pennies. The plague is in the land again, starvation is an ever present threat, and Kings and Lords hold the power of life and death over the desperately poor. Unwittingly, the group of players stumble into a village which was recently the site of the murder of a young boy. A young woman has been tried for the crime and is to hang immediately. Step by step the group is drawn into this real life drama of life and death until their own wretched existence is at stake.

Although this is a clever plot in a deceptively simple story, the period is the real attraction here. The author captures the most desperate existence imaginable while painting a portrait of a cold, gray, primitive England that is vivid and memorable. A fast and entertaining book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Masterful Tale of Fourteenth Century England, November 28, 2000

By A Customer

Life in fourteenth century England was a grim affair, particularly when viewed through modern eyes. There was little in the way of material comfort, most people struggling merely to subsist. Liberty, too, was scarce in a feudal system dominated by the often capricious and competing forces of King, Lord and Church. And there were intermingled the ubiquitous spectres of magic, superstition, banditry, and disease. With the ravages of the Black Death, life in the late Middle Ages was truly nasty, brutish and short.

Against this background, Barry Unsworth's "Morality Play" weaves a masterful and compelling tale of Nicholas Barber, a twenty-three year old priest, "a poor scholar, open-breeched to the winds of heaven as people say, with nothing but Latin to recommend [him]." Nicholas, after commiting adultery and losing his cloak while fleeing the wrathful husband, takes up with an itinerant band of players. He thus becomes both a fugitive, by leaving his diocese without permission of his Bishop, and a sinner by entering upon an occupation forbidden by the Church.

The players soon find themselves in a town where Thomas Wells, a twelve year old boy, has been murdered and a young woman has been hastily tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for the crime. It is then that their leader, Martin, suggests that the troupe depart from the accepted practice of the day, the enactment of plays based upon Biblical stories with well-known themes. Martin proposes, instead, that they perform a "Morality Play" based upon the murder of Thomas Wells. It is a proposal fraught with peril, not only to their physical safety, but also to their moral well-being, for as Nicholas suggests, "if we make our own meanings, God will oblige us to answer our own questions, He will leave us in the void without the comfort of his Word."

The players accept Martin's suggestion, and soon the facts surrounding the murder of Thomas Wells, as well as the motives and behavior of the players, become troubling and enigmatic. The result is an absorbing narrative that unravels as part murder mystery, part suspense story and part historical fiction, the telling all the time enriched by Nicholas Barber's first person voice and diction.

"Morality Play" leaves the reader with a profoundly satisfying feeling for the historical period and the characters. But the book also operates on a deeper level, the text providing an often thought-provoking gloss on the relationship between theatre and reality, between life on the stage and real life. "Morality Play" is, thus, like all great fiction, not only an entertainment, but an intellectually stimulating short novel that educates even as it delights.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Written Mystery, June 6, 2000

By	Michael Kumpf (Acworth, Georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because I like the Middle Ages. I'm not a big mystery reader, but I really enjoyed this novel. It takes place in England in the later Middle Ages, where a group of traveling actors stop at a small village to perform a religious play called a morality play. The actors discover that a murder has recently been committed so they decide to research the murder and put a play about that instead. This is a short book but the author really fleshes out the characters well and you really feel like you are discovering clues along with the actors. The ending is a suprise as well. I would recommend this to all myster fans and to anyone interested in reading about the everyday life of a person living in the Middle Ages.