This is my second attempt at a book by James Morrow. I reviewed his newest The Philosopher's Apprentice just a couple of weeks ago. I may become a tiresome bore, writing review after review of Morrow's books, nine so far, although he seems to take a long time working on each one, so my binge can't go on too long. The Last Witchfinder was a seven year long project for him.

The Last Witchfinder is a kind of historical fantasy, set in late 17th and early 18th century England and America and involving figures such as Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Montesquieu in the adventures of a fictional character, Jennet Stearne, a woman who has been given the task, by her aunt, a natural philosopher accused of witchcraft, of disproving the existence of demons, witchcraft and magic. Superficially, the book reminded me of John Barth's The Sot Weed Factor, because of the place and time, the elements of a voyage to the new world and the adventures of an unlikely cast of characters, moving through a semi-realistic and somewhat absurd 17th century world.


The central theme of the book, set in a time of transition, like our own, is the conflict between the rising of the coming age of reason with the irrational medieval superstition still prevalent during the renaissance. The Salem witch trials figure highly in the book. It becomes somewhat gruesome in it's depiction of the torture and execution of supposed witches. Parallels with current conflicts between reason and irrationality can be drawn, yet the novel treads on that ground very lightly, never becoming didactic.

There is an element of magical realism to the book, even as it tries to show the superiority of reason over superstition. The book's narrator, and purported author is Isaak Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. There are interludes throughout the book in which Newton's magnum opus addresses the reader directly and discusses the lives, loves and literary accomplishments of other books and sometimes plays. You may be surprised to hear that Waiting for Godot is responsible for writing Microsoft's application documentation - or maybe not.

I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book!

The Last Witchfinder is about a spunky skeptic and natural scientist named Jennet Stearne. After her favorite aunt is executed for witchcraft, Jennet makes it her mission to disprove the idea of sorcery once and for all via scientific proof.

But disproving witchcraft is not a simple and scientific matter; every obstacle that Jennet runs into is because she is challenging the religious faith of her community. And people (particularly Puritans) are generally very unyielding when you cross their religion. The conflict set up is not exactly religion versus reason, but a willingness to learn and examine things versus stubbornly keeping your blinders on in the face of opposition. This level of fanaticism impedes honest science, so it's harmful to society and beneficial to nobody. Even after Jennet lays out a scientific disproof before a court:
"they'd understood nothing of what she'd meant by Nature's laws. Instead they'd found...a woman so impious and arrogant that she'd routinely attempted to make Heaven's fire submit to her will." ( )

An enjoyable historical yarn, with a good sense of humour and an underlying message or two. Jennet sees her beloved aunt a tutor burnt at the stake by her witchfinder father and vows to end the practice by persuading the public that their misfortunes are due to nature not magic.

While Morrow does not exactly wear his learning lightly, he never lets it interfere with the story whcih takes our heroine from England to North America with a somewhat pointless sojourn marooned in the Caribbean.

The melding of 17th century natural philosophy with an adventurous romp is similar to Neal Stephenson's Baroque trilogy but at several levels below that masterpiece. It is marred a little by padding and by the use of a frame. The latter device seems increasingly prevalent but rarely seems to be necessary and to me at least is annoying. ( )

(Amy) I'm going to stop asking, in these entries, why it takes me so long to get around to some books. Usually, the answer is "because I have a giant backlog of Stuff To Read". Sometimes, the answer is "because I'm an idiot". This time, it's a little of both, I think. I was less than fully enchanted with the last few Morrow books I read (despite having been totally blown away by the first few I encountered), and so I was really not in any hurry to bring this one to the top of my list.

Silly me.

The concept of this book is interesting in itself - which is to say, while it might be about the downfall of the profession of witchfinders, and have a contemporary woman as a protagonist, it is narrated by none other than Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. Yes, the book. And Morrow's ability to wow me with language is back (if indeed it was ever gone and was not just me being in a persnickety mood when I read those - I'll re-read and find out someday). Witness:

The precise metaphysical procedures by which a book goes about writing another book need not concern us here. Suffice it to say that our human scribes remain entirely ignorant of their possession by bibliographic forces; the agent in question never doubts that his authorship is authentic. A bit of literary history may clarify matters. Unlike Charles Dickens's other novels, Little Dorrit was in fact written by The Fairie Queene. It is fortunate that Jane Austen's reputation does not rest on Northanger Abbey, for the author of that admirable satire was Paradise Regained in a frivolous mood. The twentieth century offers abundant examples, from The Pilgrim's Progress cranking out Atlas Shrugged, to Les Miserables composing The Jungle, to The Memoirs of Casanova penning Portnoy's Complaint.

I was predisposed to like the book anyway purely for its setting, but with that paragraph, I fell headlong in love with the thing, and could hardly stop reading until it was done. Wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommended to fans of any of: Gorgeous prose, the late 1600s/early 1700s, witchhunt stories, Isaac Newton, natural philosophy, or, indeed, books in general.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... ) ( )

Very erudite. Too hard for me. Would suit people with more science/mathematics etc knowledge. ( )