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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
This historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the 'Plague Village,' in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, a tainted bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent the spread of disease. The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in the village's desperate fight to save itself. (Source: Trove)
Notes
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Selected for the 2003 Books Alive promotion.
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Dedication: For Tony. Without you, I never would have gone there.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording and large print.
Works about this Work
-
y
Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders
Cheltenham
:
Insight Publications
,
2016
10102276
2016
single work
criticism
-
Find the Cherry on Top of VCE Texts
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 14 April 2012; (p. 32) Jane Sullivan reports on three online commentaries dealing with Geraldine Brooks's Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. Sullivan notes the use of these commentaries for VCE students studying the novel as a set text in secondary school. -
Magwitch Madness : Archive Fever and the Teaching of Australian Literature in Subject English
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 129-152) '...Magwitch madness...has been inspired by Derrida's notion of 'archive fever' - the 'compulsive, repetitive and nostalgic desire for the archive, an irrepressible desire to return to the origin' (Derrida, 1998, p. 9). Like the convict Magwitch in Charles Dickens's novel, who is relocated to Australia, but remains imaginatively and materially linked to the centre of the Empire through his patronage of the boy Philip Pirrip (Pip), contemporary manifestations of Magwitch madness, whether they be in curriculum documents, media debates, text selection or pedagogical practices, are distinguished by a nostalgia for classic texts...and metaphorical and virtual proximity to the cultural capital that these classic works represent. ...
In this chapter, I will examine some contemporary manifestation of Magwitch madness in Some Australasian texts set for study in senior English. Thorough this analysis, I will pursue the connection between these texts and a more systemic manifestation of this condition in the recent debate around the teaching of Australian literature and in the Australian Curriculum: English. In the final section of this chapter, I will explore the implications of Magwitch madness for classroom practice, by drawing on data collected in four diverse Victorian secondary schools in 2010 as part of the project National Stories: Teaching Australian Literature in Secondary English. Through the examination of these various and inter-connected expressions of antipodean archive fever in text, curriculum and practice, this chapter will map some of the complexities and challenges of teaching Australian literature in twenty-first century classrooms.' (From author's introduction, 130, 131-132)
-
y
Year of Wonders : Geraldine Brooks
Carlton South
:
NEAP
,
2009
8197095
2009
single work
criticism
-
Hearing Voices
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Summer no. 26 2009; The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 November 2009; (p. 12-13) Geraldine Brooks reveals: 'I get many of my best ideas in graveyards. The idea for my very first novel - the story that tipped me off the ledge of factual journalism into the free fall of fiction - came from my habit of communing with the dead'. Brooks goes on to discuss the gravestone inscription in the village of Eyam that gave rise to her award-winning novel Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague.
-
Back in a Hotspot
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 15 February 2003; (p. 7)
— Review of Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague 2001 single work novel -
Pertinent Story
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Dotlit : The Online Journal of Creative Writing , August vol. 4 no. 1 2003;
— Review of Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague 2001 single work novel -
Swept Along at a Fever Pitch
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 August 2001; (p. 8)
— Review of Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague 2001 single work novel -
Servant's View of Pestilential Era
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 August 2001; (p. 4)
— Review of Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague 2001 single work novel -
Bubonic Women
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 4 September vol. 119 no. 6290 2001; (p. 70-71)
— Review of Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague 2001 single work novel -
Catch to $5 Cheapie For Bookbuyers
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 March 2003; (p. 7) -
Relying on the Kindness of Strangers
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30 April-1 May 2005; (p. 20) A column canvassing current literary news. -
A Sense of Discarded Gifts
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , February vol. 3 no. 1 2008; (p. 3-5) -
Hearing Voices
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Summer no. 26 2009; The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 November 2009; (p. 12-13) Geraldine Brooks reveals: 'I get many of my best ideas in graveyards. The idea for my very first novel - the story that tipped me off the ledge of factual journalism into the free fall of fiction - came from my habit of communing with the dead'. Brooks goes on to discuss the gravestone inscription in the village of Eyam that gave rise to her award-winning novel Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. -
Magwitch Madness : Archive Fever and the Teaching of Australian Literature in Subject English
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 129-152) '...Magwitch madness...has been inspired by Derrida's notion of 'archive fever' - the 'compulsive, repetitive and nostalgic desire for the archive, an irrepressible desire to return to the origin' (Derrida, 1998, p. 9). Like the convict Magwitch in Charles Dickens's novel, who is relocated to Australia, but remains imaginatively and materially linked to the centre of the Empire through his patronage of the boy Philip Pirrip (Pip), contemporary manifestations of Magwitch madness, whether they be in curriculum documents, media debates, text selection or pedagogical practices, are distinguished by a nostalgia for classic texts...and metaphorical and virtual proximity to the cultural capital that these classic works represent. ...
In this chapter, I will examine some contemporary manifestation of Magwitch madness in Some Australasian texts set for study in senior English. Thorough this analysis, I will pursue the connection between these texts and a more systemic manifestation of this condition in the recent debate around the teaching of Australian literature and in the Australian Curriculum: English. In the final section of this chapter, I will explore the implications of Magwitch madness for classroom practice, by drawing on data collected in four diverse Victorian secondary schools in 2010 as part of the project National Stories: Teaching Australian Literature in Secondary English. Through the examination of these various and inter-connected expressions of antipodean archive fever in text, curriculum and practice, this chapter will map some of the complexities and challenges of teaching Australian literature in twenty-first century classrooms.' (From author's introduction, 130, 131-132)
Awards
- 2010 shortlisted Australian Book Review Fan Poll
- 2001 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards — Booksellers Choice Award
Last amended 6 Jul 2021 14:32:20
Settings:
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Eyam,
Derbyshire,
cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
-
cAlgeria,cNorth Africa, Africa,
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