From Amazon.com
There is something seductive about cults--a fascination, a temptation into the lurid and unknown. In her fifth novel,
Mr. Wroe's Virgins, award-winning author Jane Rogers has delved into the history of one such sect. In northern England, amid the religious fervor of the 1830s, Mr. Wroe presents himself to the Christian Israelites as their prophet. Several accurate premonitions cement his authority, so when he informs his congregation that "the Lord has instructed me to take your number seven virgins for comfort and succour," they send their daughters without question. The story is told through four of the women, beginning with Leah, who sets out to win Prophet Wroe's favor and gain sole dominion over the household.
Once Leah arrives, her life as a "sister in God" consists of backbreaking domestic labor. While she fails to corner Wroe's earthly attentions, she is granted permission to bring her son secretly into the household. Focused both on wooing the Prophet and on her baby, she is unaware of the other "sisters": Hannah, the cynical one, may leave soon, and the pious Joanna suffers a wrenching sacrifice for the sake of her faith. As factions of the church grow skeptical of both Wroe's powers and his domestic situation, Leah suspects that the Prophet has taken another woman for his mistress. A sudden loss fuels her anger, and she begins to plot Wroe's exposure and ruin. When she makes her accusations public, no one is prepared for the truth.
Rogers's narratives are sparked with some exceptionally lyrical passages, as when Hannah describes the church music as "a sound so hauntingly plaintive a stone would melt to hear it." And Mr. Wroe's Virgins is particularly strong at evoking an era, weaving together the different social forces of the time into the context of this one uncommon household. --Joannie Kervran Stangeland
From Publishers Weekly
In 1830, as the end of the world approaches, the charismatic, hunchbacked prophet of a religious sect settled in Lancashire heeds the biblical injunction and chooses seven virgins "for comfort and succor." Basing her novel on the life of the real John Wroe, a leader of a group called the Christian Israelite church, Rogers (The Promised Land) crafts an impeccable narrative, interweaving the diverse mindsets of some of the chosen women and the prophet during nine months of complex interaction. Part morality tale, part history, packed with accurate details of early 19th-century life, the stories of Leah, Joanna, Hannah and Martha unfold as they cope with the hypocrisy, blind beliefs and idealism of the sexually threatening prophet. Three of the women have joined the sect out of sheer desperation, and Rogers superbly conveys the precarious economic situation for acolytes of this era. Leah, an unscrupulous street-smart beauty, is looking for security for herself and her hidden baby, and aims to marry Wroe. Hannah, a skeptical, independent-minded orphan whose father was active in political causes, has been donated to the prophet against her will by relatives dismissing their obligation to support her. Martha, grossly abused by her father, is scarcely able to talk, and acts more like a clumsy animal than a woman. Joanna alone truly has faith in the prophet. Told with humor, irony and a generosity that embraces even the sinister Wroe, this is a compelling story of astonishing depth, elucidating religious idealism, the beginnings of socialism and the ubiquitous position of women as unpaid laborers. Simple, exact prose catches the vernacular flavor of the period and the prismatic personalities of the characters as they lay themselves bare to the sins of the flesh, the tricks of religious pretense and society's stifling order. Rogers is a vivid and intelligent writer whose work deserves a wide audience here. (June) the U.K.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
