The Butcher's Daughter
A woman in Tudor England fends for herself after Henry VIII closes her abbey in this historical novel perfect for fans of Wolf Hall and Philippa Gregory.
In 1535, England is hardly a wellspring of gender equality; it is a grim and oppressive age where women?even the privileged few who can read and write?have little independence. In The Butcher's Daughter, it is this milieu that mandates Agnes Peppin, daughter of a simple country butcher, to leave her family home in disgrace and live out her days cloistered behind the walls of the Shaftesbury Abbey. But with her great intellect, she becomes the assistant to the Abbess and as a result integrates herself into the unstable royal landscape of King Henry VIII. As Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of her new life, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the Church. Religious houses are being formally subjugated, monasteries dissolved, and the great Abbey is no exception to the purge. The cosseted world in which Agnes has carved out for herself a sliver of liberty is shattered. Now, free at last to be the master of her own fate, she descends into a world she knows little about, using her wits and testing her moral convictions against her need to survive by any means necessary . . .
The Butcher's Daughter is the riveting story of a young woman facing head-on the obstacles carefully constructed against her sex. This dark and affecting novel by award-winning author Victoria Glendinning intricately depicts the lives of women in the sixteenth century in a world dominated by men.
"A fresh perspective [of the Tudor Era]. . . . Glendinning's research convincingly depicts the bustling and frequently ruthless world of Henry VIII's England." --Library Journal
"Psychologically astute . . . and evincing deep knowledge of Tudor-era society. Glendinning thoughtfully explores womanhood's many facets." --Booklist
"Unabashedly feminist . . . elegant, intelligent, compulsively entertaining. . . . [The Butcher's Daughter] demonstrates the power of individuals with inner strength and determination to work for change when able to choose a life of their own design." --Foreword Reviews (starred review)
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An immersive, engrossing, and epic journey of a woman's soul, finely researched and beautifully written.--Margaret George, author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII
An elegant, beautifully written ode to the resilience of the human spirit, and a poignant meditation on time and change. As lucent and intricately-detailed as a stained glass window.--Carol McGrath, author of The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy
A beguiling, affecting tale of dissolution and redemption set in a changing-and beautifully wrought-Tudor landscape. Gloriously authentic and refreshingly unromantic, this one got under my skin.--Jessie Childs, historian and award-winning author of Henry VIII's Last Victim and God's Traitors
A fresh perspective [of the Tudor Era] ... Glendinning's research convincingly depicts the bustling and frequently ruthless world of Henry VIII's England.
Psychologically astute ... and evincing deep knowledge of Tudor-era society. Glendinning thoughtfully explores womanhood's many facets.
Unabashedly feminist . . . elegant, intelligent, compulsively entertaining . . . [The Butcher's Daughter] demonstrates the power of individuals with inner strength and determination to work for change when able to choose a life of their own design.
Glendinning writes with a vivid immediacy about a fascinating, dark moment . . . This is the underside of Henry's religious Reformation... a refreshing and original tale.
Glendinning makes this tale exhilarating, lending Agnes a candid, eccentrically lyrical voice.
A richly textured chronicle . . . [with] well written with wonderfully rendered descriptions of place and period and an evocative mix of fiction and fact. The author has created an interesting and observant narrator whose actions and reflections are consistent with her circumstances and the period in which the story takes place. . . . In a world ruled by men cowed before a fickle tyrant, Agnes's decisions are not only pragmatic but authentic to her time and place which, after all, has to be the guiding principle for historically based fiction.
In this well-researched historical novel, a woman goes from dishonored farm girl to powerful nun in a prosperous abbey, and gets involved in palace intrigue against the backdrop of the reformation.
An absolute pleasure . . . assured, quietly gripping, surprising and educative, with a terrific central character, it pins down the precarious nature of life in 16th-century England.
