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Oct 22, 2007

Sarah rated it:

i cannot believe so many people loved this book. this book is awful.

the dialogue is stilted (its so obvious that the author found a book about 17th century slang and then used those words as many times as possible...bleh) and the plot bends credulity past its breaking point several times over. While the names and dates might be historically accurate, the characters motivations and personalities are totally anachronistic, like when the minister scolds isobel for keeping servants(!). More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2011

Jesse rated it:

Tee-hee. When people do these fake 18th-century novels right, they're ever so much fun. As in here: our heroine fights for rationality against intolerant witchfinders and ministers, gets captured by natives, beds a randy young Ben Franklin (if you can pull off a creditable sex scene featuring him, that's definitely a feather in your cap), meets Isaac Newton (an end-of-career obsessive about biblical prophecy), gets captured by pirates (there's a great little island interlude where escaped slaves More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2010

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

This one took what seemed like forever to read (but since it spans the onset of the Enlightenment through to today, that's perhaps to be expected). I dipped in here and there, reading a section--a chapter--an hourglass at a time (if you've read it, that will make sense). The black humour, the delightfully anachronistic voice, the historical characterizations...I found it all utterly charming and compelling and altogether unique.

It's tempting to draw comparisons to Vonnegut and Tom Ro More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

Jason rated it:

i usually make it a habit to finish a book even if i don't like it...
i started reading this book last night and i'm already having trouble with it...not because i don't like it, it's actually really good and i'm really enjoying the premise...the story is being told from the point of view of isaac newton's 'principia mathematica'...a book writing a book...morrow goes on very intriguingly about how, in essence, all books are written by other books, so this is really not all that remarkable a More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Tracey rated it:

<I<Previously read July 2006 - KHCPL - since purchased my own copy</I>
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Recommended by AuntiePam - also fan of author

Jennet Stearne, the main character of the novel, is a stubborn, inquisitive natural philosopher - not the most appropriate profession for a woman in the early 1700's. A loss early in her life makes her determined to disprove witchcraft with science in order to save lives.

Her adventures take her from England to America, from More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2011

Hannah added it

Crap.
(Not even crap-tastic)
Just crap.

Couldn't finish this one.
Don't care what happens.
Don't care what I missed.

Waste of good paper.
Waste of my time.

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Vilja rated it:

I'm not even half-way in, but so far I think this book is gripping, entertaining, not too dumb (misuse of the word pederast notwithstanding) and altogether most pleasing. It's not even over-gruesome yet, despite the subject matter. It being written by Newton's 'Principia' is a bit of a tricksy approach, but it gives us tongue-in-cheek passages outside the story which are just as much fun to read as Jennet's adventures. I shall be interested to see if I change my opinion as it goes along.

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Alicia rated it:

Telling the story of Jennet Stearne is a scientific treatise written in Latin, Sir Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica." As the story opens Jennet is studying science and philosophy with her beloved aunt. Her father is a noted witchfinder. Tragedy strikes when her aunt is accused of witchcraft and her father's zeal for his profession leads him to have her burned at the stake. Jennet spends the rest of her life trying to scientifically prove that demons do not e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

Barbara rated it:

What a stupid book! I don't like the word stupid but no other word comes close so I'm stuck with it. It's totally unbelievable, filled with historically uncorrect atitudes and behaviour. For some reason I wanted to know what happened to everyone. I also liked the idea of a book telling the story even though the book wars was an idea that should either have been abonded or have been explored differently. That's why I gave this book 2 stars, but really I wanted to give it one star. If you want to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2007

Meg rated it:

I did not enjoy this book. The plot, especially the bits irrelevant to the main goal of disproving witchcraft and overthrowing the persecution of supposed witches, required not so much a suspension of disbelief as a complete trouncing of it. Yet as bad as the content was, the writing was even worse. The similes, metaphors, and descriptors used were absolutely ridiculous! I've never read anything else by James Morrow (and after this, I never will), so I don't know if he always writes in this More...

0 comments like

Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

As an intriguing premise, the story is written and narrated at times by a book--Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, whose "father"--author--was, of course, Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists of all times. In a truly hilarious first chapter, the book describes its origins, discourses on its "father"--and sets the stage for the theme of the story--the battle between reason and illogic against the backdrop of late 17th century/early 18th century witch h More...

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Feb 12, 2009

Toni rated it:

Jennet Stearne is left in the care her aunt Isobel Mowbray while her father the Witchfinder of Mercia and East Anglia roams the countryside in search of heretics. Isobel a Philosopher and a teacher tries to rationalise the art of Witchfinding but her inquiries soon attract attention. She is found guilty of witchcraft and is burned at the stake.

Witnessing the unjust and horrifying execution of her beloved aunt, Jennet devotes her life to overturning the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. J More...

0 comments like

Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

The Last Witchfinder proves to be an entertaining inquiry into a pivotal moment in 17th-century English and American history. After Morrow's Godhead Trilogy (Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and The Eternal Footman) chronicled the difficult task of putting the great deity to rest, enlisting Newton's treatise as a narrator seems like child's play. The author labored nine years on The Last Witchfinder,and critics agree that it was time well spent. Navigating the very narrow path through schol

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Mar 26, 2011

Robyn rated it:

It has been on very few occasions that I have read a novel that has the moral strength, the mental challenge and the entertainment value that this book held for me. I am in awe. While the story captivated me at every turn, Morrow kept me delighted with the witty observations put forth by the book's true author, the Principia Mathematica. While I was absorbed in the historical grounding of the setting, I was empathizing with and admiring Jennet.
I cannot think of a single thing that this book More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2012

Perrie rated it:

A book about the power of books, narrated by ...a book. A story of scientific reason vs religious fanaticism of the worst sort. How could I NOT read this?? The heroine is the daughter of a Witchfinder or "Pricker" as they were called who condemned many innocent men and women to death in England and then America in the mid- to late 1700s. When her beloved Aunt is burned at the stake for her scientific experiments, Jennet is determined to overturn the Witchcraft Act using Newtonian princ More...

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Mar 25, 2010

Kate rated it:

If someone had told me that I would be reading a book in which the heroine is an Enlightenment natural philosopher, daughter and brother to witchfinders, witness to the Salem witch trials, a member of an Indian tribe, beloved of a young Ben Franklin, one of two people who knows the coordinates of an island on which escaped slaves debate the merits of government, and the personified end to witch hunting, I would have cocked an eyebrow. If that someone had then breathlessly explained that the book More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Krista rated it:

I really, really wanted to love this book, but the structure of the narrative made it a bit to cumbersome. The book is narrated by a book, "Principia Mathematica", written many years ago by Isaac Newton. The book attempts to detail how a woman, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, using Newton's treatise, attempts to get the English crown to repeal the witchcraft act and put an end to the unnecessary slaughters of many people during that era. Although I really enjoyed the stor More...

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Oct 18, 2010

Carol rated it:

I confess about 15% of this book went whizzing over and beyond my head, but I rather enjoyed the sound of flapping wings as it went; probably because I just didn't worry about it and frankly didn't care. The majority landed on the mark and I'm happy with that.

The weirdest thing about this book is that the narrator is another book that likes to interrupt the main story now and again to give his two cents on the on-going battle between reason (science) and superstition (religion). T More...

0 comments like

Oct 30, 2011

Kam rated it:

Looking back at the order of books that I have read thus far, I wonder to myself why I did not choose to pick this book up immediately after I finished reading Jonathan Kirsch's The Grand Inquisitor's Manual, a nonfictional account of the Inquisition. Now that I think about it, though, it was a good idea that I didn't go straight from Kirsch's work to Morrow's. The intellectual current started by The Grand Inquisitor's Manual would likely have prevented me from seeing and appreciating The Last W More...

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Sep 25, 2010

Mike rated it:

Jennet Stearnes is a young woman ahead of her time. Although she's the daughter of a witchfinder in England, she is fortunate to have an Aunt Isobel Mowbray who is a "natural philosopher." She tutors Jennet in science, mathematics, and philosophy. She also provides young Jennet with her treatise, "A Woman's Garden of Pleasure and Pain," which will greatly enrich Jennet's life for many years. When Jennet's father unwisely puts a member of English gentry to the torch for wi More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2010

Leah rated it:

It has NEVER taken me 3 weeks to read 240 pages of a book.

This book was too wordy. (I had to sit with a dictionary for some of the words.) The initial premise was good, and I did wonder how it all was to turn out...

HOWEVER, by the 230th page (of 400 +) I found Jennet's, the main character, life so preposterous, I just couldn't read any more. Jennet was born the child of one of England's last "witchfinders." Mom died in the birth of her brother. She educated e More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 18, 2009

Marvin rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Sep 08, 2009

Annette rated it:

So far so good, although it's taking me a long time to read as it's regular fiction. I struggle with books that aren't fantasy. The book alternates between telling the story and talking about the story through the book's eyes. The book talks to you as the reader and tells about it's life, how Isaac Newton wrote him, and how much it hates the things that are happening in the story.

At one point the book goes on a 2 page rant about how it detested how the town officials of Salem put on More...

0 comments like

Nov 04, 2010

Djrmel rated it:

A book narrated by another book. That threw me off at first, as the narrating books own voice is a little on the stodgy side. But it would be, thatbook is over 300 years old. But it turns out that Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a natural born story teller, and as the story of Jennet Stearne's journey from student to world changing author progresses, so does the narrator's side story move along, slyly pointing out how books have changed the world. Jennet's family's bu More...

0 comments like

Sep 29, 2010

Katie rated it:

I have numerous issues with this book. The storyline is unbelieveable, repetetive and static. The characters are unsympathetic, including the heroine who seems callous and selfish. The concept that this story is told by a book, while amusing, adds nothing to the narrative.

While Jennet is the one central character, she didn’t really have a distinct voice. The same was true for most of the characters; while there were obvious differences between those who championed science and rat More...

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Apr 13, 2009

Lolly LKH rated it:

Seems I have been on a religious ficitonal bend, by chance. This is a scary novel because events that take place in this 'fictional' book aren't far from actual history. Thinking about the time when many inocents were burned as heretics often doesn't reach us to the core, because we have not witnessed such horror (sure we have our modern day forms of witchfinding I suppose) but to envision through text the horrid fact that someone could have their own family member, etc burned at the stake and w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Tina rated it:

Jennet Stearne is now one of my all-time favourite literary characters. The device of giving Newtons Principia a character and voice, through which the Age of Reason is defined, was a unique stroke which grounded the story in reality. Ms Stearne, rare enough as a devotee of Reason and Science, and rarer still as a female character of the time period to do so, is wonderful. Stubborn, irascible, flawed and highly principled, her fight to rid Britain, and later the US, of the doctrine in law and More...

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Feb 14, 2009

Lora rated it:

I'm on my third try at this book since I got it for Christmas 2007. Looks like I'll probably finish it this time, but I must say the plot meanders quite a bit. I also think Morrow's attempt at period language fails. Come on, would Puritans really go around uttering casual blasphemies like 'Steeth, 'Sblood and such? He forgets what a big deal irreverent speech would have been in their context. That a witchfinder would talk that way seems even more incongruous.

It's entertaining, I'l More...

0 comments like

May 04, 2010

M.K. rated it:

I really enjoyed The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. I purchased this book on a whim, as I've never read anything by Morrow before. It turns out this is quite an oversight on my part, as he is an extremely well-regarded writer of science fiction and fantasy. After reading this book, I went out and immediately purchased Towing Jehovah and The Philosopher's Apprentice, both of which I'll review later.

I particularly enjoyed the historical millieu of this book, and the loving attentio More...

0 comments like

Nov 22, 2009

Lord rated it:

I really gave this book a chance. I abandoned it at page 271. With such a passionate story to be told, I couldn't care less about the characters or what happened next. I'm someone who's quite interested in the witch persecutions in early American history as well as during the English Civil War, and I've read quite a few books on this matter. I'm far from an expert, but there are so many over-the-top historical inaccuracies in this (and not for the sake of plot, but because it's incredibly off th More...

1 comment like

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