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159th out of 602 books
—
709 voters
Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman
by
Ann Baer
Ann Baer has produced a sensitive, knowledgeable month-by-month account of the hardships suffered by Marion and Peter Carpenter, set from March through the following February of one year of their struggle for existence in Medieval England.... Ann Baer has given the world an immeasurable gift with the writing of Down the Common. Her attention to detail paints a crystal clea...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
September 9th 1998
by M. Evans and Company
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The title sums up the book. Starting with March, a slice of daily life for Marion Carpenter is given from month to month for a year.
The manor in the book is not some grand holding. It seems like it's just a very large farm. It's also difficult to determine exactly in what year the story is set. The author doesn't give you much more than what Marion herself would have known or understood and it's apparently a VERY remote little village.
Still, it's the details of her everyday life that pull me to...more
The manor in the book is not some grand holding. It seems like it's just a very large farm. It's also difficult to determine exactly in what year the story is set. The author doesn't give you much more than what Marion herself would have known or understood and it's apparently a VERY remote little village.
Still, it's the details of her everyday life that pull me to...more
A diary well, no, not really, but this novel of a woman and her family in the Middle Ages has that feel. Each chapter is an account of a day in the life of Marion, and the twelve chapters take her through a year. There is not much plot in the chapters; I hesitate to call them short stories, but the joys and sorrows and harshness of their lives come through loud and clear. This is a very human novel. Marion's husband is the village carpenter, and their two children are Alice, a toddler, and Peter...more
All too often, our glimpses into the past are all about the movers and shakers of the time. That is only to be expected since they were the people who shaped their times. However, whatever the age, there were always common people who lived and died along side them, usually without any notice given to them. This book changes that. It is a chronicle of a year in the life of a common woman and her fmily. The year is not explicitly given, neither is the location. All the better to tell the story of...more
Ann Baer writes a terrific and sensitive book about the life of a serf in England during medieval times. Using one day each month for a year, she almost diaries Maggie's life. We get an honest picture of the daily struggle to survive for that era. Both heart wrenching and joyous, we get to know her friends, family and contemporaries. Totally from her viewpoint, we watch her deal with sorrow , adjust and then oddly enough grow to notice things that will be passed onto the next generation. I wish...more
The author has a real talent for details that put you in the scene, make it seem real. That's the good part of the book.
On the other hand, there's no plot and nothing happened. There's charactors are static and they don't seem to interact or effect each other at all: it's all just told to you through the lackluster main charactor. It's all static description.
And Marion exists in limbo. I think that in order to make Marion an Everywoman, the author had to strip her of all location, all culture,...more
On the other hand, there's no plot and nothing happened. There's charactors are static and they don't seem to interact or effect each other at all: it's all just told to you through the lackluster main charactor. It's all static description.
And Marion exists in limbo. I think that in order to make Marion an Everywoman, the author had to strip her of all location, all culture,...more
This book is simply amazing. It is an account of everyday life in a medieval village through the eyes of an ordinary woman who is married to the village carpenter. There are no battles, no kings and queens, no pilgrimages or Crusades. In fact, not a lot happens in this novel. The narrator never even tells us what year the story is set in and the events are just everyday happenings in a medieval village. The book is split up into months and is more of a diary about village life than anything else...more
Ok, this is NOT the best book ever written. In fact it is pretty simplistic. However it is the 1st historical fiction book I've ever read - and I read LOTS of them to talk about what the life a common everyday womand was like.
Marion is not a beautiful woman, I'm guessing her age at somewhere between 20-30 (her 1st child had lived to be 12). She has no one to dress her or put her hair up or make her food... The wife of a carpenter still puts her pretty high up on the food chain, but what she goe...more
Marion is not a beautiful woman, I'm guessing her age at somewhere between 20-30 (her 1st child had lived to be 12). She has no one to dress her or put her hair up or make her food... The wife of a carpenter still puts her pretty high up on the food chain, but what she goe...more
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I found this book fascinating; not a whole lot happens in terms of plot, but it was so interesting to read what life might have been like for a Medieval woman. Everything from parenting, to food, to work, to the homes they lived in...it's incredible to get some idea of how different life was. Really made me glad to live in the 21st century, that's for sure!
I know people feel that not much happens in this book, but lives in those days were pretty basic. I found it a fascinating glimpse into the past. Small things would have been a much bigger deal then than now. Remember travel was well nigh impossible, especially for the poor. There was little or no entertainment. So it is interesting to see the way life may have been lived. I enjoyed it.
Absolutely fascinating story of the life of a woman and her family during one year in a medieval village. I learned alot about medieval life-what it felt like to live in those times..the disease without meds, the lack of comforts that we have, and the heart wrenching but common loss of life in the young.
This was another good book that I enjoyed reading. The details of daily life for this woman are clear, concise and fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed the struggle of living in the medieval period. I was almost sad when I finished reading it.
Wow! This book makes the life of a woman in medieval times so real and immediate. I felt the cold, smelled the stench, saw the squalor and the splendor and caught a glimpse of the heart and soul of this woman living her "simple" life.
I loved this book. It gave a great perspective on hard life was in the Middle Ages. I have a newfound appreciation for soap, hot water and owning more than one set of clothes!
Aggie Lewis recommended this book to me. I don't know that I ever would have found it or chosen to read it on my own, but it was absolutely fascinating!
A good story of life for a woman in the medieval times. This was another re-read. I wanted to revisit the people in this story.
really interesting perspective, makes you appreciate your modern conveniences, like having a bathroom and more than one bowl.
This is one of my favorite historical novels. Baer perfectly captures the tone of ordinary life in medieval England.
I’m not rating this because I didn’t read enough of it to make a good judgments – I just couldn’t get into it. There is such a thing as too much realism.
I really was not a fan of this book. I read it only halfway through! The thing is: it was an assignment for a class and that's in fact the only reason I picked up this book. I will give it this, once you start readding it its not half bad but it just does not particualely rank high on my favorites.
HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2003
I read this book years ago but really enjoyed it and still recommend it to anyone who likes to read about the medieval era. You learn a lot of about the little details of life that history books don't tell you and you get it in a more interesting fiction novel than a dry history format. It is not an exciting story but I was absorbed by all the details of what it might actually be like to live during this time period.
Full of interesting details. I'm certain there are books with far more detail and historical accuracy, but this was a fairly enjoyable way to learn about the time.
This truly brings history to life. I was fascinated by the day to day existence of a medieval woman. By the end of this novel, I felt as if I had been through the year with her and felt grateful for being born in the twentieth century. Even though it is fiction, it brought affirms that people have had the same feelings, frustrations, and hopes no matter when they lived.
Jun 17, 2008
Trix
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in the middle ages or the lives of women in any age
Recommended to Trix by:
Bas Bleu book catalogue
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
fiction
Down the Common is the best piece of historical fiction I have ever read. It's about ordinary people in a remote village in medieval England. Forget about the fantasy Middle Ages and plan to meet real people in a realistic setting. A reader can learn more about the period from this book than from all scholarly tomes about this subject put together.
I liked this book as it gave an interesting account of everyday life, with everyday issues for the medieval family from a woman's perspective. Written almost like a diary, it doesn't have a page-turning storyline, but instead grabs the reader in the wonders and disappointments of common occurances.
This was soooo interesting. Not all that much has changed in eight hundred years in a woman's life.
A very dry read with no plot. Each chapter represents a month in Marion's life. There were parts that I found fascinating and others that I had to skip over. After a while, I found that I was skipping over more than I was reading, so I put the book down.
Can't believe how much I loved this one but it was exactly the kind of book I enjoy. Nothing amazing happens, just the interesting details of how someone from a different time/place lives their life. I wish it had been longer.
Jan 20, 2008
Sarah
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
history lovers
Recommended to Sarah by:
a teacher
I had to read this for medival history in college and I ended up loving it. I read it all at once and wanted to own it as well. If you enjoy historical fiction this ones for you. So accurate and well research.
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Mar 31, 2013 07:32am