Broom, Broom: Writing about Witches from the London Review of Books

LRB Collections #7

by Sam Kinchin-Smith (Series Editor), John Bayley (Contributor), Wendy Doniger (Contributor)

‘the witches eat your book
then you
then everything’
– Rebecca Tamás

Witches in history were usually poor, ill, weak and uneducated, yet they instilled fear in learned, highly placed men in churches and law courts, academies and council chambers. Witches in fairy tales are also poor, often old and ugly, yet they inspire delighted shivers of terror and a strong desire to emulate their witchy powers. The essays in this collection explores cases from Renaissance Germany to New England and South Africa as they puzzle over the contradictions of a desire to dismiss witches as foolish and deluded, while punishing them for the harm they are believed to be able to do: it’s a cruel paradox that the most dedicated believers in witchcraft were not the witches and their clients, but their persecutors. Throughout these rich essays, ‘never again’ whispers between the lines, but one can’t be sure.

Featuring: John Bayley, Wendy Doniger, Malcolm Gaskill, Jeremy Harding, Hilary Mantel, Rosalind Mitchinson, Rebecca Tamás, Robert Tashman, Lee Palmer Wandel, Marina Warner and Leslie Wilson.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The witch never really goes away, they always remaining lurking in the imagination. At least that is what is suggested by this collection of writings and reviews from the past couple of decades taken from the London Review of Books. It demonstrates the range and malleability the witch has in culture as the pieces cover a broad spectrum of issues and publications. It was a great collection to read through and encouraged me to pull a couple of forgotten books of my shelf to read again and to go on a (witch)hunt for a couple of new additions to the shelves.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short but dense collection of ten articles and one poem from the London Review of Books. The articles are mostly non-fiction book reviews, some more than ten pages long, and most of the reviewed books are histories of a particular "witch" or trial. For example, Hilary Mantel reviews Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches, which tells the story of England's last trial for witchcraft, which amazingly took place in 1944.

These are not the sort of reviews that would be popular if posted on Goodreads, since they tell the whole story of each book with no qualms about spoilers. But then this is non-fiction, and anyone seriously interested in the subject would probably still want to read the book. For me, however, this collection was enough, in a good way.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this if you want to understand the suppression of women’s rights.

[qiansustc · Rating 5 out of 5]

黑色星期五这天终于读完了writings about witches。盛行几百年的witch-hunt 代表了女性地位的崛起（因为在这之前女性连犯罪都不配），是资源匮乏的替罪羊，是贫困年代人们痛苦和愚昧的宣泄，甚至可以是在战火纷飞的年代给人们带来一丝慰藉的精神鸦片。在古早的岁月里，科学的发展其实和神学炼金术密切交织，原来聪明的人虽然领先了时代探索出了宇宙自然的奥秘，然而他们会虔诚的认为这完美的自然现象都是神创造的，他们只是恰好做了神的布道者，展示给众人，这一点还挺有意思的。书中有一篇文写的是开普勒的妈妈被指控是witch，遭受到了非人的折磨和逼供，开普勒通过搜集证据利用逻辑辩论帮妈妈推翻了指控，而并非他是一个无神论者。相反，他学的是神学，认为自己是神的Priest of the Book of Nature。是残暴的中世纪的欧洲是落后的18世纪的新英格兰是二十世纪里依旧愚昧的非洲，是一直都被压制的女性。

[Sofia Perseu]

the witches eat your book
then you
then everything

[Athina (booknotes_athina) · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an okay book.
A collection of essays all with the same theme, that of Witches and Witchcraft.