Geraldine Brooks
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks is set in a village in seventeenth-century England. The story unfolds in the first-person voice of Anna Frith, a young married woman and mother of two children. Anna works as a maid in the village manor and at the local vicarage. She loses her husband in a mining accident, and when the village is infested with the bubonic plague, she loses her two young children.
The plague ignites like wild fire in the village, taking an increasing number of villagers in its wake. Under the advice of the rector, Michael Mompellion, the village self-quarantines to avoid spreading the plague to neighboring areas. Anna and Elinor, the rector’s wife, then begin to educate themselves on natural medicinal herbs and traditional cures to minister to the sick and ease the pain of those in the throes of death.
The physical, emotional, and psychological impact of the plague is described in immersive detail. Some of the villagers become increasingly superstitious, resorting to talismans, self-flagellation, mob violence, and accusations of witchcraft in an eagerness to assign blame. Brooks contrasts those behaviors with the selfless acts of Anna and the Mompelllions. Through all her hardships, Anna perseveres. She grows in confidence as the novel progresses, becoming adept as a midwife and at identifying which herbs and plants remedy specific ailments.
Geraldine Brooks skillfully immerses the reader in detailed descriptions of the landscape, village customs, and the plague’s impact as villagers struggle to cope with an infestation they can neither understand nor obliterate. They look to their rector for guidance. Mompellion serves as the moral beacon for the community. His sermons are spoken with eloquence and passion. He eschews concern for his personal safety by rushing to the bedside of those dying from the plague to provide them with spiritual comfort. Anna sees him as an ideal, selfless individual whose concern is to provide spiritual edification and ensure the well-being of his parishioners. She admires both him and his wife, at times experiencing pangs of jealousy for the love and tenderness they express toward one another. And therein lies one of the major problems with the novel’s ending.
Brooks powerfully evokes a village in the grips of a fatal disease. With a rigorous eye for historic detail and in elegant prose, she depicts the deterioration of a community in despair. The novel works well until its unfortunate ending when it stretches plausibility beyond limits. We are surprised to learn that far from being the unselfish, compassionate human being portrayed throughout, Michael Mompellion reveals himself to be selfish, unforgiving, and cruel in his treatment of his wife. For her part, Anna escapes from the village to end up in—of all places—a harem where she learns Arabic and develops her skills as a healer.
This highly improbable ending with the vicar’s out-of-character revelation in the closing pages of the novel, an ill-conceived romance, a breath-taking escape, and Anna’s final destination all detract from what would otherwise have been a good historical novel.