Down The Common: A Year In The Life Of A Medieval Woman

Month by month, as if in stanzas, Ann Baer composes a plainsong in celebration of the daily life of one woman in the world of Medieval England. Hunger, cold, brutal back-breaking work and worry fail to blind Marion, the carpenter's wife, to the magic all around her - the clean and holy smell of an empty church, a surprising aquamarine sky on a cold day, the firelight filling the dark Manor hall at the Christmas Feast, a splash of honey in which the color of the sun is trapped. Gifted with seeing beauty, Marion, like generations of women before and after, becomes her village's salvation because she gratefully receives the bounty, good and bad, of the world in which she lives. In this beautiful, evocative novel Marion is everywoman: steadfast survivor, gentle accommodator, strong and flexible reed. She defines and celebrates Woman, then as now, as the heart of the community.