Corrag

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However, her warnings to the clan fell on deaf ears and she awoke on the morning of the 13th February 1692 to discover the devastation that had been wrought by the government soldiers: houses burnt to the ground, families fled to the hills, and MacIain himself – the Chief of the MacDonalds - murdered as he rose from his bed. I’ve had it with the hairs on my arms standing up, at the sound of a clan singing a fireside song, or with my eyes filling with tears at a simple, lovely sight.

It is the story of a young tiny female fairy, a witch, a healer, a lover of nature, an angel, so pure, so sweet, so giving, so loving, so unentitled that even a tiny wave of the hand, any small token of thanks, any crumb of affection is greatly appreciated.Corrag was a nasty, dirty creature in chains in a dark and dank prison cell, and Reverend Leslie was a pious, self satisfied jerk. If I hadn’t read this book, I would never have imagined that there was still persecution of witches in late 17th century Great Britain, the practice of which was only banned from 1735 with the introduction of the Witchcraft Act. Fletcher has a remarkable talent with words…her approach to the world is side-on, not direct; she is attuned to the ambiguities, the spaces, the gaps left in language, the things that are not spoken; she imbues inanimate objects with a life of their own, a history and a personality and a voice.

The structure of the novel is such that the first-person narrator flips between the “witch” telling her story and the reverend writing to his wife. He's not even a necessary character but through letters home to his wife the reader sees how he goes from being disgusted by Corrag's charge of witchcraft and filthy appearance, afraid of catching her lice, to seeing her as a human being. Corrag herself is a consummately drawn character, a half-feral scrap of a thing with tangled hair and a great tenderness for all living creatures. The reader then must determine to look at the natural world with a fresh, new perspective to see its masterpiece.What follows is a story that is amazing, mesmerizing, filled with many burdens and hardships, yet also filled with incredible light and beauty. After a life spent wandering and being feared by others, she has finally found a place and a people that accept her and to which she grows deeply attached.

This passage leads me to be predisposed to like Corrag and believe she is good before I know any of her story. Corrag had the ability to warm the hearts of those around her with her outlook on life and her thoughts on nature.For Corrag, words are as important as places and, throughout the novel, several words, "witch" among them, are weighted with particular significance. La historia empieza cuando un reverendo Jacobita va a ver a la encarcelada Corrag, llamada bruja de las Highlands, que está condenada a morir en la hoguera. The MacDonald clan was especially notorious for thieving cattle, hens, coins, and leather so the soldiers wished to destroy them.

It took my breath away - a remarkable work of historical fiction that reminded me very much of Mary Stewart's Arthurian saga. The novel alternates between Corrag’s voice and Charles Leslie’s point of view which is cleverly related to us by a series of lovely letters written by him to his wife back home.A man of compassionate faith, Reverend Charles Leslie is initially repelled by Corrag and, as are the majority of persons, he instantly assumes she is guilty of all charges and worthy of her fate. Corrag lays her heart out on the table as she slowly and purposely tells him everything about her lonesome life. Oh, but Corrag is a very memorable character, finely drawn (for some reason I see her sketched in detail in pencil), drawn into a story that once it takes off, soars like a bird over glen and brae. They both tell her story - thus move the plot along more - but are also composed of inner thoughts and immensely rich in feeling and tone. Both sections are equally powerful in the way they reveal the inner thoughts, values, and personal struggles of both Corrag and Charles.