Matrix: A Novel
England, 1158, and young ‘Marie who comes from France’ rides through a cold, damp valley towards the royal abbey where she has been appointed prioress at Queen Eleanor’s behest. She feels no religious calling, only anger and yearning for what she has left behind; the abbey is rundown and impoverished, the nuns malnourished, and the coughing sickness has taken many lives. From this unpromising beginning, we follow Marie’s life as she moves from resentment to determination to protect those entrusted to her care. A capable administrator, she becomes abbess in her turn and skilled at fending off avaricious churchmen, tempted by her abbey’s growing wealth. Though she experiences strange visions, her religious views remain unconventional, even heretical. Like those of many mystics, actually.
Marie de France wrote in French during the late 12th century. What little is known of her life is drawn from scanty references and inferences drawn from her poetry. This allows Groff the freedom to construct her own story, but her choices are plausible, the picture of abbey life convincing: even Marie’s opposition to the patriarchal structure of church and society finds support in her writings. Groff’s Marie is a reformer, unwilling to submit to a system that oppresses her ‘daughters’, but astute enough to learn which strategies work best. These are dangerous times for open defiance, as the Albigensian Crusade demonstrated. There were other more immediate dangers too, and Groff provides many examples of how accidents, infections, and diseases cripple and kill, especially those weakened by hunger and harsh conditions.
This is an involving and stylistically impressive story: the writing style is skilful, characterization and setting vivid, dialogue entertaining; and Marie’s success at helping so many while struggling with her own personal challenges marks her as a true hero. Highly recommended.
