The Man on a Donkey

by Hilda F. M. Prescott

Paperback, 1969

Status

Available

Call number

823.912

Collection

Publication

Penguin Books (1969), Edition: New Ed, 784 pages

Description

'A classic of historical fiction' HILARY MANTEL. 'By widespread assent, one of the finest historical novels ever written. It may even be the finest' TLS. Sir John Uvedale had business at Coverham Abbey in Wensleydale, lately suppressed, so he sent his people on before him to Marrick, to make ready for him, and to take over possession of the Priory of St. Andrew from the Nuns, who should all be gone by noon or thereabouts. In 1536, Henry VIII was almost toppled when Northern England rose to oppose the Dissolution of the Monasteries. An enthralling novel about a moment in history when England's Catholic heritage was scattered to the four winds by a powerful and arrogant king.

Media reviews

The novel is written in the form of a chronicle of the five main characters, and leans heavily on the trial documents of the Pilgrimage of Grace, many of which are used verbatim. The result is a book in 16th-century English which takes 100 pages or so to get used to. It is a startling piece of
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work, which reads – miraculously – as though compiled just a few years after the events. The chronicle form – which is the opposite of history writing insofar as neither causes nor consequences are inquired into – feels a perfect vehicle for the slow unfolding of those times. Prescott knew what she was up to, explaining in an author’s note that she hoped “to introduce the reader into a world, rather than at first to present him with a narrative. In that world he must for a while move like a stranger, as in real life picking up, from seemingly trifling episodes, understanding of those about him, and learning to know them without knowing that he learns. Only later, when the characters should by this means have become familiar, does the theme of the whole book emerge.”
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User reviews

LibraryThing member dianelouise100
H. F. M. Prescott’s Man on a Donkey must surely be one of the finest historical novels ever written. Its subject is the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion (1536-1537) of England’s northern Catholics against the harshly imposed reforms of Henry VIII to the power structure and observances of the
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Church in England.

Prescott calls her story a chronicle, and she tells it in chronicle-like fashion. Historical figures people its pages, among them, Henry VIII and his first three queens, Princess Mary, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, the Duke of Norfolk, and members of the Percy family. The story progresses by dated entries through the first three decades of the 16th century, keeping its focus on its main characters. They are the ordinary folk of their day trying to determine how best to respond to the deeply significant changes thrust upon them; “the Chronicle is mainly of five:—of Christabel Cowper, Prioress; Thomas, Lord Darcy; Julian Savage, Gentlewoman; Robert Aske, squire; Gilbert Dawe, Priest....There is also Malle, the Serving-woman.”

Told in beautiful language that skillfully evokes the spirit of a medieval chronicle, The Man on a Donkey is not a book to read quickly. It moves at a slow pace, though its central events are momentous. It absorbs the reader into its atmosphere of struggle, physical, mental, and spiritual. It raises for its characters (and for its readers!) such questions as how to live with integrity in a world filled with injustice. How to find within oneself the courage to follow one’s conscience, knowing the risk involved. How to maintain one’s faith in a time so filled with despair.

Violence, cruelty, betrayal, greed, tyranny are present everywhere in this novel; but so also are gentleness, compassion, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and love. I think anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially fiction set in Tudor times, would enjoy it.
5 stars
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LibraryThing member elahrairah
I started this with a bang but fizzled out. The prose is beautiful and evocative but the action moves so very slowly that I found myself struggling to engage. There's a load of character who don't yet have a role in the narrative but we are given glimpses into their lives and thoughts that are
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pleasant but confusing. Who are these people and why are they here? I know that it will all come together later but I've gradually stopped caring! Maybe I'll take it on holiday sometime and give it a bash then but for now its lost momentum.
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Awards

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1952

Physical description

784 p.

ISBN

014002963X / 9780140029635
Page: 0.4761 seconds