Knowledge of Angels

by Jill Paton Walsh

Book Overview

It is, perhaps, the fifteenth century and the ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island is about to be shattered by the appearance of two outsiders: one, a castaway, plucked from the sea by fishermen, whose beliefs represent a challenge to the established order; the other, a child abandoned by her mother and suckled by wolves, who knows nothing of the precarious relationship between Church and State but whose innocence will become the subject...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552997803
• ISBN13: 9780552997805
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Tour de Force

This book cries out for a different rating system - perhaps a 1-10 scale. Even then one would have to reward an "11" for this magnificent tome. I could not find a single flaw in the entire reading - character development and portrayal was realistic yet unforgettable, the setting mesmerizing (one is instantly transported back to the time of the Inquisition and the faith-filled, simple lives of the city dwellers) and the plot was perfect. I have read criticism that the tale was not realistic or made suppositions and assumptions that are not exactly correct in the historical sense. But what one should remember is that this tale is an allegory, not a documentary. The fictional city is in Spain and the Inquisition is at its high point when a stranger appears. He is intelligent, interesting, and friendly but an unbeliever. He tells of a land in which belief is arbitrary and where one can change their religion - or choose to have no religion at all. This is too much for Church officials for in their eyes murder, torture and lying can be forgiven but also blessed. A trial of sorts is proposed. Now we have the second story and the joy is how the two are seemlessly weaved into one arc. A child found among the wolves is being raised by nuns. She is not to be given any religious instruction and if she comes to a belief in a Supreme Being the visitor will be found guilty, otherwise he will be judged to be innocent. The battle is not between atheist and believer. It is a civil war between two schools of thought within Catholicism - the plain folk and their local leaders and a grand inquisitor who employs "unusual" methods for "protecting the faith". The wolf-girl finally is made to make a statement that can be interpreted as belief and Palindo, the visitor, is tortured to confession. When he refuses to follow this up with another confession (which would then validate the previous "confession") he is sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. A lowly follower trades all her material goods for a balm that will bring instant death upon being heated. The aftermath is a short but appealing denouement. The bishop's assistant announces he cannot believe in a God that seeks obedience through torture. The wolf-girl returns to her solitary mountain home but not before catching a glimpse of a vast naval armada from the foreign land streaming toward the city that burned its citizen. The rewards of sin...

A beautiful story

This story is an especially pertinent discussion of religious intolerance, and how to live a beautiful, joyful, inquisitive life in the face of it. A revealing look at the genuine sources of wonder life grants us.

Knowledge of Angles

Knowledge of Angles by Jill Paton Walsh is one of the best books of our time. Its richly illustrated plot was truly unique. We read this book for a high school English class and both agreed that it was one of the best books we've ever read. The story of a wolf-girl slowly interwines with that of a man unjustly persecuted because of his beliefs. A young girl, raised by wolves, is captured by men and brought into the human society. A kindly boy finds help from the Cardinal who in turn decides to perform a religious experiment with her. She is brought to a secluded cloister where she is to be kept without any mention of God in her presence. In this way, the Cardinal tries to find out if there is actually a high spirit, that seems to guide you. This careful experiment soon leads to surprises, that would best have been left unknown. The story of a wrongly persucuted man makes "The Knowledge of Angles" even more amazing. Palinor, a king from an unknown "perfect world" fell off a boat and swam to a nearby island. He is immediatly thought to be an athiest because he neither knows that God exists, or knows that He doesn't. Palinor was put into prison, then released and taken to talk to the Cardinal. His arguments are so convincing that he even has the Cardinal somewhat doubting his faith. The two stories come together to create a very important theme, one of love, hate, God, and sympathy.

Thought provoking

The key to unlocking the answers in this novel is the passage before the begining, in which Jill Paton Walsh describes to us the postions angels hold. We, the readers need to amsume this postion in order to understand exactly what it is that Jill Paton Walsh is trying to explore and understand. We are asked not to judge any of the characters as they are all at fault and are all equally right. The way they all behave is true to their beliefs and life style. It is a clever and intriguing novel but i found that to gain full satisfaction from this novel it has to be read al least twice, this in itself is not a difficult task as it is a novel that you could read again and again and each time you would uncover a new and interesting point that would add to the debate that takes place through out the novel. For those who do not want or do not enjoy the hard work or unravelling a novel to its essence, Knowledge of Angels is also a brilliant read at face value and will appeal to a wide audience. It is not about the wrongs and rights of religion, it is an exploration or people and situations using relgion as a setting.

A highly intelligent fable of ideas

Jill Paton Walsh's "Knowledge of Angels" should havewon the Booker Prize. It is arguably the most outstanding yetaccessible of the five novels that made the shortlist in 1994. Set in the medievial ages, KOA is a brilliant and highly intelligent fable of ideas. Controversial perhaps, but timeless. Even today, we continue to debate the question of whether the concept of God is innate to man or acquired through the intellect and the socialisation process. In the middle ages, certainly during the times of the infamous Spanish Inquisition, it was heretical to espouse the creed of atheism. The crime was punishable by torture and death. The story of Amara (the wolf child), brought up and suckled by wolves before being returned to human society, was to be the great experiment by which learned scholars of the day sought to prove the existence of God. Palinor, the castaway who hails from a world where people live by the principles of humanism, finds his life endangered when his unconventional ideas threaten the orthodoxy of the day. Paton Walsh's novel isn't even specifically about religion or humanism. It is about the need for human society in its search for truth to understand the confining nature of paradigms, to continually challenge conventional wisdoms and reinvent itself, and to practice tolerance if the search for truth is to be served. Astonishing, yet not. "Knowledge of Angels" is a beautifully crafted and highly entertaining novel of ideas that should be read by those who love good literature. I can't recommend it highly enough. END