Mr. Wroe's Virgins

by Jane Rogers

Book Overview

When God told Prophet John Wroe to comfort himself with seven virgins, his congregation gave him its daughters. So begins this provocative and immensely powerful novel, set in nineteenth-century England and based on actual events.
Jane Rogers chronicles the nine months these women spend together until accusations of indecency and the trial that follows bring Wroe's household to its dramatic end. There is a cripple, a badly beaten mute, two underage...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618066136
• ISBN13: 9780618066131
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A VERY PROPHETABLE READ...

Jane Roger's ISLAND impressed me so much that I began to look for some of her other works -- MR WROE'S VIRGINS is the first one I came across. It didn't disappoint. Rogers has done an amazing job retelling/reinventing the story of the 'real' John Wroe -- her prose and characterizations are excellent, and the technique of using multiple narrators is extremely effective and enlightening.Told from the point of view of four women -- four of the 'virgins' taken into the home of Prophet John Wroe, 'for comfort and succor' -- but never from that of Wroe himself, Rogers' novel goes beyond simply telling a story. The voices of these four women are individual and distinct. The sections of the story they each relate overlap in time a bit, and their various points of view illuminate descrepancies in the way they view the events depicted here.Leah is a beautiful, haughty, self-centered young woman -- she is sure in her own mind that she is the most beautiful and desirable of the seven chosen, and she is determined to play this to her own advantage. She sees her 'sisters' as competition, and she views their motives -- innocent though most of them may be -- with great suspicion, seeing and imagining things not quite as they actually are at times.Hannah is an unbeliever, thrown in with this group of Christian Israelites, feeling much like a fish out of water. Rather than accepting Mr. Wroe's dire predictions of the imminent end of the world -- Judgement Day -- she instead sees the answer to humanity's woes through education, through working together for the common good. These beliefs lead her to working with the poor of the town, teaching them to read, attempting to raise their social and political consciousness, and getting involved in the birth of the trade union movement in England.Joanna -- Saint Joanna, as she is called by most of the other women -- is completely devoted, in heart, body and soul, to God and to Mr. Wroe's movement. She views every single event in her life through scriptural interpretaion, bending to God's will every chance she gets. From the opposite end of the scale, her view is thus just as skewed as that of Leah.Martha -- the fourth narrator -- comes to the house as a mute, obviously horribly beaten and abused by her father at home, who has seen Mr. Wroe's call for seven virgins to serve him as an easy way to rid himself of a daughter he doesn't want, a burden. Martha's narrative is, for me, the most striking in the novel. At first, it comes in fragments, little bursts of words, the most rudimentary images and feelings. As the novel progresses, Martha's thoughts and expression become more organized -- she is being taught speech and hymns by 'Saint Joanna', who evidently possesses the patience of Job -- and the horrors of her earlier life, which she sees as so completely separate that she thinks of it as happening to the 'other Martha', become clearer and clearer. The abuse and suffering she has endured is unbelievable and hea

Dynamic Tale for Snow Days

Jane Rogers successfully captured my imagination in the first two pages and until I finished this novel of women I couldn't put it down. Though the women are all speaking from an 19th c perspective, I was amamzed how skillfully Rogers threaded the timeless issues of faith, self-esteem, the desire for self-expression, the need for love and compassion in such a fashion as to speak to the women and men of today. Throughout the book I saw sometimes tiny, sometimes huge aspects of each women in myself. This is one of the best books I've read in years, don't miss it.

A great read!

This is one of the best books I have read this year. It is intelligent and thoughtful yet full of dark humor. The character development remains interesting until the very end of the novel. I wish that my book group would have read this book -- I can imagine that it would have been an interesting and controversial discussion.

Eerie and page-turning

Wow. This author has an amazing ability to get inside of her characters heads- maybe closer than you really want to get. She writes from seven points of view- representing the seven so-called virgins who are taken into the prophet's household. There is lusty sex, mystery, and drama throughout this excellent book. I read it in two nights- couldn't put it down. My bookgroup is going to discuss it next month- one of the BEST book choices we've made.