Vantrease novel deals with Bible smugglers and burning heretics as Anne Boleyn pushes Henry VIII to break with Rome
Rating: 4 Stars
“The idea for The Heretic’s Wife emerged naturally as I followed the historical themes of my first two books, The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller,” says author Brenda Rickman Vantrease. “Although each novel stands alone, when taken together with The Heretic’s Wife, they form a trilogy.”
The Heretic’s Wife is the story of Kate Gough and her brother John who sell smuggled Protestant bibles in Tudor-era England. When John is arrested, he recants and leaves London. Kate continues with their mission alone. She falls in love with Bible translator John Frith. As Thomas More burns heretics, Henry VIII is being influenced by Anne Bolyn to break away from the Catholic church. Will Kate and her husband survive More and avoid a fiery end atop a bonfire?
The Heretic’s Wife, ostensibly a tale of the English Reformation and the translation of the Bible into English is about the efforts of ordinary people to move religious freedom forward. The appearances of compelling figures like Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas Moore, and Cardinal Wolsey keep the story moving.
“In my research of the Reformation, I stumbled across the fact that Anne Boleyn was strongly influenced by Lutheran ideas,” says Vantrease. “I discovered there was another side to the Sir Thomas More of saintly legend…as represented in A Man For All Seasons. Through several respected sources I discovered that Thomas More was a fierce and manic heretic hunter, to the point of fanatical obsession.”
“Then I found the brilliant and charming, and by all accounts quite handsome, young scholar and Bible translator named John Frith,” says Vantrease. “Well, I had my heretic.
The historical record mentions Frith had a wife but that’s all we know about her, so I had plenty of license to fictionalize her as my heroine.”
Religion is a consistent theme in Vantrease’s novels, and she does her best to immerse herself in her subject: “I love to travel in England, love to crawl through ancient ruins, old castles, dungeons, abbeys, and absorb the hushed and time-laden atmosphere of the ancient cathedrals,” says Vantrease. “But I do this more for inspiration than research. Early in the writing of The Heretic’s Wife, I visited Hampton Court for the first time and was so taken with The Tudor Kitchens that I set a couple of scenes there.”
Vantrease lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She’s currently in research mode probing the history of the English Civil War. “I don’t know if I’ll find my next story there or not, although shadowy characters are beginning to emerge,” says Vantrease.
The Heretic’s Wife by Brenda Rickman Vantrease. Hardcover book, 416 pages, Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (April 13, 2010), Language: English, ISBN: 9780312386993 $25.
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