A Measure of Light

by Beth Powning

In her most dramatic and ambitious novel yet, bestselling author Beth Powning re-imagines the life of Mary Dyer, a Quaker who defied death to champion religious freedom during America's earliest years.

Set in 1600s New England, A Measure of Light tells the story of Mary Dyer, a Puritan who flees persecution in Elizabethan England only to find the Puritan establishment in Massachusetts every bit as vicious as the one she has left behind. One of America's first Quakers, and among the last to face the gallows for her convictions, Mary Dyer receives here in fiction the full-blooded treatment too long denied a figure of her stature: a woman caught between faith, family and the driving sense that she alone will put right a deep and cruel wrong in the world. This is gripping historical fiction about a courageous woman who chafed at the power of theocracies and the boundaries of her era, struggling against a backdrop of imminent apocalypse for women's rights, liberty of conscience, intellectual freedom and justice.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Historical, Canada

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

Beth Powning was born in Hampton, Connecticut. She attended E.O. Smith High School, and Sarah Lawrence College, where she majored in creative writing. Powning moved to New Brunswick, Canada in 1970.

Powning's work has been widely published in books, anthologies, and magazines. She is known for her lyrical, powerful writing and the profound emotional honesty of her work.

Her latest novel, "The Sister's Tale", will be released by Knopf Canada in both Canada and the US on May 25, 2021. Set in the 1887 maritimes provinces, it includes characters from "The Sea Captain's Wife" and concerns home children, suffragists, and women's rights.

Her 2015 novel, " A Measure of Light", was a Globe and Mail Bestseller, a Globe and Mail Best Book, long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award, and the winner of the N.B. Book Award for Fiction. In the USA, "A Measure of Light" was a Sam's Club Best Book for March, 2018.

Beth Powning's novel, "The Sea Captain's Wife" was short-listed for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, in Canada.; and was a Barnes and Noble Discover Award Book, in the USA. The novel has been long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was translated into French by Editions Perce-Neige, with distribution in Canada and France.

"The Hatbox Letters" was also long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award, and was a Globe and Mail Best Book.

Powning also won Canada's Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in English-Language Literary Arts and has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University.

She has appeared at literary festivals across Canada, in Ireland, and the UK.
She lives in a 19th century farmhouse in rural New Brunswick, Canada, with her husband, sculptor Peter Powning.

Reviews

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew little about the history of Quakers in the 1600's in New England. This book was very thoroughly researched and informative.It tells the story of Mary Dyer, one of the earliest Quakers,who was executed for her outspoken beliefs.
The Puritans had been persecuted in England and came to New England to be free to worship and carry out their beliefs without the fear of imprisonment, torture or death for their dissent from the established religion.They brought with them a religious fervour and were soon committing public whippings and hangings for those who did not strictly adhere to their rigid beliefs and conform to their manner of worship.They were soon causing the same fear and turmoil from which they had escaped.
The story told here about Mary Dyer follows the known historical facts. She was a woman strong in her beliefs, and I felt I was supposed to admire her character.Instead I was appalled by her religious fanaticism and her neglect of her husband and children. She arrogantly centred on her own beliefs and was seldom home to the detriment of her family. She admitted a lack of motherly instincts. One of her children was stillborn and severely deformed which to the Puritans was a sign some of evil in her life. There was an apparent desire for martyrdom on her part, She was tried in Boston by a Puritan court and sentenced to hanging, but received a pardon at the very last minute while on the scaffold.
Told that she must never return to Boston on order of death, Mary went back to visit her estranged family briefly, but returned to Boston knowing the fate that awaited her.
I felt I was supposed to find her an inspiration for the brave declaration of her religious beliefs, but found her stubborn and foolhardy in the very difficult place and time in which she lived.

[Allan Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliantly crafted novel by one of Canada's finest authors. Beth knows how to tell a story. I highly recommend this book. Mary Dyer is a fascinating character from the 1600's.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

God hath called us to establish a peaceful kingdom, since his purpose has been destroyed in the old country. In this land, beneath these trees, upon these rocks.

The most astonishing lines in A Measure of Light come in an afterword titled These Things are True: Until that moment, I hadn't realised that the main character, Mary Dyer, and the significant scenes that she was placed in, were all based on actual events. I thought I was reading historical fiction -- in which an author might exaggerate the experience of one character in order to give a flavour of everything that's going on -- but this is actually a biographical fiction, in which Mary Dyer did indeed live this outsized life (with the author, Beth Powning, taking leave to colour in the unknowable bits).

The history of this time and place (1634-1660, England and New England) made for a fascinating read: With the support of Charles I, Archbishop Laud, newly appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, went about reforming and standardising the rites of the Church of England. As he imposed Catholic-type rituals and symbols (including stained-glass windows and ornate altars in the churches), those ministers who resisted and preached simplicity -- the Puritans -- were rounded up, thrown into stockades, and had their ears sliced off. Fearing similar treatment, many Puritans -- including Mary and William Dyer -- decided to emigrate to the colonies, where they could practise their beliefs freely. Imagine, having lived in the modern metropolis of London, having worn new kid leather gloves and attended the latest Ben Johnson play before departure, and after enduring a hellacious ocean crossing, this sighting of Salem is the first view you get of your new home:

Mary's glass revealed not houses but rude huts, plastered with mud, thatch-roofed. Trees still bearing their bark lay butt to tip, and behind the makeshift fence a few cows grazed. People clustered, like dabs of paint, watching the ship.

The Dyers eventually settled in Boston, and although the houses were more substantial, the religious atmosphere was not what they were promised: instead of enjoying a freedom of belief, the Puritan elders of the city imposed an onerous religious duty upon its citizens, compelling everyone to attend day-long Sunday meetings in which they themselves could not speak; meetings where the stern greybeards often railed against the weak-mindedness of women. Every aspect of their daily lives were ruled by the ministers (and as the ministers controlled who stood for government and who could vote, their grip was iron clad) and the tradition of the stockade and whippings followed the seekers of freedom to their new homes; only now it was not Puritans in general who were punished but only those who didn't follow its strictest interpretation. By the end of this period, even a visitor to Boston who did not profess adherence to the "bloody laws" could face whippings or banishment or death.

Meanwhile, back in England, when Oliver Cromwell took control of the crown after the execution of Charles I, he introduced a Boston-style strict Puritanism, and those who had formerly known persecution now found themselves in charge, and could be every bit as cruel as their former tormentors. Into this atmosphere arose George Fox and Friends (Quakers) who believed that communion with God didn't require a church at all, and as they travelled England and the New World, spreading their word, they became the greatest victims of anti-heresy laws.

Mary Dyer -- in this book and in fact -- was present at many of these upheavals, and as a person of great faith, she put religious duty above regard for her own safety and obligation to her family. The historical elements of this book, as I said, were fascinating to me, and especially the frying-pan-to-fire experience of those Puritans who sought religious freedom in Boston.

As for the imagined bits, Beth Powning must have done an incredible amount of research as A Measure of Light is crammed full of historical details; everything the people ate and wore and planted and worked at. This was conveyed in more or less natural ways, as in:

Sinnie loved (the house's) shelves of folded quilts, pillowbeers, sheets, linen drawers and stockings, silk caps and dimity waistcoats. She loved the hall and pantry, with its pewter platters, salt cellars, kettles; its store of cheeses and cured hams, its crocks of pickled cabbage and nasturtium buds, applesauce, grape juice.

And in ways that I found slightly unnatural, as in, "officers wearing the yellow-cuffed red wool coats, grey breeches and felt hats of the New Model Army". Also, I wonder if the author was making the case that Mary Dyer suffered from mental illness: she is shown repeatedly tormented by Post Partum Depression and, while she always enjoyed the support of her husband, even he wondered if her religious fervour wasn't a type of madness. When in the grips of great emotion, Mary's perspective becomes a stream-of-consciousness that blends memories and impressions with statements of conviction, in a poetic literary style that didn't always seem to serve the seriousness of her situation; unless this may be seen as a symptom of madness. For the most part, though, I did enjoy the lyricism of Mary's thoughts:

She looked up towards the fells. She could simply continue walking. Until she succumbed to starvation. She pictured it -- a stagger, a fall. Too weak to rise. Palms clasping the earth. Sleep. A scroll of snow between her lips. In spring, rabbits, heedless upon the bones of her fingers.

I would say that a person's enjoyment of A Measure of Light might be directly related to how affected one is by that last sample passage. I liked it quite a bit, and coupled with the fascinating history, this was a very enjoyable read for me.

[Doug McQuinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a spellbinding and well-told novel. Its value is all the more important for its telling of real events and people.

In 1635, William and Mary Dyer, with a shipload of likeminded Puritans, left England, fleeing religious persecution. Twenty-five years later, as if they had forgotten their own suffering, Puritans governed Massachusetts Bay Colony and were cruelly persecuting and punishing people with other beliefs. Mary Dyer was hanged on 1 June, 1660 in Boston for refusing to recant her faith as one of the Society of Friends (a "Quaker").

Wikipedia tells about Mary Dyer's world and life, but leaves us craving forgotten details and better understanding of her motives. Beth Powning has meticulously sifted through what was already known. Then clearly she must have immersed herself in seventeenth century England and New England ... the political, religious, and cultural landscapes ... beliefs, prejudices, and fears ... dialect and idiom ... sounds, sights, and scents ... in order to better visualize Mary Dyer's experiences.

The result is a most satisfying and plausible story of Mary Dyer's personality and the events, influences, and beliefs that guided her to welcome her own horrific execution.

Mrs. Powning offers a version of how Mary came to put her religious work and faith ahead of all else, even her children and husband. Yet the author doesn't defend, attack, or judge. Readers may feel sorry for Mary's suffering and loneliness. In the end we're left to decide whether to admire, sympathize, or be disappointed by Mary Dyer.

While reading "A Measure of Light", I was constantly delighted by Beth Powning's craft, her ability to convincingly weave her vividly imagined details between historical events.

Yet that is only one facet of her skill. She beautifully depicts midwives attending childbirth, prison cells, forbidden gatherings, and so much more, in well described detail, and at the same time she recreates seventeenth century scenes and dialogue, that include forgotten phrases, words, customs, and everyday tasks.

If you already know what a darning egg is, and the use of "doth" vs "dost" in 1640, then you'll be greatly satisfied by her realistic renderings of pioneer life and the authenticity of the dialogue on every page. If not, like me, it's not essential but you may have a fuller appreciation if you keep a dictionary nearby.

Beth Powning's artistry is enjoyably evident on every page.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so sad to be giving this book 3 stars. I loved The Sea Captain's Wife so much, and waited patiently for A Measure of Light, really anticipating how much I would enjoy it. To my disappointment, it did not live up to my expectations. I still liked the historical setting, England and the Boston area, and what life is like as an emigrant and a new settler, a woman's place etc. But I suppose what I didn't like was that it was mainly about Quakers and their struggle to end their persecution and the main character's insistence that that is all she lives for, to the expense of her family. I suppose I should admire someone's conviction in their religious beliefs (although I, of course cannot support fanaticism) but it annoyed me that this was her journey. I still think Powning is a talented writer, and I will read future books, but I just couldn't get behind this one.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read! Based on the life of Mary Dyer and her friendship with Anne Hutchinson. Mary was hanged in 1660 for her Quaker beliefs and teachings.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

London zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts: die Puritanerin Mary und ihr Mann William sehen sich wegen ihres Glaubens immer mehr unter Druck gesetzt. Auch wenn William ein erfolgreicher Geschäftsmann und in ihrer Gemeinde hoch angesehen ist, sehen sie für sich keine Zukunft mehr in England. Sie hoffen, die in der neuen Welt zu finden und wandern gemeinsam mit anderen Gemeindemitgliedern nach Massachusetts Bay, eine der Kolonien aus. Aber sie müssen erkennen, dass sie auch dort nicht frei sind.

Beth Pownings Roman beruht auf der wahren Geschichte von Mary Dyer, die sich in Amerika den Quäkern anschloss und 1660 in Boston wegen Ausübung ihres Glaubens gehängt wurde. Mary und ihr Mann kamen voller Hoffnung in der neuen Welt an, aber die wurde nicht erfüllt. Die Ältesten in ihrer neuen Gemeinde leben ihren Glauben so extrem aus, dass sich Mary noch mehr als in England gefangen fühlte. Während William sich zumindest teilweise mit den neuen Glaubensregeln arrangieren konnte, weil sie ihm gewisse Freiheiten zustanden, wurde Mary immer unglücklicher. Für Frauen war der einzige Platz in der Gemeinde der am Herd oder schweigend in der Kirche. Sie fand zwar eine Freundin, mit der sie ihre Vorstellung des Glaubens diskutieren konnte, aber das war zu wenig.

Die große Liebe zwischen Mary und William wurde immer kleiner. Für William war sein Glauben eines der wenigen Dinge, die er aus England mitnehmen konnte und er hielt eiserner daran fest, als er es in England getan hatte. Dadurch entfernten sich die Eheleute immer mehr. Er hatte kein Verständnis dafür, dass Mary mit ihrer Rolle als Ehefrau und Mutter nicht mehr zurechtkam. Als Marys Tante in England krank wurde und sie zurückreiste, um bei ihr zu sein, traf sie zum ersten Mal auf ein Mitglied der Religiösen Gesellschaft der Freunde und fand bei ihnen das, nach dem sie gesucht hatte.

Marys Geschichte ist zeitlos. Die Ehe zerbrach an unterschiedlichen Vorstellungen und an Unverständnis. So, wie die Autorin Marys Gefühle beschreibt, wirkt es so, als ob sie an einer postnatalen Depression gelitten hat. Man könnte Williams Zustimmung zu Marys Reise nach England als Großzügigkeit sehen, aber auf mich hat es so gewirkt, als ob er insgeheim froh war, das Problem zumindest für eine gewisse Zeit loszuwerden. Auch für ihren neuen Glauben hatte er kein Verständnis.

Der Roman hat mir über lange Strecken gut gefallen. Beth Powning hat Marys Weg nach Amerika und ihre Schwierigkeiten und seelischen Konflikte berührend beschrieben. Ab dem Moment, an dem Mary zurück nach England zurückgekehrt ist, wurden Geschichte und Handlung flacher. Auf mich hat es so gewirkt, als ob sich die Autorin auf unbekanntem Terrain bewegte und deshalb oberflächlicher schrieb. Nach dem starken Anfang war diese Entwicklung für mich ein wenig enttäuschend.

[Chuck Erion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beth Powning has a talent for mining the past for its best stories. She began with The Hatbox Letters (2004)where a widow in her 50s explores the correspondence saved in her grandparents’ 18th-century attic. The Sea Captain’s Wife (2010), another bestselling novel, explored family life in the waning Age of Sail. Powning has also mined her own life in memoirs: Shadow Child, Seeds of Another Summer, and Edge Seasons. The latter used prose and photographs to show the seasonal changes around her New Brunswick home. It was shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Creative Non-Fiction Award.
Powning returns to her New England roots in her latest novel, A Measure of Light (Knopf Canada, 336 pages, $29.95). Born into a family with both Quaker and Puritan roots, she and her husband left Connecticut during the Vietnam War. In an essay on her website, she describes several coincidences that got her interested in the life of Mary Dyer, a Puritan who came to Boston in 1635. Though separated by 400 years, both author and subject each suffered a devastating stillbirth. And the ancestral home of her best friend in childhood was Sylvester House, near Long Island, where Mary Dyer stayed in 1659-60.
The facts of Dyer’s life are readily learned on Wikipedia. A Measure of Light, like the best of historical fiction, explores lives from the past that provides insight into our lives today. The travels and travails of it heroine gives a glimpse into the early colonists in New England, both their physical challenges (sea travel, building homes, farming,) and spiritual focus. England’s Puritans sought reform of the Anglican Church from within but were rebuffed by Charles I. This triggered the migration of thousands to America, Mary Dyer and her husband William among them. Unfortunately, the Puritan (male) hierarchy was no less restrictive than what they had rebelled against, in its doctrines, especially the principle of salvation by works, and its worship, long sermons to a congregation divided by gender.
Mary became friends with a midwife, Anne Hutchinson, who lead bible studies in her home, attracting large crowds. She believed that salvation was by grace (God’s love) alone, and was soon accused of heresy by the church/civil authorities. Mary, like women of that age, bore many children. She births a son, having lost her firstborn back in England. Anne is her midwife for a pregnancy following a stillbirth but Mary is never shown the deformed fetus. Word gets out, and the ministers declare that her offspring was a monster, a punishment for her ‘monstrous faith’ in supporting Anne. When Anne is banished from the Boston settlement, Mary ‘s loyalty to her means that she and William are likewise ousted. Mary, as Powning tells it, spent several years in deep depression, showing little love for her subsequent children. She returns to England in 1651 to visit her dying aunt and becomes involved in the next wave of reformation, the Quakers. When she returns five years later, the Puritans have enacted several laws against the Quakers, considered the most heinous of heretics. Mary is imprisoned, banished and nearly hanged. When she defies the banishment in 1660, a second hanging is carried out.
Powning uses both imagined letters and actual trial transcripts in tracing her life; the language is often arcane but never dull. As I read A Measure of Light, I kept thinking that the patriarchal, socially-repressive society of the Puritans is very similar to what the Taliban and ISIS strive to impose. But Dyer and Hutchinson are not secular feminists; their faith differs from their male counterparts but is centered on prayer and scripture. Anne’s last words to Mary,” You are a lily in the sight of God,” stay with her even to the gallows-tree. That she chose her own martyrdom reminds us of the depth of faith of our forbearers, and of the ultimate ambiguity of all religious urges.

This review first appeared in The Waterloo Region Record, Feb 5, 2015.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ask yourself if there is a cause or belief you would die to serve. Or what your death might accomplish for this cause. Hardly speculative questions in our contemporary moment. Where Beth Powning's A Measure of Light departs from the present of this reader is, well, the setting and plot: 17th century Puritan New England and the emergence of the Quaker movement. Less obviously, it departs in the sense that those who die for their beliefs do so not as suicides where bodies are the available weapons, but rather those who die for their beliefs are killed by the state for holding beliefs that are deemed so threatening, so challenging as to be violently and publicly killed. It's a grammar slip there, you'll notice, between the belief being killed and the person. And one worth noticing.

Our protagonist, historical figure Mary Dyer, is killed by the Boston officials that see her views of God (as accessible to all with equal access and without the intercedence of the Church) as heretical and threatening to the socio-political (and importantly economic) well-being of the region. So while she and several of her Friends are publicly hanged, their deaths do not accomplish the aims of the state in that the belief cannot be killed by killing the person. Or at least not easily. Rather, as Powning's narrative suggests, Mary Dyer the martyr does more to raise the profile of the belief in their death than she does in her actively proselytizing life.

A Measure of Light is a fascinating read for its unravelling of the development of the Quaker movement and its portrait of New England life. It's a rich (and beautifully written) exploration of what it means to hold beliefs with such conviction and the consequences both for the individual life, but for the family and community of that individual. It's perhaps even more interesting - at least for me - in its representation of women and women's bodies in this period. Mary's journey through faith is irrevocably marked by the death of her three-day old child and the subsequent still-birth of her premature child as she and her community view these tragedies as evidence of her damned soul. I admit, as an atheist and 2015 reader, that I struggled to empathize with her conviction that it was God that spoke through her (markedly female) body, but what I could understand and relate to - only to well - was the feeling of my body, and its interpretation, as outside my control and dominion. The sense that others read what women's bodies do - and don't do - in questions about when (not if) these bodies will have children, in how (not whether) these bodies will be held up against impossible standards of beauty and in the sexualization and objectification of these bodies at every turn. So while the patriarchal source might be different - God - the experience of a distorted and disturbed relationship between the self and the body is all too recognizable.

All this to say, that between the resonant and provocative questions about the power of religious conviction to drive (violent) action and the representation of women's bodies as sites for public debate, A Measure of Light is an exemplary piece of historical fiction, doing what historical fiction does best in representing the past in a way that allows us to better understand our present experience. Given the preponderance of historical fiction in Canadian literature (and no, I'm not just saying that because it's my thing) and the attention this genre tends to get in awards season, I'd flag A Measure of Light as one likely to come up in discussions of best's of this year.

[John Charlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in the complex motivations of Mary Dyer.

I first came to know about Mary as one of the thousands of people living today who can trace their lineage directly back to her. The more I read about her, the more I wanted to know.

And yet, truly knowing Mary Dyer is at best an almost impossible task. So little verifiable information is available beyond the few recorded details of her life, what remains of her own words and the tragic circumstances of her persecution and death at the hands of the Puritan theocracy.

Having previously read Johan Winsser’s book ”Mary and William Dyer: Quaker Light and Puritan Ambition in Early New England,” I was aware that most if not all of the verifiable facts of Mary’s life have been assembled in this excellent historical text. Indeed, it was through reading Winsser’s book I became aware of Beth Powning’s “A Measure of Light.”

The story of William and Mary is an important one and should be required reading for anyone interested in the development of modern democracy. And yet, on the surface of reading the facts of Mary’s life, one is left with a single burning question. How could she? How could she forsake her family for what on the surface appears to be religious fanaticism? Despite the positive outcome for the population in general, what is there to celebrate in Mary’s abandonment of her family?

For me, the greatest value of “A Measure of Light” is how Powning’s empathetic examination of Dyer’s life puts forward a convincing answer to that conundrum. The author however does not preach, but rather informs Mary’s story with rich detail and lets us come to our own conclusions. Some will get it. Some won’t.

Clearly Beth Powning cares a great deal about the historical accuracy of her novels and she clearly relates in her epilogue which parts are based on fact and which are based on her imaginings. She leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader what is fact and what is fiction.

This book is a work of fiction. A finely crafted one at that. Powning’s skill as a writer allows us privileged access into Mary’s life, thoughts and emotions, imagining with insightful detail and compassion, the motivations behind Mary’s actions. We literally enter into Mary’s life and accompany her on her journey.

The book imagines Mary’s relationship with Sinnie, a central character in the book upon whom much of the underlying themes of Mary’s life are examined and expressed. We follow Mary through the unknown period of her return to England imagining her introduction to the Society of Friends and her metamorphosis into the martyr she is now most remembered for.

This is a complex story about a complex person. It is also a story about a woman and women in general. About loss and grief and strength and values. It is a dark tale about a dark time in history but which is easily relatable to our modern era in which so much of what Mary fought and died for is again under attack.

For those who give this book a lower rating because they can’t sympathize with the main character or because they found the book too dark, perhaps you should read it again. Don’t penalize the author for your feelings about Mary. Reach a little deeper into Beth Powning’s work.

This is a magnificent, challenging and rewarding book.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea who Mary Dyer was until I read this fictionalized account of her life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. God bless her, what a life! The Islamic extremists of today are a lot like the Pilgrims of that period; both fanatics and lacking in compassion or mercy. Mary is one of this country's first Quakers. I was a bit familiar with the early Quakers and the animosity between them and the Puritans, but I never knew how deadly it was.
Mary and her husband William came to Boston in 1635 to escape persecution in England and to find a degree of religious freedom in the New World. What they found instead frightened them and turned them away from Puritanism. Anne Hutchinson, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop, and others from our history books are in the story. Mary is a good woman and a brave one. Her story should not have been so unknown. If you appreciate history, this is a good read for you. There are lessons still to be learned from her story. I liked how the author separated fact from fiction in the back of the book.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was grateful to receive this book free as a Goodreads giveaway, in return here is my honest opinion of the book. The life of Mary Dyer was sad, and full turmoil. I found the first half of the book slow to start, but after Mary returns to England it picks up. As I read the book my heart ached for Mary, and she always seemed to be searching for something when she was with her family. It was like she only felt complete when she was not with them, and out spreading God's word.

I enjoyed the book, it was definitely worth the read.

[Lindasp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of real-life Mary Dyer who in the 1600's in England and New England, defied authorities to speak the Truth as a "Friend" or Quaker. I didn't know the history of the Quakers nor their origins in England so this was a learning experience for me. The story was well-written but didn't grip me the way the other books written by Beth Powning did.

[Donna Naylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a raw look at religion in the early 1600's the brutality of the people the suffering that went on is unreal as it is based on a true story . This book is a very powerful look at humanity in all its true form,

[Denise Wright-ianni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting and meticulously researched.

[S.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite kind of book - well researched history, story about an actual historical character, author fills in the blanks with imagination to complete the story.

[Kathlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find as I read this account that I am encouraged to read slowly, making round my mouth to capture vowels and digest the scenes before me.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book for a lot of reasons. Recommended.

[Camilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather grim tale about real characters in history. Interesting religious discrimination against Puritans and Quakers in the early to mid 1600s in New England.

[Kim Hakkenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of the fight between the Puritans and the Quakers in the 1600's.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written and researched. A little-known period of British/American history. Quite a page-turner although I didn't think it would be when I started.

[Jill Miclean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the first part of this book and debated between 3 & 4 stars. I'd honestly like to give it 3 1/2 but ended up with 4 since it was so thought provoking.

The author explains what it was like to be a Puritan in England during the 1600's, their persecution and their subsequent flight to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America, only to end up being persecuted again by their fanatic leaders. A very good lesson on "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The details of the Puritan lifestyle are fascinating and horrific at the same time. These are the same people who burned women in nearby Salem for witchcraft and I learned a lot about their ways and beliefs.

The book lost it's momentum for me when Mary traveled to England to attend her dying aunt and was introduced to Quakerism. After the way Mary was treated by her fellow Puritans for having a dis-formed, stillborn baby, it's no wonder she sought a softer, more loving, accepting religion. However, I never really felt her conversion or fully understood all of the details and beliefs of the Quakers. The author doesn't go into as much detail about the Quakers as she did about the Puritans. In order to believe that Mary would turn her back on her husband & children and repeatedly put her life in danger by disobeying the laws of the land (which goes against the bible) I needed to understand her choices. She just came across as a stubborn brat who only cared about what she wanted and her newfound "friends".

The writing was beautiful and flowed easily, even with all of the details and this would be a good book club read because of the subject matter and all the aspects of discussion this book invokes such as religion, depression, subjugation, postpartum depression, ostracization, abandoning your children - I could go on & on.

[Christopher Childs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a descendant of Mary and William Dyer; and a writer of nonfiction. It was with considerable personal interest, but also some caution, that I picked up Beth Powning’s novel about Mary, "A Measure of Light".

The caution was unnecessary. This is a moving, powerful, historically-based work that shines a bright light on the life of Mary Barrett Dyer, and the mission upon which she set herself with absolute dedication… a mission — upholding freedom of conscience — which, under the circumstances of its time, had only one, inevitable ending: her martyrdom at the hands of rigidly puritan governor John Endecott.

Wonderfully written, this is a book of much strength, awareness, and insight into both the day-to-day, outward life, and the inner, spiritual one, of one of the country’s more remarkable and deeply inspiring individuals. Based significantly in the research of major Dyer biographer Johan Winsser ("Mary and William Dyer: Quaker Light and Puritan Ambition in Early New England"), and respectful of what is known of Mary’s actual life path — from the personal trauma of a deformed and stillborn child, to her growing Quaker conviction, to the outward tragedy but spiritual triumph of her death in 1660 — it illuminates her progress from conventionality into commitment, and into embodiment of the Quaker ideal of hearkening unto one’s own, genuinely intuitive sense of guidance... and of calling. For any reader who cares about the role of conscience in the life of an individual or the life of a nation, this book will prove inspirational.

A historically-based tale, if it succeeds in transporting me into a world that legitimately models the actual world of my ancestors, gains my deep appreciation and respect; if it goes further and speaks to me at the level of the soul, it earns my resonant gratitude and admiration. "A Measure of Light" is such a book.

[Lisa Llamrei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fleeing religious persecution in England, Puritans Mary Dyer and her husband arrive in Massachusetts Bay, only to find that the new colony is every bit as restrictive and fanatical as England. Mary is doubly stigmatized, first for giving birth to a deformed child, and then for her friendship with heretic Anne Hutchinson. After converting to the Quaker faith, Mary comes to believe she must follow her convictions in order to bring an end to the persecution of Quakers.

The book is beautifully written, and thorough researched. The sensuous detail of the seventeenth century is so vivid I felt I was right there. The narrative is well paced, with the tension gradually building right to the end. I couldn't put it down - I looked forward to the end of every day so I could get back to the book.

The reason I'm only giving it three stars is because of my ambivalence towards the main character. I didn't actively dislike her, but I didn't have much sympathy for her, either. My opinion of her was somewhat mitigated by the implication that she may have been suffering from depression, but that wasn't drawn well enough to be an explanation for her choices. She repeatedly abandoned her children. She repeatedly defied legal edicts that carried the death penalty, were they to be broken, and for very little benefit even when she did evade punishment. Now, I'm not a religious person, so my assessment is coloured by the fact that I don't find religious fanaticism (no matter the stripe) or martyrdom to be worthy of respect.

Still, a good read for lovers of history.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beth Powning has quickly earned a spot in my list of the best-of-the best novelists. Her “A Measure of Light” is no exception. It is the story of Mary Dyer – an important but overlooked figure in American history.

“A Measure of Light” portrays the life of Dyer – a practicing Puritan in the mid 1600’s. She immigrated from England to America with her husband to escape persecution only to encounter Puritan governors in Boston who ruthlessly enforce a brutally stringent version of Puritanism. Mary’s life becomes a passionate quest for religious freedom which leads to her becoming one of the first Quakers in America. She is driven to sacrifice all for her beliefs and becomes a martyr for the cause paying the ultimate price on the gallows.

Beth Powning has an exquisite and mesmerizing prose style that vividly brings to life the landscapes her characters inhabit both literally and psychologically. Every page of “A Measure of Light” is captivating and a pure delight to read.

[Donna Linton-Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third novel that I have read written by Canadian author Beth Powning and it didn't disappoint. She writes with such extraordinary depth and style that the reader is immediately drawn into the story and connects with the characters portrayed. I had very little understanding of the Puritans and Quakers of England and the New England states in the 1600's prior to reading this book. Through Beth Powning's writing in this historical novel of the life of Mary Dyer, I have a greater appreciation for the religious persecution that took place during these times. The evolution of Mary Dyer's religious beliefs along with her commitment to the role of women and the right to religious freedom for all individuals during Puritan governance make her an historical figure that will not soon be forgotten.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable historical fiction at the time of the ridgid laws of the Puritans in England and New England. It is hard to imagine how difficult it was to live as a woman in a non secular society of yore. Women had no standing and were informed from the pulpit that they had no brains. Our heroine, a character who actually lived gave up the traditional life to follow her heart to enlighten others at the expense of her family.
Islamic women today might understand some of what she felt as they mostly live in countries with no seperation of religion and state at the mercy of their fundamentalist men folk, the same as the Puritans in the 1600's.

[Barbara Sibbald]

I devoured this book in a day. It was such a compelling story of the persecution of the Puritans and then the Quakers at the hands of the British in both England and in the American colonies. It resonated in part because religious persecution persists today, evident in the defacing of mosques and synagogues, in the new law in Quebec prohibiting government employees from wearing religious symbols or attire. Apparently we have learning nothing. The story of Mary and her struggle brings her time and this ongoing travesty to startling life. Beautifully researched and a compelling narrative. I'm glad to have found Beth Powning and will read more.

[Nancy Noble · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book, about someone I knew very little about (although one of my friends is a descendant of sorts). It's so hard to believe that we once lived in a world where people would be hung from the gallows for being a Quaker. Yet, it happened here in our country in the 1600s. Very well written, this book, as does much historical fiction, give a readable glimpse into a real person. (Although I did find myself at times being very frustrated with Mary, and felt so bad for her family).

[Robynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A thoughtful fictionalized account of the life of Mary Dyer, the only Quaker woman hanged in the colonies for her religious beliefs. Powning does a wonderful job of creating a back story to Dyer's questioning of Puritan positions in New England including her close friendship with Anne Hutchinson. Dyer's own religious fervour is addressed sensitively as well. And there are parts of the book that are so beautifully written. I missed a stronger narrative structure.