Mr Wroe's Virgins

by Jane Rogers, Charles Fort

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 sisters who can barely read, Joanna "the Saint," Hannah the unbeliever, and Leah, who secretly mothered an illegitimate child. And then there is Prophet Wroe, as enigmatic and attractive to each of the virgins as he is an iron hand. With an impeccably crafted narrative and utterly beguiling prose, Rogers delves deep into the conflicts surrounding faith, love, and passion. Ultimately each of the virgins comes away with a powerful lesson in independence.

MR. WROE'S VIRGINS casts a spell on readers from the outset, playing on our expectations and touching a chord of desire that could lead to disaster on nearly every page. With an intelligence and skill that recall the work of A. S. Byatt and Margaret Atwood, Jane Rogers has given us novel of ideas that is not so much to be read as to be devoured.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Religion, Cults, Literary Fiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Jane Rogers is an award winning author of nine novels, including The Testament of Jessie Lamb, Man-Booker longlisted and winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award 2012.

Other works include Mr Wroe's Virgins (which she dramatised for the BAFTA-nominated BBC drama series), Her Living Image (Somerset Maugham Award) and Promised Lands (Writers Guild Best Fiction Award). Her story collection Hitting Trees with Sticks was shortlisted for the 2013 Edgehill Award, and the title story was a BBC National Short story award winner.

Jane is Emerita Professor of Writing and also writes radio dramas and adaptations. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and lives in Banbury, UK.

www.janerogers.info

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember watching a television adaptation of this book some years ago, with the excellent Jonathan Pryce and a stunning performance from Kathy Burke. It was only when I tried to find that series on DVD that I realised it came from a book and, as the series hasn’t been released, I decided to read the book.

It’s an interesting premise, based around the real-life figure of John Wroe, a charismatic self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a religious sect known as the Christian Israelite Church which he established in the north of England in the 1830s. Wroe was eventually discredited and fled to Australia, but before that time he requested that seven virgins be allotted to his service. Nothing about these women is recorded apart from their existence, no names, no personal history, leaving a blank canvas upon which author Jane Rogers takes the opportunity to write stories for them, as she mentions in the Historical Note at the end of the text.

It’s a successful attempt to put flesh on the bones of these characters, but only to a certain extent. Joanna, Hannah, Leah and Martha are given a voice each, and for me these are successful. We see each of them grow from their point of entry into the narrative, and although the development isn’t always in a positive direction it’s very believable. As to the other virgins however, Dinah and the sisters Rebekah and Rachel, we never go inside their heads. Why is that? Beyond the facts that Dinah is ailing and the sisters rather young the information provided is scarce, but it does suggest an interesting tale to be told about one of them, at least. We weren’t promised detailed information about all seven virgins, it’s true, but it’s rather frustrating to not get their take on the events of which they are a part.

And what of Wroe himself? He’s seen through the eyes of, and actions toward, the four women with whom we are put in touch, and each has a very different experience of him. An angel, a demon and a very real and complex human being with doubts and questions, it’s possible to like him, hate him and wonder why he seems to bring about his own downfall. He leaves the story as he entered it, an enigmatic character.

The background against which the story is set, of the growth of socialism and religious divergence from the accepted Establishment view of the middle portion of 19th century northern England, is well-researched and drawn. Overall it’s an engaging story, if not quite as successful as it might be.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Wroe is the Prophet of the Christian Israelites and one day he gets a message that he’s supposed to take seven virgins into his household. And his congregants are eager to offer up their daughters - the young ones, the ones to crippled or mentally deficient to marry otherwise, the unwanted niece. Some want to be chosen - the pious old maid and the beautiful egotist with a secret that needs to be hidden.

What I first assumed seemed to be incorrect. After all, what else would a man want with seven virgins but to take advantage of them? But then it seemed that something else was going on - a large newly built home just needs servants to take care of it, and no one thinks anything of Mr. Wroe’s friend sleeping in his antechamber behind locked doors, right?

But that’s all turned on it’s head eventually and it’s a wonder of did he? Did she? Who’s telling the truth?

The story is told from the point of view of four of the seven women. One is pious and believes in the Prophet wholeheartedly and will do whatever he says that God says is right. Another is vain and egocentric and has more lies in her than truths. The third and fourth are not even Christian Israelites and they do not always understand what their Sisters do. One of them is a socialist looking to reform the world and the other comes to the household more animal than human. And it’s interesting to see her evolve into a thinking, dreaming, human being.

The most fascinating aspect of the story is that it is based from fact. Unfortunately, although it is known that this Mr. Wroe did indeed take seven women into his household, nothing is known about the woman themselves. Or maybe that’s fortunate, because it allows Jane Rogers to weave this intriguing tale.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I'd tried to start it before, and was turned off by the religious aspect (too close to the polygamist cult scandal here in Texas), but on a second try, it really stuck. These 7 girls/women are not just blind religious followers. They are each there for different reasons, and benefit in various ways. Although some are "bad", others learn from the other women, and from the prophet and his teachings as well. The chance to become one of the prophets "Seven Virgins" actually opens their eyes to a world that they had not known before, and it makes each of them stronger in her own way. Of course, something like this is bound to fall to pieces eventually, so some kind of scandal is expected. But it still doesn't happen the way you expect, and not all the characters react the way you'd expect either. I was completely drawn into their world, interested in how each of them sees their role and their opportunity in life.

[Curlemagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this in my local Free Books dropbox. An excellent premise with a disappointing execution. As with many historical fiction novels focused on religious extremists, the tone is rather condescending to true believers. The reader is obviously supposed to identify with agnostic/skeptical Hannah and pity the other castoff women, which irritates me since all of their stories are invented. Reading the true history of Mr Wroe is infuriating re how clergymen have gotten away with so much for so long. I'd rather a book framed around Joanna Southcott. 1830s millworker organizing was very interesting though. The historical aspects were great, I wish the theology had been taken as seriously.

[Moore Flannery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other reviewers here say - an interesting premise, but overwritten and patchy- sort of gets lost riding its own wave, even the language develops a fervour towards the end, has a sort of intensity like a a quasi religious ecstasy - as if to show you how easily a crowd are whipped up into believing something, when there’s nothing much at its core. It becomes quite hard to follow, if I’m honest.

It’s a shame - the floor was wide open, given that only something is known of Wroe and nothing is known about the seven women. It feels like a lost opportunity that only two or three of them get any sort of voice in this book.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the true story of John Wroe's reign as prophet of the Christian Israelites in Ashton beginning in 1822, Mr Wroe's Virgins tells the tale of the seven virgins he requested to serve him as housemaids. Narrated by four of the seven women selected, the novel provides four different perspectives of the man. Did he really, as charged, use his position of power to take advantage of two of the women in his care? Was he really, or did he even really believe that he was a prophet? What were the real reasons for the teachings he provided his flock? It seems to depend on which of the women is telling the tale. A fascinating look into the psychology of a little-know faith and its leaders and followers.

[Mark Stangroome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr Wroe is a self proclaimed prophet who leads a church of Christian Israelites in Ashton near Manchester and has managed to persuade the local population that the world will end and only by following him can they go to heaven when the world ends; which is imminent. To show their devotion they build him a temple called the Sanctuary and it is big and needs manpower for cooking and cleaning hence his requirement for seven virgins, not as sexual partners but as housemaids.

The story is told through four of these virgins. One is a religious zealot who became an annoying read as she was both manipulative and easily manipulated, it is easy to see how unscrupulous people could get this type of person to commit atrocities in the name of God. Yet another had been brutalised as a girl and her story is well written, you become witness to her evolving use of English as she recounts her story. The two others are the main players.

The story is fairly well written but is too fragmented, there does not appear to be a central theme around which the characters rotate other than the location of the Sanctuary. Due to this as you reach a new chapter being retold by a different character there is a lack of cohesion not only to chapters as told by other characters but also from previous chapters by that character.

This really is a story of how easily people can be duped, how people can believe they see something because that is what they want to see. Joanna, the zealot, when the girls are picked to be 'the virgins' sees tears of joy when in reality the tears were of fear.

This book is not a bad read but is unlikely to be a book that you would read twice.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

'You would not exchange this world for a better?' / 'I would have this one improved' (p. 181)

'Mr Wroe' s Virgins' tells a plurality of stories but at its heart is arguably this tension between religious traditionalism and the new scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment. There is plenty of reference to the contemporary events of 1830, including striking woolworkers, Owenite colonies in the US (Libertatia) and Lanarkshire, and rabble-rousing talks by Cobbett that offer a contrasting mirror image to Wroe's evangelically-themed northern tours. It is made all the more interesting as an imagined women's history on what these developments might have meant for the female folk so often before dismissed as fellow travellers. At the time Rogers was writing in the early 1990s, such historical revisionist herstories were becoming a la mode. Rogers own contribution shines particularly bright yet picturesque shafts of light on these women.

Rogers gives us four interwoven narratives from among the virgins chosen to populate real-life millenarian John Wroe's Sanctuary in the Lancashire countryside. The unknown women are given fictional lives by Rogers, who variously imagines a faithful holy roller (Joanna), Owenite social improver (Hannah), serious family abuse survivor (Martha) and unmarried mother-meets-goldigger (Leah). Martha's story in particular was virtuostically crafted, but all carry poignancy in the telling. The counter-chimes of narrative make this a four-part harmony between the choirsters, with Wroe vividly present but only through the voice of these women.

It will help to have a reasonable understanding of the history, but the stories are so well told - with some gasps along the way - that I think it could be read at any level. Whether the light is godly or the pure flame of reason, this a book that glows.

[G.J. Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read about Preacher Wroe and how he may have caused his own downfall when living in Ashton-under-Lyne, in the early 19th century. I found parts of the book quite difficult to access and understand due to the unconventional way the chapters had been arranged. This spoiled my overall enjoyment of the story. I would have liked to read about more details concerning his faith and proclamations since he was highly acclaimed for a time after his "visions". We are given seven fictitious characters who are meant to represent the "virgins", though some are not. Each has quite an interesting background and personality, with four of them remaining the focus of the tale. The character of John Wroe, however, remains an enigma in this book when in fact far more has been left to history. It did form the basis of a TV play so perhaps that is the reason behind the extra dramatic attention given to the particular four women?

[Eva Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the kind of book I'm after when I pick up an historical novel, one that introduces me to an aspect of the past I knew nothing about, like the Christian Israelites in England in the 1800's.

The story is told through the eyes of four of the seven women that were given to the prophet Wroe by the congregation, to help him spread his teachings and keep his house. Nothing historical is known about these women, not even their names, but Rogers has created four very different and believable characters that I enjoyed getting to know. I felt closest to worldly and sensible Hannah, but also grew to care about pious Joanna, ambitious Leah, and poor abused Martha.

Through Hannah I also got to take part in the early times of workers unions and socialism, which I found very interesting, and through her intellectual relationship with Wroe, his view on religion gave me something to think about.

That Wroes household ended in a sexual scandal came as no surprise.

[Nadya Booyse]

I won’t blame the writer or the story, but this book just wasn’t for me. A quarter of the way in and I have to argue with and convince myself to pick it up. Maybe I will try another day again, but for me, the story and the telling of it was bland and lifeless.
Maybe I stopped too soon, but I am not generally inclined to put books away without finishing them. I also don’t know much about this particular story, and not having that background might be the reason for the blandness.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no clue this was made into a mini-series (nor do I want to watch it). I just find it interesting sometimes how much it turns out I'm behind on a book ... only to appreciate it so much.

It's difficult to say I loved this, or I loved parts or whatever. I was surprised and incredibly, unexpectedly moved. It's hard to find joy in such a story, but there is, as well as hope.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book group choice. To be frank, I just found this novel heavy going to read. I still hope it may lead to a lively book group discussion because of the interesting central themes (religious cults, the treatment of women and the emergence of workers rights and trade unionism). I might have enjoyed the TV series more.

[Ava Hyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, execution worked for me in some ways but not in others - some characters were very interesting and compelling, others not so much, writing style wasn’t for me and I found myself wanting more… just more in general hard to explain

[Tracy Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t even finish this book. It was awful.

[Charlotte Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr Wroe’s Virgins is based on a true story. The original Mr Wroe was born in Bradford in 1782. During an illness he had a vision in which he was instructed to convert to Judaism. Instead he joined the Apocalyptic Southcottian Church. He styled himself and his congregation as Christian Israelites. His followers called him a ‘prophet’. In 1822 he received a ‘message’ that Ashton (in Lancashire) was to become the New Jerusalem. Later, in 1830 he received a further message, that God wanted his followers to provide Mr Wroe with seven virgins ‘for comfort and succour’. They did. Nothing is known about these seven women. With this book Rogers tells their story.

There is nothing documented about the women, so Rogers creates entirely fictitious characters. For her seven, Rogers chooses: a cripple, a badly beaten mute, two under-age sisters who can barely read, a virtuous saint, a girl donated by her aunt and uncle who does not belong to the congregation and doesn’t believe, and a girl with an illegitimate son.

Rogers chooses four of the ‘sisters’ (as they are known in the household) to tell the story. As with Darwin’s The Mathematics of Love, the characterisations and voices are so cleverly written that it is easy to tell whose story you are in. No sign posting is required. Martha (the mute) is a particularly interesting character. When we begin to focus on her she is unable to construct sentences. It is wonderful to watch her progression from ‘savage’, as she is described by her sisters, into a ‘full’ person. At the start Martha’s focus is directed purely on where she will get her next meal. She doesn’t trust the others or Mr Wroe. She then begins to think and value herself. We watch her transform and by the end she probably acts the most sensibly out of all the sisters.

The only person that we don’t hear from is Mr Wroe himself. The sisters present him as an enigma. He is a powerful orator, but doesn’t talk to the sisters at home. Despite being religious, he doesn’t appear to be moralistic. For example, he allows Leah’s illegitimate son to be brought into the home as an orphan. After Hannah admits she doesn’t have faith, he talks openly with her about his own doubts. In fact, Mr Wroe almost seems to be used as a vessel for each sisters’ personal growth. It is true; he uses the sisters as domestic slaves. They are forced to cook, clean, wash, sew, plant, reap, milk, pluck, tend fires, polish silver, and read to Mr Wroe. He even convinces Joanna that she should allow him to use her body to be a receptacle for the Son of God. We also see him have his way with Martha. But each character develops to the extent that by the end of the book they no longer need him. Joanna has out grown him and feels confident in leading a group of women in faith, Martha takes off alone, and Hannah sets herself up independently as a teacher and unionist.

My only gripe with Mr Wroe’s Virgins is that I wanted it to go further. I felt Rogers skirted around some of the issues in the book. She could have done more to shock me. Don’t get me wrong, there were passages when I was gripped by descriptions of demonstrations and strikes by millworkers, by court room scenes, and scenes of a sexual nature. But she could have done more with what is a thrilling story.

[Richard]

(The Creative Writing audio lessons provided by the Open University on iTunes includes two interviews with Jane Rogers on her craft, both dealing with Mr Wroe's Virgins. They are: Jane Rogers as Novelist and Jane Rogers on Adapting for Television. All links will open in iTunes.)

[Charity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this! Sometimes there's nothing creepier than a little reality. This is a fictional account of the man who in 1800’s England announced that God intended him to have 7 virgins. So what happened? People handed over their little princesses. Rogers’ version of life with the 'prophet' is truly dark and gripping.

[Pippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptionally good in many ways. In its best moments it reminded me of Gide (particularly around the middle of the novel). I sometimes felt the reader was under-estimated, and it was a shame that JR shied away from a last confrontation between Hannah and Wroe. I did feel that was needed. Otherwise very good.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this rather dark, sad tale of an 1830s religious sect, led by a prophet, the Mr Wroe of the title, who had seven 'virgins' to run his household. The story was told through the eyes of four of these women, and I found their voices believable and authentic. The story itself is not a wholly happy one though, and it made me grateful to be living my modern secular life.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex, difficult, but rewarding book. A sectarian "prophet" takes 6 virgins into his household. In the voices of 4 of them--one of them mentally disabled--we hear how their lives are transformed by this charlatan.

[Sarah Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read. Loved the way different characters tell different aspects of the story from a different point of view and contradict each other. Characterisation of different girls brilliant - you really knew whose chapter you were reading.

[Lauren - Find me on Fable! · Rating 2 out of 5]

I plowed through this entire book and at the end I felt like I missed something. I didn't really enjoy reading it and found the book to be kind of dull. I picked up the book because I found the plot line to be intriguing (who ISN'T intrigued by cults?), but I think it fell flat.

[Margaret Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book on religion set in 1830. Don't let the title fool you, it's not full of sex, but it is interesting to read. Not only addresses religion but the change to manufacturing and it's effect on manual labor.

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tale of religious cults in 19th century England. Who knew it would be so dull?

[Mary Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It grabbed me from page one. I like when books are narrated from different points of view & this writer does so very effectively.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember the mini-series...wish it was available on DVD as I'd love to see it again. The book is great - fascinating....

[Lori Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Um. No.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose I enjoyed this one ok. I think I expected more, though. I would like to see the BBC adaptation.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good