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I, Roger Williams
A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001 and a Washington Post Book World 2001 Rave. In this beautiful and feelingly written book, Mary Lee Settle tells the story of Roger Williams: the most compelling figure in colonial America. Plucked from obscurity to clerk for the celebrated English jurist Sir Edward Coke, Williams had a ringside seat on the brutal politics of Jacobean London. He was witness to the pomp of the Star Chamber; the burning of a dissenter; and the humiliation of his master by King James and the royal favorite, the dangerously beautiful Buckingham. Haunted by ambition and love for a woman above his station, he fled to New England, where repression and conformity wore different clothes. In Settle's terrific account, the little known history of Williams emerges in layers, detailing the turbulent, dedicated life of a man committed to individuality and political freedom.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Mary Lee Settle
50 books19 followersGraduate of Sweet Briar College. Winner of the National Book Award in 1978 for Blood Tie.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 26, 2013
The old wall separating church and state now looks so much a part of the natural landscape of American culture that it's hard to remember the stones were mortared with martyr's blood.
But Roger Williams, the chief mason of that wall, never forgot what it cost. And from the sound of his insistent voice in this historical novel by Mary Lee Settle, it's clear he never let anyone else forget either.
Branded a traitor, a heretic, an Indian lover, even "divinely mad," the founder of Rhode Island smelted his ideas about the primacy of conscience in the flames of England's religious controversy.
He was born outside London, probably in 1603, the same year James I began his contentious reign. Early in this fictionalized memoir, Williams describes slipping into a small room to hear a dissenter preach from the new Bible "with the King's name on it in gold, the most dangerous book that has ever been released upon a people." Later, seeing this brave man burned alive at the stake makes a lasting impression on the boy. "He planted words of fire," Williams says. "I am a seeker to this day."
His search might have been snuffed out, had he not caught the attention of England's most famous barrister, Sir Edward Coke. As Coke's private secretary, Williams received the world's most sophisticated education in the rapidly developing theory of parliamentary law. Coke walked the razor's edge, risking the ire of two frustrated kings as he attempted to establish the rule of principle over royal prerogative.
Most of Settle's story concentrates on these formative years of Williams's life, about which little is known. She has re-created Coke's strategy and Williams's reaction in intricate, sometimes belabored detail - but that seems true to her narrator, who's searching for the sparks that set his adult life ablaze.
Only in the last 50 pages does Williams describe his trip to New England, where he spent four argumentative years before being banished by the pious "Saints" in the dead of winter. Alone, nearly frozen to death, he was saved by Indians and went on to found the small settlement of Providence.
(Edwin Gaustad has just released a concise biography of Williams for young people [Oxford University Press]. Though it lacks the emotional power of Settle's novel, it provides a helpful summary of Williams's life in America.)
In "I, Roger Williams," the protagonist speaks to us and "the Father of Lights" toward the end of his long life in Rhode Island, his "sometimes Eden." "I have wrote much of this," he tells us, "to exorcise the haunting."
At times, wandering alone before his family wakes up, he's smothered in grief, furious that he couldn't maintain the shaky peace between the "Saints" and his native-American friends. Even the precious freedom of conscience that he labored to establish seems ready to slip away under the weight of ignorance and self-righteousness.
Settle brilliantly catches the combustible ironies of Williams's character, and they give light to this unusual novel. As he rages at his numerous enemies, living and dead, here and abroad, he never loses the spirit of forgiveness or a sense of humor. (He notes wryly that a detractor once said he had a mind like a windmill.) And true to his radical doctrine, he always resists the sin of his oppressors: "I must warn myself," he writes, "lest I see myself as chosen of all men, question that mystic pride within that tells me I am Right and must teach what I have found to be True. Oh Truth oh Right oh save me from such a trap."
As Williams's friend, John Milton, would say, the readers for this novel are probably "fit but few." It's full of riches, but they're hard won.
First, it demands considerable familiarity with 17th-century English and American history. There's no coddling us with helpful exposition. If you don't know who Thomas Hooker was - to pick just one of many once towering, but now obscure characters - he'll remain a foggy reference.
The second challenge is actually the novel's greatest strength. Settle spent a cold Vermont winter studying two volumes of Williams's correspondence. In re-creating him, she demonstrates remarkable fidelity to the tone and cadence of his passionate voice, even though, as she acknowledges, we must "learn to read his work as we would another language."
To Williams, a polyglot who counted languages "as the greatest gift of God to us poor, misguided men," that would make perfect sense. After all, when he introduced the concept of free conscience, it was essentially a new moral grammar, "such a fool idea ... as naked as a newborn babe. Even now so long later I sometimes want to charge into the one street here in Providence, the first place in all the world that I know of where such a right is part of the common law, jump over the hogs and the puddles and call out, 'By Christ's bowels, do you not know what you have, do you not know?' "
Settle's fiery novel goes a long way toward reminding us.
Published in The Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0524/p1...
But Roger Williams, the chief mason of that wall, never forgot what it cost. And from the sound of his insistent voice in this historical novel by Mary Lee Settle, it's clear he never let anyone else forget either.
Branded a traitor, a heretic, an Indian lover, even "divinely mad," the founder of Rhode Island smelted his ideas about the primacy of conscience in the flames of England's religious controversy.
He was born outside London, probably in 1603, the same year James I began his contentious reign. Early in this fictionalized memoir, Williams describes slipping into a small room to hear a dissenter preach from the new Bible "with the King's name on it in gold, the most dangerous book that has ever been released upon a people." Later, seeing this brave man burned alive at the stake makes a lasting impression on the boy. "He planted words of fire," Williams says. "I am a seeker to this day."
His search might have been snuffed out, had he not caught the attention of England's most famous barrister, Sir Edward Coke. As Coke's private secretary, Williams received the world's most sophisticated education in the rapidly developing theory of parliamentary law. Coke walked the razor's edge, risking the ire of two frustrated kings as he attempted to establish the rule of principle over royal prerogative.
Most of Settle's story concentrates on these formative years of Williams's life, about which little is known. She has re-created Coke's strategy and Williams's reaction in intricate, sometimes belabored detail - but that seems true to her narrator, who's searching for the sparks that set his adult life ablaze.
Only in the last 50 pages does Williams describe his trip to New England, where he spent four argumentative years before being banished by the pious "Saints" in the dead of winter. Alone, nearly frozen to death, he was saved by Indians and went on to found the small settlement of Providence.
(Edwin Gaustad has just released a concise biography of Williams for young people [Oxford University Press]. Though it lacks the emotional power of Settle's novel, it provides a helpful summary of Williams's life in America.)
In "I, Roger Williams," the protagonist speaks to us and "the Father of Lights" toward the end of his long life in Rhode Island, his "sometimes Eden." "I have wrote much of this," he tells us, "to exorcise the haunting."
At times, wandering alone before his family wakes up, he's smothered in grief, furious that he couldn't maintain the shaky peace between the "Saints" and his native-American friends. Even the precious freedom of conscience that he labored to establish seems ready to slip away under the weight of ignorance and self-righteousness.
Settle brilliantly catches the combustible ironies of Williams's character, and they give light to this unusual novel. As he rages at his numerous enemies, living and dead, here and abroad, he never loses the spirit of forgiveness or a sense of humor. (He notes wryly that a detractor once said he had a mind like a windmill.) And true to his radical doctrine, he always resists the sin of his oppressors: "I must warn myself," he writes, "lest I see myself as chosen of all men, question that mystic pride within that tells me I am Right and must teach what I have found to be True. Oh Truth oh Right oh save me from such a trap."
As Williams's friend, John Milton, would say, the readers for this novel are probably "fit but few." It's full of riches, but they're hard won.
First, it demands considerable familiarity with 17th-century English and American history. There's no coddling us with helpful exposition. If you don't know who Thomas Hooker was - to pick just one of many once towering, but now obscure characters - he'll remain a foggy reference.
The second challenge is actually the novel's greatest strength. Settle spent a cold Vermont winter studying two volumes of Williams's correspondence. In re-creating him, she demonstrates remarkable fidelity to the tone and cadence of his passionate voice, even though, as she acknowledges, we must "learn to read his work as we would another language."
To Williams, a polyglot who counted languages "as the greatest gift of God to us poor, misguided men," that would make perfect sense. After all, when he introduced the concept of free conscience, it was essentially a new moral grammar, "such a fool idea ... as naked as a newborn babe. Even now so long later I sometimes want to charge into the one street here in Providence, the first place in all the world that I know of where such a right is part of the common law, jump over the hogs and the puddles and call out, 'By Christ's bowels, do you not know what you have, do you not know?' "
Settle's fiery novel goes a long way toward reminding us.
Published in The Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0524/p1...
October 15, 2012
I started out reading this book as an alternative to another on Roger Williams that I couldn't find. With the author, Mary Lee Settle, being a National Book Award winner, I figured I'd get the basics of Mr Williams and his experiment with Rhode Island, and could move on from there.
Instead, I was treated to a unique effort of getting to know Roger Williams the man - his upbringing in England and the historic setting, topics and passions of his time (born 1603 ...). The author ambitiously set out to reveal the man's character and beliefs, and how they culminated in Williams eventual role in US history as the founder of a small New England colony that was a refuge for persecuted religious minorities.
But that slice of factual history is not dealt with in this book! Fully three quarters of the pages are following Williams formative years in England, watching and participating in debates that found the King and Parliament at each others throats - the prerogative of the King, persecution from an intertwined state and religion (catholic or protestant, it varied), etc. - until at last Williams and his wife Mary find themselves on a boat to the English colonies in America as a way to avoid imprisonment.
The author uses the technique of an old man remembering his life. From this viewpoint, Roger Williams, now declining, stooped by the consequences and trajectory of his decisions, beliefs, and responsibilities made throughout his life, reflects on the momentous events of early New England and his small efforts within that thread. The author has masterfully developed a believable character, one who is self deprecating, thoughtful, thankful, burdened with regrets yet holding a gentle humor. Thus, Williams reveals his life and what learnings he has distilled from mere froth.
Even the language of the day is captured, I assume. Author Settle captures Roger Williams speaking with a different cadence and vocabulary than today (nearly 400 years later), one reflecting his deeply held religious convictions and an unsparing conviction on the difference between his Christ and how Christianity was used by religious leaders and even the common man for their own advancement.
A few short excerpts highlight the flavor of this old man reminiscing several centuries ago, so ably developed by the author.
Williams reflecting on a friend of his, John Winthrop, - an individual who was helpful personally to Williams, yet as a man of some substance in England, was also sympathetic to an intolerant ruling mentality. Williams noted that John agreed with a stern Bishop (in London) that "there were too many stubborn and unrepentant Puritans. Which now included for that passionately narrow man any member of the Church of England who did not agree with whole heart and habit with the new dispensations of lace and surplices and holy vestments and tables for communion set as altars in right (the Bishop's) place, and grace, and not work instead of work and not grace as if they two were not married at the hip and heart and thigh. All of this holy Christian doctrine of love shouted through clenched teeth.
I finally see this late in life that the man was mad with belief in his own power and rightness and thought it God's. Oh would the Father of Lights give me a questing mind alive. His greatest gift of all, lest I tread upon others souls. Show me question as a part of grace." pg 234
In New England, after having been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Williams ended up in the Narragansett Bay area of what would become Rhode Island. He reflects on a man who joined them. "The other, Mr Throckmorton, was also young and less wild for he had a new wife. We became friends there and would be close for years until the Quakers, that ungodly riotous ignorant crew, came and bewitched him and he turned on me and I turned on him, I must admit. Old men, the two of us sat five minutes apart in our houses and wrote violent religious letters back and forth to one another when we were near enough each other to shout out of the window. It was and ever has been my duty to point out error, I think, but lately I wonder." pg 240
And as the novel closes, as it IS a wonderfully imaginative novel, Williams concludes, "So finally, after nearly thirty years of trying, we have a jewel here in Providence, a sometime democracy that falls often into anarchy and brabble but somehow rights itself, where every man can speak his mind, and the majority rule and the minority protected in their conscience and God knows to my impatience their ever shouting voices.
O Father of Lights if I still have a prayer within me, make them conscious of having bought truth so dear. We must not sell it cheap, not the least grain of it for the whole world. What I have learned and often forgot is to be a naysayer for I have seen those who have fallen into yea-saying for the sake of property, pleasure, or fear. It has been a bitter sweetening. For the broken bags of riches on eagles' wings, for a dream or land or gold or power any and all of these vanish on our deathbeds and leave tormenting stings behind them." pg 307
Instead, I was treated to a unique effort of getting to know Roger Williams the man - his upbringing in England and the historic setting, topics and passions of his time (born 1603 ...). The author ambitiously set out to reveal the man's character and beliefs, and how they culminated in Williams eventual role in US history as the founder of a small New England colony that was a refuge for persecuted religious minorities.
But that slice of factual history is not dealt with in this book! Fully three quarters of the pages are following Williams formative years in England, watching and participating in debates that found the King and Parliament at each others throats - the prerogative of the King, persecution from an intertwined state and religion (catholic or protestant, it varied), etc. - until at last Williams and his wife Mary find themselves on a boat to the English colonies in America as a way to avoid imprisonment.
The author uses the technique of an old man remembering his life. From this viewpoint, Roger Williams, now declining, stooped by the consequences and trajectory of his decisions, beliefs, and responsibilities made throughout his life, reflects on the momentous events of early New England and his small efforts within that thread. The author has masterfully developed a believable character, one who is self deprecating, thoughtful, thankful, burdened with regrets yet holding a gentle humor. Thus, Williams reveals his life and what learnings he has distilled from mere froth.
Even the language of the day is captured, I assume. Author Settle captures Roger Williams speaking with a different cadence and vocabulary than today (nearly 400 years later), one reflecting his deeply held religious convictions and an unsparing conviction on the difference between his Christ and how Christianity was used by religious leaders and even the common man for their own advancement.
A few short excerpts highlight the flavor of this old man reminiscing several centuries ago, so ably developed by the author.
Williams reflecting on a friend of his, John Winthrop, - an individual who was helpful personally to Williams, yet as a man of some substance in England, was also sympathetic to an intolerant ruling mentality. Williams noted that John agreed with a stern Bishop (in London) that "there were too many stubborn and unrepentant Puritans. Which now included for that passionately narrow man any member of the Church of England who did not agree with whole heart and habit with the new dispensations of lace and surplices and holy vestments and tables for communion set as altars in right (the Bishop's) place, and grace, and not work instead of work and not grace as if they two were not married at the hip and heart and thigh. All of this holy Christian doctrine of love shouted through clenched teeth.
I finally see this late in life that the man was mad with belief in his own power and rightness and thought it God's. Oh would the Father of Lights give me a questing mind alive. His greatest gift of all, lest I tread upon others souls. Show me question as a part of grace." pg 234
In New England, after having been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Williams ended up in the Narragansett Bay area of what would become Rhode Island. He reflects on a man who joined them. "The other, Mr Throckmorton, was also young and less wild for he had a new wife. We became friends there and would be close for years until the Quakers, that ungodly riotous ignorant crew, came and bewitched him and he turned on me and I turned on him, I must admit. Old men, the two of us sat five minutes apart in our houses and wrote violent religious letters back and forth to one another when we were near enough each other to shout out of the window. It was and ever has been my duty to point out error, I think, but lately I wonder." pg 240
And as the novel closes, as it IS a wonderfully imaginative novel, Williams concludes, "So finally, after nearly thirty years of trying, we have a jewel here in Providence, a sometime democracy that falls often into anarchy and brabble but somehow rights itself, where every man can speak his mind, and the majority rule and the minority protected in their conscience and God knows to my impatience their ever shouting voices.
O Father of Lights if I still have a prayer within me, make them conscious of having bought truth so dear. We must not sell it cheap, not the least grain of it for the whole world. What I have learned and often forgot is to be a naysayer for I have seen those who have fallen into yea-saying for the sake of property, pleasure, or fear. It has been a bitter sweetening. For the broken bags of riches on eagles' wings, for a dream or land or gold or power any and all of these vanish on our deathbeds and leave tormenting stings behind them." pg 307
February 13, 2013
A "memoir" of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. The premise is that Roger Williams, in his last year or so, is writing a memoir since all of his letters and papers were destroyed in a fire. Settle definitely did her research in writing this book. It goes into great detail, especially about Williams' youth in and around London.
I was 3/4 done with the book when I started talking about it with the Park Ranger at the Roger Williams National Memorial. He told me that the book was very accurate, with a few minor errors (the settlers did not build log cabins). I admit I felt better about reading it.
Although the language is old - it's a bit like reading the King James version of the Bible, which was written during Williams' lifetime - it's very engaging and easy to sink into.
My only complaint with the book is how little of it covers his life once he founded Rhode Island. Although he arrived in New England about age 30, and lived to age 65, barely 1/5 of the book is dedicated to that time. It's almost written as if the author expects that the reader knows about all what happened.
Still a good read, and recommended.
I was 3/4 done with the book when I started talking about it with the Park Ranger at the Roger Williams National Memorial. He told me that the book was very accurate, with a few minor errors (the settlers did not build log cabins). I admit I felt better about reading it.
Although the language is old - it's a bit like reading the King James version of the Bible, which was written during Williams' lifetime - it's very engaging and easy to sink into.
My only complaint with the book is how little of it covers his life once he founded Rhode Island. Although he arrived in New England about age 30, and lived to age 65, barely 1/5 of the book is dedicated to that time. It's almost written as if the author expects that the reader knows about all what happened.
Still a good read, and recommended.
November 30, 2014
I stumbled across "I, Roger Williams" in the public library, while I was waiting for my wife to go through the check-out line. A brief glance was enough to capture my attention, even though I had heard nothing about this book. After a careful reading (sometimes with a dictionary at my side), I am ready to read it again. "I, Roger Williams" is a sublime work, weaving great insight about human relations with credible historical fiction. With a delicate touch Mary Lee Settle has written one of the finest works of fiction I have ever read. This is a book to read slowly and savor, as it sparks reflection about law and faith and tolerance, and it piques curiosity about historical detail. No other work of fiction has so artfully explored the continuity between old England and New England, or critiqued the weaknesses of our ancestors while celebrating their achievements. Mary Lee Settle breathes life into great men who have unjustly become footnotes for historians. And she paints the most joyous pictures of faithfulness in marriage and wisdom with aging that I have seen. I am deeply indebted to the author for her research, wit, grace, and maturity; and I recommend this work to all who have the patience to read a masterpiece.
April 4, 2024
Written in somewhat stilted prose, this novel is truly well-researched and executed. Roger williams is one of my own personal heroes, so I was glad to find a novel detailing his early life in London before becoming one of the greatest of America's 'Founders'.
Highly recommend to historical novel enthusiasts.
Roger Williams was, by far, the most moral and honest of all our Founders.
Highly recommend to historical novel enthusiasts.
Roger Williams was, by far, the most moral and honest of all our Founders.
November 3, 2020
Absolutely, positively a wonderful book. I savored every word. A truly literary gem. The author wove history with a heart-rendering story that is original, thought-provoking and also, so beautifully written. I can't say enough in praise of this book.
May 20, 2020
Very well written, so much so that I could not tell when she was quoting Williams or filling in the gaps.
April 2, 2021
Read in college (06?) for American Lit class
August 28, 2024
This fascinating novel is about the life of Roger Williams, known as the founder of Rhode Island and an advocate of removing religious compliance from governance, or as we now call it, "the separation of church and state".
There is so much to recommend this book. First, the language Mary Lee Settle uses brings us into the past.
"I, Roger Williams, once called passionate, precipitate, and divinely mad, New England's gadfly,
firebrand in the night, do slump upon the ground this day in late June of the most disastrous
year of my life, 1676, like a stove hulk. "
Settle use Roger's voice to recount his life story starting from his point of view as an elderly man looking back on his life. We learn about the rise of young Roger from his working class boyhood to becoming the secretary to Sir Edward Coke. And Roger's introduction to the halls of Parliament, landed gentry and the king.
Second, Settle gives us insights into the formation of Roger Williams' belief in the freedom for each to practice his/her own religion. Through Roger's eyes, we follow the persecution of a dissident to the Church of England, a King who claims he is God-ordained, and see powerful religious figures maneuver to control Parliament. Religion intimately controls Roger's story and the story of numerous non-conformists. It is both his joy and his burden.
Finally, to fully understand the incredible impact of his life, Settle introduces Roger's life in New England after making sure we understood his background and formation in England. The intolerance and persecution of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony upon those who don't conform to their religion results in Roger Williams' flight to Providence. Yes, and the rest is history! Thought provoking and highly recommend.
There is so much to recommend this book. First, the language Mary Lee Settle uses brings us into the past.
"I, Roger Williams, once called passionate, precipitate, and divinely mad, New England's gadfly,
firebrand in the night, do slump upon the ground this day in late June of the most disastrous
year of my life, 1676, like a stove hulk. "
Settle use Roger's voice to recount his life story starting from his point of view as an elderly man looking back on his life. We learn about the rise of young Roger from his working class boyhood to becoming the secretary to Sir Edward Coke. And Roger's introduction to the halls of Parliament, landed gentry and the king.
Second, Settle gives us insights into the formation of Roger Williams' belief in the freedom for each to practice his/her own religion. Through Roger's eyes, we follow the persecution of a dissident to the Church of England, a King who claims he is God-ordained, and see powerful religious figures maneuver to control Parliament. Religion intimately controls Roger's story and the story of numerous non-conformists. It is both his joy and his burden.
Finally, to fully understand the incredible impact of his life, Settle introduces Roger's life in New England after making sure we understood his background and formation in England. The intolerance and persecution of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony upon those who don't conform to their religion results in Roger Williams' flight to Providence. Yes, and the rest is history! Thought provoking and highly recommend.
January 23, 2017
Before reviewing below, this was a hard read for several reasons. I almost stopped about 20 pages in and seriously thought about stopping 150+ pages in. But I did not want to quit so I powered through and now glad I did.
Well, this is hard book to read and for me a hard book to finish. It is written all 300+ pages as a stream of conscience directly from Roger Williams. It is uniquely, but for me unfortunately, written in his words directly from his writings in his 17th century english. The book is hard to read and spends (in my opinion) too much time with his life in England, the reader doesn't get to his wedding until about 200 pages in and their journey to New England after that. Only then, in the last few chapters, the story is brought to life in early America, from Boston to Providence, RI, from his interactions with the Indians to his neighbors which send him and his family into exile. It tells the story of how one fought his entire life for separation of church and state, and freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience. It is ironic that I finish such a book on the weekend the new President in inaugurated. I'll leave that at that. It is a good story, just not well told, but that is just my opinion...on to the next one!
Well, this is hard book to read and for me a hard book to finish. It is written all 300+ pages as a stream of conscience directly from Roger Williams. It is uniquely, but for me unfortunately, written in his words directly from his writings in his 17th century english. The book is hard to read and spends (in my opinion) too much time with his life in England, the reader doesn't get to his wedding until about 200 pages in and their journey to New England after that. Only then, in the last few chapters, the story is brought to life in early America, from Boston to Providence, RI, from his interactions with the Indians to his neighbors which send him and his family into exile. It tells the story of how one fought his entire life for separation of church and state, and freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience. It is ironic that I finish such a book on the weekend the new President in inaugurated. I'll leave that at that. It is a good story, just not well told, but that is just my opinion...on to the next one!
February 28, 2011
“I, Roger Williams, once called passionate, precipitate, and divinely mad, New England’s gadfly, firebrand in the night, do slump upon the ground this day in late June of the most disastrous year of the my life, 1676, like a stove hulk.”
In this work of historical fiction, Mary Lee Settle attempts to present a portrait of the real-life founder of Rhode Island and defender of religious freedom, Roger Williams. Based on Williams’ own correspondence and historical records, Settle gives a voice to this seventeenth century American hero.
As a lover of history, I really appreciated Settle’s fine research and accounts of the struggles between the rights of man and king, and the rise of Puritanism in England and it’s effects on the New World. In addition, I loved her presentation of first person narrative. The eloquent writing style truly made you feel as if you were in the room with Williams telling his life story. That said, it was a slow read for me. I didn’t adapt to the writing style as easily as I do to Shakespeare, but the pace was the only downside for me. This was a remarkable and enjoyable book!
In this work of historical fiction, Mary Lee Settle attempts to present a portrait of the real-life founder of Rhode Island and defender of religious freedom, Roger Williams. Based on Williams’ own correspondence and historical records, Settle gives a voice to this seventeenth century American hero.
As a lover of history, I really appreciated Settle’s fine research and accounts of the struggles between the rights of man and king, and the rise of Puritanism in England and it’s effects on the New World. In addition, I loved her presentation of first person narrative. The eloquent writing style truly made you feel as if you were in the room with Williams telling his life story. That said, it was a slow read for me. I didn’t adapt to the writing style as easily as I do to Shakespeare, but the pace was the only downside for me. This was a remarkable and enjoyable book!
June 18, 2009
I have read this book twice. It is remarkable in that it convincingly creates an "autobiography" or "semi autobiography" as the subtitle puts it. That is, I, as the reader, believed that Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, is narrating his life. The irony is that he is narrating only to himself: He is an old man ruminating on a full and examined life both in Old and New England. One feels close to a mind/soul/person whose greatest personal moments have been moments of conscience and contemplation. A recurrent beautiful theme is the love of one's young self --- and how the seeds of the old man can be planted in a childhood event. Another excellent feature of the book is how it portrays how a person like Roger Williams sees God as so personal and intermingled with his joy and suffering.
August 28, 2013
I got bogged down in this book's LONG description of William's life at court in England as a teenager and young man and nearly gave up. It is page 220 (of 309) before he is married, 240 before he reaches New England...leaving 69 pages to cover more than half his life -- the half that most people will be expecting when they pick up this book.
The language starts out feeling tedious but by the end I appreciated it and thought the author had found a unique, authentic voice for her narrator. I just wish the voice told more of the story I came here to read.
The language starts out feeling tedious but by the end I appreciated it and thought the author had found a unique, authentic voice for her narrator. I just wish the voice told more of the story I came here to read.
Read
February 15, 2016I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In part, I'm sure, because I am one of many of Roger Williams descendants. It was so interesting to read about him, his parents, wife,her father, and their daughter Mary. Gaining insight to his way of thinking, finding out what a moral man he was, and such a progressive thinker! The originator of the idea of the separation of church and state in America. His view of the Natives as,at times, much more moral than the English, was one of many beliefs that made him unpopular.
January 2, 2010
I really wanted to like this look at my state's founding father but I got so bogged down by the convoluted 17thc language/phrasing that it was even difficult digging out the subject & object in the sentences. I did learn a bit of history but didn't get too far before my brain hurt and I had to put it aside. Hope to pick it up again someday & see if it reads more easily then.
Read
November 24, 2015I thought it was good, but probably because I am a descendant.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews