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Original Title:	Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman
ISBN:	0871318741 (ISBN13: 9780871318749)
Edition Language:	English

Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman

Ann Baer

Paperback | Pages: 240 pages

Rating: 4.14 | 515 Users | 81 Reviews

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Title	:	Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman
Author	:	Ann Baer
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 240 pages
Published	:	September 9th 1998 by M. Evans and Company (first published December 31st 1996)
Categories	:	Historical. Historical Fiction. Medieval. Fiction. European Literature. British Literature

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Ok, this is NOT the best book ever written. In fact it is pretty simplistic. However it is the 1st historical fiction book I've ever read - and I read LOTS of them to talk about what the life a common everyday womand was like.

Marion is not a beautiful woman, I'm guessing her age at somewhere between 20-30 (her 1st child had lived to be 12). She has no one to dress her or put her hair up or make her food... The wife of a carpenter still puts her pretty high up on the food chain, but what she goes through just to keep her family alive is amazing. Lets not even talk about the lack of hygiene - 1 dress, all year, chilren vommiting & peeing as you hold them, and that's just the polite stuff!

I think this should be required reading for every teenager today. They're bitching because Dad only gave them a Ford instead of a Lexis, but if they lived back in Medieval times, at 6-8 yrs old, they would be out finding fire wood to keep the house warm, feeding the livstock (if there was any) watching the younger siblings (and there were usually lots) and learning a trade.

The amount of deprivation - not just food, but everything is something that might be glossed over in another book on the times, but here are people trying to decide if they will be warmer going barefoot in winter or wearing the boots that are already soaked through & half frozen at that - Marion decides on barefeet. Her amazement at Sir Hugh's ownership of 2 pairs of boots is like one of us looking at some movie star walking down the red carpet in a dress that cost hundreds of thousands of $$$$.

Depsite all the hard work and hard times, Marion and the others in her little town find much to be happy about, the arrival of a tinker from someplace that they can't even imagine (It's farther away then the next largest village). His description of the ocean they take as we might take the description of Mars. It might really be there, but you just can't wrap your mind around it.

Some of the reading is hard. I can't imagine leaving a child under the age of 2 sitting next to the fire pit (no fire place, just a circle of stones!)in the house (and boy do I use that word loosly!). Going out to the stream to get water and leaving her daughter sitting outside the cottage would be called child abuse today. Yet, if you stop to think about it, nothing would get done if there was the constant attention we deem necessary for our children.

The description of her son Peterkin's accident with a hot soup pot which the cat tips and eventually cripples both his arm and leg is told matter of factly. Marion wishes that it had not happened, but there's nothing to do about it now except try to figure out some chore that he can do so that when he is old enough he can make a living. Life here is pretty raw.

Anyway, the book is just over 200 pages and a very easy read. If you are like me and have always wondered what goes on down the road from the castle, this is your answer. As bad as most castles were, this is MUCH worse! Be glad you were born when you were!

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Ratings: 4.14 From 515 Users | 81 Reviews

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One of the reasons I adore historical fiction so much is because I am absolutely fascinated by how people lived well before modern times. Even something as recent as the 1930s and 1940s are fascinating to me because of how quickly our world has changed with the advent of televisions, telephones, the internet, and smartphones. But usually historical fiction stays in pretty safe waters, generally no earlier than the 1700s because people didn't really start writing down what life was like until

really interesting perspective, makes you appreciate your modern conveniences, like having a bathroom and more than one bowl.

An interesting view of life for women in the Middle Ages. I was struck by how hard survival truly was.

The title sums up the book. Starting with March, a slice of daily life for Marion Carpenter is given from month to month for a year. The manor in the book is not some grand holding. It seems like it's just a very large farm. It's also difficult to determine exactly in what year the story is set. The author doesn't give you much more than what Marion herself would have known or understood and it's apparently a VERY remote little village.Still, it's the details of her everyday life that pull me to

All too often, our glimpses into the past are all about the movers and shakers of the time. That is only to be expected since they were the people who shaped their times. However, whatever the age, there were always common people who lived and died along side them, usually without any notice given to them. This book changes that. It is a chronicle of a year in the life of a common woman and her fmily. The year is not explicitly given, neither is the location. All the better to tell the story of

Marion, the carpenters wife, is followed through a month-by-month depiction of a womans life. Hardships, duties, lack of emotions are all emphasized. Strength of her determination to do what she must; uncertainty of life is the major focus. Death is part of lifes routine including - maybe especially - deaths of children. Excellent.

I found this book fascinating; not a whole lot happens in terms of plot, but it was so interesting to read what life might have been like for a Medieval woman. Everything from parenting, to food, to work, to the homes they lived in...it's incredible to get some idea of how different life was. Really made me glad to live in the 21st century, that's for sure!