A PARCEL OF PATTERNS

by Jill Paton Walsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 16, 1984

How the village of Eyam caught the plague (1665) from a parcel of patterns sent from London--and, also historically, isolated itself to keep the plague from spreading: another struggle of principle and wills, in the proven Walsh vein, and effective despite the negligible personal affairs and conventional young protagonists. They are narrator Mall Percival, a lettered, advantaged 16-year-old at the book's start, and her worthy shepherd-love, Tom Torte. The story takes shape, however, in Walsh's artful shadings and thickenings: the arrival of mild Parson Momphesson and his lovely Catherine--to replace Parson Stanley, a good-and-faithful Puritan, and restore the old rites; the grim death of tailor George Vicars, who had ordered the patterns for Mistress Momphesson; the Plague's spread, the frenzy to ""keep the sickness from us""; the conflicting counsels of Parson Stanley, preaching God's judgment, repentance, and faith, and Parson Momphesson, preaching God's mercy, self-help, and sanitation. (Catherine Momphesson, heedlessly tending the stricken, is reproached with being of Stanley's mind.) Mall's friend Emmot dies, her love for Tom's cousin Roland unconsummated; once the Plague passes, Mall will have Tom, permission or not. After a respite, the dying resumes; there is talk of forsaking Eyam--but no, says Parson Momphesson: ""while not saving yourselves you will bring death upon countless others""--and Parson Stanley, in his own way, agrees (""What good will it do you, to flee from the will of God?""). The strife between the parsons ended, the town walled in by ""our own wills,"" the rest of the story--Mall's father's death, her mother's death, her marriage to Tom and his death--comes with the turn of the few remaining pages. The ""doleful history""--in Walsh's stately, resonant telling--is the town's.

Pub Date: Dec. 16, 1984

ISBN: 0374457433

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION