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Year of Wonders is a novel about a young woman’s growth as her town is struck by a disease known as the Plague. The young characters name is Anna Frith. Anna is also a housemaid in he plot. The events of the novel takes place in England, 1666 where Anna describes the setting of the novel as, “..wood stacked at the door,... hay made all golden afternoon light.”(Brooks, 3) Anna housemaids for the rector who is a priest that lost his wife, Elinor the year before. “He winced and turned away as I mentioned her,..” (Brooks, 4) In the next chapter the year flashes back to 1665. Anna Frith in the novel lost her husband in a mine accident the past winter. In the spring time Anna is grieving and a character,Mr.Viccars is introduced to the plot as maybe an angel even though he is tailor, (Brooks, 23) because he is described to be great to her kids and he also cares for Anna as well. Weeks later the character Mr.Viccars grows a fever and gets sick with Plague and dies. Anna thinks about her two boys who loved to play with Mr.Viccars under his arms and near his neck where the Plague sore was placed. The news of his death makes people come to Anna’s house because Mr. Viccars made clothes for them. Anna tries to persuade the townspeople not to take the clothes that Mr. Viccars made becuase in the plot before he died he told Anna to burn all his clothes. No one listen though, (Brooks, 50) and they brought their clothes back to their cabins. Days later a charcter, Edward Cooper is introduced to the plot as the first victim since Mr.Viccars to die. When he dies the townspeople become scared and start to stay to them selves. Shortly after Edward Cooper’s funeral, the plot describes Anna of having her own mourning to do.”..I had mourning of my own to do.” (Brooks, 76) Anna’s youngest son became sick with the plague and dies. Anna is describe as howling when she wakes up to see her dead son in her arms, (Brooks, 79) Anna’s eldest son, Jamie died next with the plague sore rising in his armpit. As more people in the plot die, Anna is a witness to a mob who is described as being drunk surrounding Mem Gowdie believing that she is a witch because she makes medicine for the townspeople. In the plot Anna tries to protest but is cast aside while the drunk mob dunks Mem in the cold water. Mem’s niece Anys sees what’s going on and revives Mem but the mob turns on her and Anna also tries to protest but Anys admits to “laying with the Devil” ( Brooks, 92), and is hanged. The rector finds what has happened and commands all the mob people to repent for their sins, and days later because she almost drowned in the cold water Mem dies. In the novel it is Sunday and the townspeople go to church and it is described as ⅔ of the townspeople are gone and the church is empty. In the church house the Rector is telling the townspeople to stay together and not move out of town because they could affect other people in other towns and so the people in the village would not die alone so the people in the town take an oath to stay, and as the chapter in the novel ends it describes a family, the Bradfords moving out of their home to move out of town. The Bradfords move and fire all their servants in the novel and all the servants except for two, Maggie and Brad, move into the other villagers homes and Maggie and Brad are forced to move out of the village. Since Any and Gowdie are dead and they made medicines and delivered babies Elinor and Anna in the novel, start to do their job. In the plot of the novel the Rector tells everyone to bring their clothes and some personal belongings to burn them because he believes they are the reason the plague has stayed with the village, “To save our lives... we must shed ourselves of our...goods, all that.. our hands have touched and our bodies worn...breathed upon..” (Brooks, 238) After the villagers burn their clothes, Aphra, who is Anna’s stepmother in the novel, is caught by one of the men in the village and she is accused of selling people charms while posing to be the ghost of Anys Gowdie. As Aphra’s punishment she is put into a pit of pig manure where she almost drowns, and then is taken back home with her three year old daughter. Since Aphra’s punishment she is describe as being distrought and Anna is described as worrying for the three year old and she wants to check on her and when she does she sees in Aphra’s cottage window that she was performing a ritual over a object and the object is Aphra’s three year old, Faith who she killed. The next day in the novel the villagers gathered in the field to worship since they abandoned their church house when Aphra shrieks to get the Mompellions attention. The Mompellions go over to confront her when she stabs Elinor in the neck to kill her and then proceeds kill her self. In the next chapter the year switches again to 1666 and after Elinor’s funeral the Rector becomes depressed and stays in his room talking to no one. Days later in the novel Anna goes to the stable to take a horse out and she rides it but gets caught by the rector, when she comes off the rector kisses her, and then they procede to have intercourse multiple times. Anna stopped having intercourse with him because all she wanted to do was feel like the Rector’s wife, Elinor. The Bradford’s come back to town and Anna had just finished moving Elizabeth Bradford out the door and Anna in the novel, walks to the church house, and meets Elizabeth again. It is revealed in the plot that Elizabeth’s mom Mrs.Bradford was pregnant again, and she was losing to much blood and needed someone to deliver her baby. After the birth Anna walks in on Elizabeth Bradford trying to drown the baby that just got introduced to the plot, because she was trying to save her mother from her father since the baby was a bastard. Anna proposed in the novel to take the baby as her owns and the Bradford’s agree. Since the Bradfords’s would be mad at the baby is still alive the Rector warns Anna to flee from the town with a note to Elinor’s parents explaining her death. Towards the end of the novel, Anna reaches a port and is warned by an innkeeper that a gentleman who is one of the Bradford’s son, looking to take the baby from her. The innkeeper informs her to take the next boat loaded with pigs away from the port. At the end of the novel Anna meets an Arabian doctor who marries Anna. The novel ends with Anna changing her name to remember her first born, Jamie and having her daughters, Aisha from the Bradford’s and Elinor who she got from her affair with the Rector.

Characters
Anna Frith, the protagonist of the novel, is described as a young housemaid. In the plot she is described as a widow and she also has two young sons., Tom and Jamie. She also bonds with the “Rector”s wife, Elinor. Elinor Mompellion, the “Rector”s wife, who bonds with Anna their house servant after the village they live in gets hit with the plague. She also dies when she is stabbed in the neck. Micheal Mompellion, the “Rector”, who is the new priest in the village, has to get used to the village and faces the challenge of being a leader for the village and visiting people’s bedsides as they die. Mr.Viccars, a tailor who stays at Anna’s house, and is the first to get sick with the plague. Before he dies, he request Anna to burn his clothes that he has made for the townspeople, but she doesn’t so the plague spreads. Anys Gowdie, a medicine speacialist, who sleeps with the men in the village both single and married. When her aunt, Mem Gowdie, is surronded by an angry drunk mob, she tries to come to the rescue but is persude by the mob for being a witch which she admits to sleeping with the devil and is hanged. Tom Frith, the youngest son of Anna Frith. Jamie Frith, the oldest son of Anna Frith. The Bradfords, a wealthy family who goes agaisnt the oath that the village takes. They move back to the village when the plague goes away, and they look for Anna because she took their baby that they were going to drown.

Reception
Shaunagh O’Conner critizes the novel as being “quirky, stranger-than-fiction tales from history” however Conner, also says it’s a “fascinating details of life in the 1600s". Laura D. Shumar said that Year of Wonders was similar but contrasting to a "... fictional story Albert Camus's La Peste (1947; The Plague, 1948)." Noah Adams in an interview witht the author called it "..heartbreaking.." Shumar also stated that " Anna was not a person but a perfect character.." Courier Mail agreed with saying, "..we glimspe an independednt modern woman that an unconvent 17th-century girl."

Major Themes
The Australian named the themes of, "..witchcraft,madness,and repressed sexuality..

{{cite book | last = Brooks | first = Geraldine| authorlink = | title = Year of Wonders | publisher = Penguin Books | date = August 6, 2001 | location = United States of America | pages = 308 | language = English | url = | isbn = {{ISBN|0-14-200143-0}}