Fludd by Hilary Mantel
It takes place in a small, soggy Yorkshire town in the 1950s. The priest at the little, outdated Catholic church gets a letter warning that someone is coming to shake things up. Then, one dark and stormy night, there is a knock on the door, and standing on the doorway is a priest with a tidy little dog collar and his black hair very neatly combed. He is expecting someone to come along and lead them into the 20th century. It quickly becomes clear that this is a demonic manifestation. It’s quite remarkable because you have this incredibly beautiful, sexy, and evil priest persona who sets out to wreak havoc in the rather unsettling small Yorkshire village.
Fludd by Hilary Mantel
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Ironic magic has been crafted by Hilary Mantel into a masterpiece. She transformed a 1950s English town into a kingdom of the supernatural. As if by divine intervention. She gave each character a full life with a hint of the heavenly. Or a little touch of the devil? Whichever, I’m not sure if it matters.
Sister Philly is the character I love the most. She is too full of life to live in a nunnery. Of course, there is also the former curator and alchemist Robert Fludd. From the 1600s, I’m not sure how he made it to Fetherhoughton. Maybe time travel? Or perhaps rebirth? What joy Fludd has and produces for the reader—at least for this reader.
The book is something of an “ironical” comedy. Moreover, a critique of faith, particularly superstition.
The English mill town of Fetherhoughton serves as the setting for Hilary Mantel’s little but entertaining novel FLUDD. There are four main participants. Despite no longer believing in God, Father Angwin, pastor of the St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church, perseveres in caring for his flock despite the imbecile diocesan bishop’s interference. His spinster housekeeper Miss Dempsey is terrified of a tiny wart on her top lip because she believes it to be a sign of cancer. Sister Philomena, an Irish nun who teaches in the parish school, was compelled by her family to enter the convent, where she is subjected to the mother superior’s petty tyranny.
Then there is FLUDD, a curate purportedly dispatched by the annoying bishop to assist Angwin in modernizing his pastoral style. Or is he not? As soon as Fludd moves in, people start to change. The mystery surrounding the nature of the being known as Fludd, which also permeated Angwin’s perception during his first dinner with Fludd, is what makes this story so captivating.
