Name: A Delusion Of Satan
Rating: 3.25 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9780306811593

Frances Hill

This acclaimed history illuminates the horrifying episode of Salem with visceral clarity, from those who fanned the crisis to satisfy personal vendettas to the four-year-old "witch" chained to a dank prison wall in darkness till she went mad. Antonia Fraser called it "a grisly read and an engrossing one."

The Full Story Of The Salem Witch Trials

A Delusion Of Satan

Very readable narrativisation of the Salem witch trials. If you're after a chronological account then this is a very compelling option as it follows the key players in the trials and offers some pop psychology explanations for their behaviours and motives (although I found these to be the least convincing parts of Hill's analysis). Her assessment of historical evidence is couched in language that attempts to be cautiously speculative but nonetheless reveals her partiality to a certain reading of what happened. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since it lends a coherency to the story, but also makes it difficult to forget that this is just one person's interpretation of events rather than 'the full story' it claims to be. Also, that family tree at the beginning of my edition couldn't have been more useless.

A Delusion Of Satan The Full Story Of The Salem Witch Trials

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