000			01506nam a2200169 4500
020			_a9781429909815
024			_a861699459
050			_aPS3622.A675
082			_a813.6
100	1		_aBrenda Rickman Vantrease
245	1		_aThe Illuminator
260			_bSt. Martin's Press _c2005
300			_a416 pages
520			_aA glowing first novel that brings us "historical fiction in the grand epic manner, beautifully felt and written" It is England, in the fourteenth century -- a time of plague, political unrest and the earliest stirrings of the Reformation. The printing press had yet to be invented, and books were rare and costly, painstakingly lettered by hand and illuminated with exquisite paintings. Finn is a master illuminator who works not only for the Church but also, in secret, for John Wycliffe of Oxford, who professes the radical idea that the Bible should be translated into English for everyone to read. Finn has another secret as well, one that leads him into danger when he meets Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow struggling to protect her inheritance from the depredations of Church and Crown alike. Finn's alliance with Lady Kathryn will take us to the heart of what Barbara Tuchman once called "the calamitous fourteenth century." Richly detailed and irresistibly compelling, Brenda Rickman Vantrease's The Illuminator is a glorious story of love, art, religion, and treachery at an extraordinary turning point in history.
650			_aHistorical Fiction
999			_c15622 _d15622