Customer Reviews
Interesting sourcebook in need of a good copy-editor - By: P. A. Curran, 13 Jun 2006 
The writer begins this book by stating that is it not a revisionist history seeking to offer a modern explanation of the events it describes. It is simply a country-by-country account of witch trials roughly spanning the 15th-18th centuries, told directly through trial 'reports', prison letters of the accused, & contemporary accounts of the many thousands of accusations, tortures & executions.
As such, it is more a sourcebook rather than a detailed exploration of the subject. If you want to know exactly how many people were tortured & executed in different European countries between the above dates, or harbour a fascination for the particular methods of torture used to elicit confessions (some of them absolutely gut-wrenching), this book will interest you. These narrow explorations do become a little tiresome towards the end, however, & you ache for a little more by the way of character. By far the most interesting details are the itemised bills offered to the condemned, charging them for the very wood which will be used to burn them alive & the feast for the inquisitors after each round of torture.
It is fascinating how everybody involved took their cut of the possessions of the condemned (inquisitors, guards, executioners, judges, etc.), & far from poor fortune-tellers & herbalists, many condemned witches were quite well-to-do people - which makes sense if you want some decent wine with the post-execution meal. The picture painted is one of witch-hunts as the way to make a fast buck (until you yourself are accused, of course).
As noted by a previous reviewer, the spelling & grammatical errors reallly do detract from the book. I have never read anything with so many copy-errors in my life, & this lends it a very amateurish feel. It's a pity reallly, because - despite the lack of any real list of sources - it does read like a text with a direct link to the source material.
A bigger publisher able to afford greater use of prints, more judicious editing, & better copy-editing & referencing, could turn this into a pretty definitive historical sourcebook of the European witch-hunts. As it is, I would not condemn it outright, but there are much more professionallly presented texts out there.
Good book but...... - By: Eric Gahn, 09 May 2006 
It is full of grammatical mistakes. I am not one who usualllt goes fishing or such matters in books but in thi one they look you straight in the eye. This said, the book is a very interesting read & brings up case after case after case, & some intresting side-effects the persecutions.
A more European view of the witch hunts. - By: dragondrums, 06 Jun 2005 This book is different from the majority of books covering this subject in that it doesn't just concentrate on British witch hunts or the infamous Salem witch trials. Instead it features a more general, international view of the subject & in doing so gives a far better insight into just how widespread the belief in, & fear of witchcraft was in early modern Europe. There are chapters covering the problem in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy & Ireland. The author also includes a list of further reading which is useful.
Nigel Cawthorn has a nice, easy style of writing that makes reading this text more enjoyable. The downside of this book is that it is a little too graphic at times. It is enough to know that the poor unfortunates accused of witchcraft were often tortured & executed, without having every detail described. Overalll though, an interesting read that is worth a look.
Gruesome but try and put it down!! - By: , 17 Jan 2005 
This book is fabulous! Absolutely gripping, mind-boggling, gruesome but try & put it down. It makes you challlenge the way you think about a lot of things.............and makes your stomach lurch at some of the cruel tortures you read about! Makes you count your blessings that you are born in this era & not that one! You cannot imagine the cruelties that existed unless you read of them from well documented sources.
Read it, get absorbed but dont let the kids find it! Yuk! Excellent read!
