Literature / The Book of Eve

The Book of Eve is a supernatural novel with feminist themes by British author Meg Clothier. It is set in a fictional world based on Renaissance-era Italy. The titular book was inspired by the Voynich manuscript.

Beatrice is the recently-appointed convent librarian. She holds herself aloof from her sisters, but is deeply devoted to her work and studies. One night, two foreign women arrive at the convent's door carrying a mysterious book. They are weak and heavily injured, but they manage to secretly pass their cargo to Beatrice before dying. The book is blank, but gradually fills with strange symbols and drawings.

Shortly after, a preacher called Abramo comes to the convent demanding the book, which he claims is a radix, a dangerous heresy. But Beatrice has already fallen under the book's spell. Though she is torn between her curiosity and obedience to the church's rules, she ultimately decides to protect the book, a decision which will threaten everything she knows or thought she knew.

This book provides examples of:

• As the Good Book Says...: Abramo quotes scripture to elevate his own presence and power. For example, when he "exorcises" the Mother from Beatrice, he quotes the Son regarding a woman who He had saved from damnation.
• Bastard Angst: Beatrice is known as the bastarda of the Stelleri family. She was The Un Favourite compared to her half-brother and was pushed into a convent as a child following her disfigurement. She grew up to be a bitter, sullen person, though this bitterness isn't wholly related to her bastard status.
• Beauty Is Bad: Arcangela is lovely to look at, but she antagonizes other members of the convent with her self-righteousness. She also sides with Abramo against Chiara and Beatrice, twisting the truth to justify taking Chiara into custody.
• Blank Book: The mysterious book has a lavish red cover, but the pages are initially blank. They start to fill up as the Mother's influence grows. Later, the convent's prized book of scripture is taken over and turned into another blank book with a beautiful cover.
• Book Burning: Abramo seeks to destroy the Book of the Mother and any heretical text. He succeeds in burning most of the convent's library and the Book of the Mother.
• Book Safe: The convent library has a volume of Tertullian that has been hollowed out so that other documents can be secretly stored in the gap.
• Brawn Hilda: Hildegard is broad and brawny from working the land and has a face likened to a gargoyle. She even has a typical Brawnhilda-esque name and is from Central Europe.
• Country Mouse: Chiara and some of her first followers come from a rural village. She has little formal education and speaks plainly, in contrast to the City-born women who join her later in life. One of the criticisms levelled at Chiara is that she is naïve and unable to cope with the sinful ways of the world.
• Covert Group: Soon after she obtains the mysterious book, Beatrice comes into contact with a widespread network who secretly worship the Mother, including Tomis, Ortolana, and certain sisters of the convent. The network even reaches Silvia, the daughter of the current Pontifex! Once Beatrice starts looking, she seems to find Mother-worshippers everywhere.
• Crisis of Faith: Beatrice was complacent in her worship of the Father, neither terribly pious nor doubtful. When she is introduced to the cult of the Mother, however, she is made to question her entire worldview. Here is a deity that embraces uncertainty and transformation, in opposition to the Father's constancy and preservation of the status quo. Here is a deity who protects women and interferes directly in their lives, in opposition to the patriarchal and distant Father. The Mother runs counter to everything Beatrice associates with the proper order of the world.
• Dirty Old Monk: Diana is put in the convent after an old, high-ranking clergyman claims she tried to seduce him. In fact, he tried to seduce her while she worked on a painting he had commissioned. She rebuffed him and so he decided to ruin her reputation and career.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Chiara insists on calling Abramo by his old name, Tonio. This is a reminder that to her, he is not a powerful religious reformer, but just some boy from the village who used to follow her around and beg for her approval.
• Fantasy Counterpart Religion: The religion of the Father and His Son is clearly modelled on Roman Catholicism, but there are a few differences in naming conventions and rituals. This makes sense, as the world is not our own. For example, the country where the book takes place is called the Peninsula, and a neighboring country, Albion (England) is led by a Queen Ana.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps: Chiara comforted Tonio when he was at his lowest, a boy grieving his mother's death during the pestilenza. He was so inspired by her ministry that he joined the priesthood as Brother Abramo.
• The Fundamentalist: The Lambs are so fundamentalist that they want to depose the Pontifex, the head of their religion, because he does not follow scripture to their satisfaction.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The Mother reveals the truth of his actions to Abramo, causing the unfortunate soul to undergo an Identity Breakdown and start raving incoherently.
• Good Shepherd: Mother Chiara is a wise and respected leader who wants nothing more than to protect her community. She helps women within and without the convent's walls. Despite her great fame as a holy woman, she is modest and compassionate but not sanctimonious. She develops personal friendships with all of her charges, even prickly Beatrice, and is on a first-name basis with many people of the City.
• Haunting the Guilty: Abramo is confronted by the ghosts of the people he has hurt throughout his life, causing him to acknowledge his latent guilt.
• The Heretic: Anyone who worships the Mother is branded a heretic, so a good portion of the cast applies.
• Hijacked by Jesus: Implied to be what happened in-universe to the Green Mary. She is worshipped as Our Lady All In Green, the virgin mother of the Son. When her veil is removed, it is revealed that she is in fact a triple goddess, with a young girl and an old woman framing Mother Mary's face.
• Holier Than Thou: Arcangela is sanctimonious and judgmental towards her sisters and even Chiara, the convent's Mother Superior. She makes dramatic displays of piety, prostrating herself before the image of the Son, and is so modest that it doubles back around to being ostentatious. Brother Abramo is similarly convinced of his own righteousness. He makes public displays of mortifying his own flesh, preaches fire-and-brimstone sermons against the evils of his age, but he savours the attention from his followers and loves to condemn those he sees as sinners.
• Hot for Preacher: Arcangela is a fanatical follower of Abramo, straddling the line between religious fervor and carnal lust. Towards the end of the book, he calls her out for desiring him.
• Ineffectual Loner: Beatrice prefers to hold herself aloof from others, lashing out with snark when they get too close. On her own, Beatrice is a capable librarian, but she has to learn to rely on other people to cope with the trouble that the Book gets her into.
• Iron Lady: Ortolana is not a royal, but she married a Merchant Prince whose wealth allowed him a lot of political power. Following his death, she has taken up managing his business. She is tough, aloof, canny. She only allows herself to be vulnerable once the Book of the Mother urges her to reveal that she is Beatrice's mother.
• Jerkass Realization: Beatrice never fancies herself a nice person, but she feels some guilt after realizing that she was unfairly judgmental towards Prudenzia and Giulia.
• Knight Templar: Abramo thinks he is saving souls in the City and driving corruption out of poor, stubborn, misguided women. He sees himself as Holier Than Thou and therefore divinely justified in committing murder, torture, and arson.
• Living Legend: Mother Chiara achieved fame as a young anchoress and ascetic. When she left her voluntary exile to treat those sick with the plague, she became a folk saint. She went on to found a convent, bringing in women from all walks of life. Beatrice reflects that people meeting Chiara for the first time must be surprised that this famous holy maiden has grown into a rather plain-looking matron.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Beatrice long believed that her mother had died giving birth to her. In fact, her mother is Ortolana, her father's wife, though they only married after Beatrice was born.
• Mama Bear: While not a literal mother, few things make Chiara truly angry the way threatening the ladies of her convent. When the Lambs insist on persecuting Beatrice despite Chiara vouching for her, the Mother Superior marches out to confront their leader and starts throwing around language unbefitting to a woman of the cloth. Ortolana also has a protective streak, trying to shelter her children from the Lambs.
• Mass Transformation: During the final confrontation with Abramo, the defenders of the convent are transformed en masse into a forest of diverse trees.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: Sophia was strict and abrasive, but Beatrice formed a deep appreciation for the former Sister Librarian. They seem to have been kindred spirits, preferring books to people. It's likely due to Sophia's precise and exacting standards that Beatrice became a sought-after calligrapher.
• Mother Nature: The Mother is associated with the untamed, fertile, natural world. She often manifests her power through eruptions of vegetation, like when she causes the crucifix in the chapel to sprout leaves and the crown of thorns to bloom. She transforms her faithful into animals and plants.
• No Ontological Inertia: Once the Book of the Mother is burned, Chiara, who has been transformed into a tree and chopped into logs for the pyre, switches back into her human form. Rather horrifyingly, turning back into a human does not put the pieces back together.
• Omniglot: Beatrice speaks Common Greek and Latin in addition to the common language of her area. She knows a few words in Aramaic, Classical Greek, Hildegard's language, and a few others that Tomis taught her.
• Plot-Triggering Book: The plot only kicks off once Beatrice is given the Book of the Mother by the two dying women.
• Poirot Speak: Hildegard uses awkward German-ifluenced phrasing at times, which highlights that whatever language the other characters are speaking (probably Italian), it is not her first language. She and Sophia, who is a native speaker of Greek, both use How Do You Say when confronted with uncommon or situationally-specific words, like "bark."
• The Power of Language: Language, both written and spoken, is a recurring theme in the novel. The Mother communicates through her own set of symbols, which only those She has blessed can read. As She works her power in the world, Beatrice's book gains new words in the unknown script. The words are a revelation of the reader's deepest secrets and trauma, allowing her to know herself fully. Beatrice valued language highly even before discovering the Mother's writing, as she uses language to connect with others (as when she speaks Greek with Sophia) and separate herself from them (she looks down on Giulia and Laura for not having good Latin). Abramo and his cohort fear the power of words and the ideas they communicate, which is why they want to destroy "heretical" books.
• Rape as Drama: When Abramo was young and still went by Tonio, he raped Chiara's young and impressionable sister under the guise of the Holy Bridegroom. Chiara convinces the local priest to exile Tonio, causing Chiara's sister to become so depressed that she stops eating. She dies after miscarrying his child. Later, her ghost confronts Abramo and shows him the error of his ways.
• Reality-Writing Book: The mysterious book fills with images of each woman's transformation as they happen. So, when Marta becomes a chestnut tree, the book gains a drawing of a chestnut, and when Ortolana becomes a bird, the book gains a full-page drawing of a raptor.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Beatrice remembers her brother Ludo being whiny, sickly, and rather stupid as a child. He shows little aptitude for the family business, to his mother's consternation. He then goes for a hunt and fails to hide that he has eaten the meat during Lent, when this is strictly forbidden. After a painful encounter with the Lambs, he seems to have gained enough sense to flee the City.
• Rousing Speech: Beatrice delivers one to the gathered women at Chiara's vigil. The speech inspires them to resist the oncoming forces of the Church.
• Scars Are Forever: Beatrice has a scar from when she was a child. She was running from her stepmother Ortolana and ran into a boiling pot of water which scalded her face. Shortly after, she was sent to the convent. She gains more scars after she reaches into a bonfire to retrieve Chiara's body.
• Shapeshifting: The Mother can transform her chosen into animals and plants which might suit an aspect of their personality. For example Beatrice, who hides herself away from the world, becomes a spider while strong, sheltering Chiara becomes a cedar.
• Sinister Minister: Abramo uses psychological and physical torture to extract confessions from alleged sinners and leads a militant group of fundamentalists (the Lambs). He brutally enforces the status quo under the guise of piety. He cannot abide the idea of women living independently, so he tries everything he can to disband the convent. However, he seems to genuinely believe that he is on the side of good.
• Son of a Whore: Abramo's mother was a sex worker, and he is convinced that she is in Hell due to her sinful lifestyle and lack of repentance.
• Soulsaving Crusader: Abramo imprisons and tortures sinners in an alleged attempt to save their souls. He and his Lambs roam the city, burning down the houses of heretics and coercing sinners into humiliating public penances.
• Taking the Veil: The convent houses both nuns who have pledged themselves to a cloistered life and temporary boarders, especially post-pubescent girls of good breeding who have yet to be married. Reasons for taking the veil include religious callings (like for Chiara), avoiding marriage, being unmarriageable due to past dishonour or physical deformity, seeking a safe and stable home, and simply wanting to retire from secular life.
• Three Successful Generations: Beatrice is young and smart but reclusive. She develops the courage to seek her own fortune at the end of the book. Ortolana is mature and capable, a recent widow who has taken control of her late husband's business and social/political duties. She is secure in her own situation but struggles to prepare her children for the future. Chiara, the oldest of the three, has lots of wisdom and experience. She has retired from her famous youth and is content simply to protect and guide her community.
• True Companions: Chiara and her original followers came from the same village and have known eachother for decades. They manage the convent together and are Chiara's closest confidantes and allies. Even when pressed by the Church, they stand together.
• Unknown Rival: Beatrice and Prudenzia were rival candidates to be Sophia's assistant in the library. Beatrice was chosen, despite (or maybe because of) her poor character recommendation. Prudenzia doesn't seem to hold it against her and tries to be friendly and helpful around the library. Beatrice can't believe that Prudenzia is being nice without an ulterior motive, so she continues to snipe at Prudenzia, to the latter's exasperation.
• Venturous Smuggler: Tomis the bookseller has an illicit trade in forbidden books which takes him across the known world.