The Ballad of Bishop Hill

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 292 pages
• Published by: Sutherland Pub
• Edition: 1st Edition June 1985
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0930942027
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0930942021

Reader Reviews
Charlotta Lovisa Jansdotter was born in Sweden in 1824, a land where the established Lutheran church had grown worldly and indifferent to the lives and souls of the parishioners. But since Charlotta's cousin Eric Jansson experienced miraculous healing and a calling from God to bring a new message to the Earth, Eric and his followers have become the target of repression. And so, Charlotta follows Eric and his other believers to the plains of Illinois, to build a New Jerusalem. But, the path is littered with problems and heartbreaks and loss. It is a long and hard path to paradise; one that Charlotta finds has more promise than fulfillment. I must admit that I am of two minds with this book, as it has real problems. First off, the author runs three threads through the story. The bulk of the book is the story of Charlotta, which is interesting, but the second thread follows Rev. Robert Baird, a Philadelphia pastor and temperance campaigner, who has nothing to do with Charlotta or Bishop Hill, but is apparently only included to give the reader a feeling for what was happening in America at that time. I found this thread both distracting and irrelevant. (The third thread is tiny, following a Swedish Professor of Theology, who is worried about the state of the Swedish Church.) My second problem with the story is the main character herself. For the most part, Charlotta seems to drift through the story, riding events like a leaf in a stream. She has faith in Eric Jansson, but is often riddled with doubts, and yet she never can bring herself to question him or determine anything for herself, she merely rides along. The same happens when she marries an abusive husband. At the end, she declares that she will determine her future and her faith, but until then I often found her difficult to relate to. But, having said all of this, I did enjoy this book! Once Charlotta meets the man John Root, the story takes off, as the events take on a life of their own (even if Charlotta doesn't). The author really brings the later events of Bishop Hill to life (up to the death of Eric Jansson), making them seem so much more real than any simply history book would. This *should* have been a great book. The author has an interesting subject, which she obviously knew well, but somehow she never could make the main character come to life. I suspect that she never really did understand how people could welcome a self-proclaimed messiah, and believe in him enough to sacrifice all. Overall, I though that this is a good book (3 stars = good), one that everyone interested in Bishop Hill will enjoy.