When Emily Maguire heard the amazing medieval tale of young Agnes, who disguised herself as a boy, followed her lover to a monastery, and ended up on the throne of St Peter, historical facts being scarce, she sensed delicious opportunities for a novel, and Rapture was born.
We know the skeleton of the plot, but Agnes’ dangerous, often horrific life, hiding her true identity and struggling to suppress carnal desires in favour of the spiritual, makes an astonishing, absorbing read.
As a motherless five-year-old, Agnes is encouraged to read by her father who is known as the English priest. However, secretly sitting under the dinner table, Agnes learns more from talk of his often gruesome exploits in Francia, finding souls for God, and also expounding the wonders of heaven. She questions popular beliefs about God and later becomes fluent in Greek and Latin.
Seeing women caught in thankless and endless drudges, she is determined to escape marriage. But she’s attracted to Randulf, a liberated Benedictine monk. They fall in love and he introduces her to the rapture of physical pleasure. But knowing her true desire, he helps her dress as a male and escape her stifling surroundings.
So begins her dramatic journey at the monastery at Fulda, in Athens, and finally Rome. However, she always struggles with jealous monks who suspect her, and continually wrestles with her desire for carnal rapture, while still embracing the spiritual rapture through nature and her running conversation with God.
When the only person who knows her true identity visits her in Rome, she has to make an agonising choice.
An excellent foray into the history and dictates of Roman Catholicism through Agnes’ insightful journey and self-knowledge, Rapture is a most informative and exciting read as we travel with Agnes to find her destiny.
Reviewed by Judith Grace
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Maguire is the author of seven novels and three non-fiction books. Her 2016 novel, An Isolated Incident, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and her book Love Objects was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year in 2022.
She was twice named as a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year, was the 2018/2019 Writer-in-Residence at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney and the 2023 HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University. Emily has an MA in literature and works as a mentor to young and emerging writers.
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