"The Time Before You Die Review"
- Preliminary Information
- The title of my book is The Time Before You Die: A Novel of the Reformation.
- The author of my book is Lucy Beckett.
- The name of the book’s publisher is Ignatius Press, and the book was published in San Francisco.
- The book was published in 1999, and the edition that I read was published in the same year.
- I am not sure what edition my book is.
- My book was not translated from a foreign language.
- My book is 320 pages.
- My book is a work of fiction.
- The Book’s Contents
- The book is about Robert Fletcher, a young man from York who leaves his home behind for Mountgrace, a monastery, to become a monk. Then the monastery is surrendered to the King of England, and he returns to York to become a priest. However, when the laws of the church change and he refuses to abide to them, he is sent to a prison in Newgate. The story is also intertwined with letters written by several high class people of this time, mostly talking about Reginald Pole and how he became exiled.
- Robert Fletcher- he is the main character of the entire book. He joins a monastery, thinking that it is the best way for him to become closer to God. Then after his monastery is surrendered, he finds a book written by Luther saying that true faith comes from faith only and not just works. After he is denounced as a priest and sent to a prison in Newgate, he ends up at the palace of Reginald Pole and strikes up a friendship with the man.
Reginald Pole – the only non-fictional character in the book. He became a cardinal of the Catholic Church shortly after he left England in self- exile. He exiled himself to protect his faith after the current king rejected the authority of the Pope (who is the leader of the Catholic Church). In the novel, Robert Fletcher comes to live in his palace at Lambeth and the two strike up a friendship through their faith.
Master Husthwaite- the preacher at the church a few miles away from Robert’s home. He teaches Robert to read Latin and inspires him to become a monk. When Robert returns from the Mountgrace, he finds that Master Husthwaite is blind and does not remember him. Robert cares for him until he dies at the end of the winter.
Will- Will is Robert’s half- brother. He is mute and called an idiot, but Robert knows that he is not as unintelligent as he seems. While he is preaching in York, he sees Will among a rioting crowd of men trying to break down the door of Saint Michael- le- Belfry Church. After the mob is broken up, he thinks that Will has been imprisoned with the others, but months later he sees a beggar on a street corner and realizes it is Will. He convinces himself that it could not have been, but throughout the story he feels repeated remorse for not inviting him to the room that he and his wife had been living in.
Alice Goldthorpe- the daughter of Master Goldthorpe, who hires Robert to teach his children. Robert is very attracted to Alice, and when her father arranges for her to marry another man, she runs away to Robert’s home, knowing that this will make her banished from her father’s house forever. She does not know that Robert was once a monk, and when he tries to tell her anything about his past she refuses to listen out of fear of what he will say. Robert gives up his preaching for her when a law is passed saying that all married priests must give up their wives, and she eventually dies in childbirth.
- The places where this book takes place are York, England, the Mountgrace monastery, the Tower of the Newgate prison, Bishop Bonner’s palace in Fulham where he is also kept as a prisoner, and finally Reginald Pole’s palace in Lambeth.
- This book occurs from the year 1518 to when Robert Fletcher dies in 1559. The Reformation took place during this time period.
5A. The book begins with Robert Fletcher at Master Husthwaite’s house the night before he is sworn in as a monk. The priest tells him that by becoming a monk, he has become part of the new, better world. Before he leaves he wants to say goodbye to his half- brother, Will, but cannot find him.
- When Robert Fletcher arrives at the Mountgrace, he is intrigued by a book called The Cloud of Unknowing. It leads him to believe that he needs only love for God, not faith. Then the monastery is surrendered to the king, along with all of the others in England. After he leaves the Mount grace behind he finds another book, written by Luther saying that faith should not come solely from religious works. He becomes a chantry priest and begins teaching the children of a wealthy master. After eloping with the master’s daughter Alice, he sees Will as a beggar on the street and does not invite him to come home with him. He loses his preaching career after he refuses to put away his wife, who will soon die in childbirth. For refusing to give up his wife, he is sent to a prison called Newgate. When he is interrogated and refuses to renounce his past preaching as heretics, he is sent to another prison in the bishop’s palace at Fulham. One of the soldiers who brought him to the prison convinces him to write a letter to Cardinal Pole (who had previously visited Robert’s monastery) that will convince him to let Robert stay in his palace. The plan works, and Robert becomes good friends with the Cardinal.
- The book ends after Cardinal Pole dies, leaving Robert homeless once again. He tries to get a ride back to his hometown on an ox cart, but wakes up in an unfamiliar barn that he soon realizes is the mill he used to come to as a boy- and the place where he will die.
- Evaluating the book
- After his monastery is surrendered, Robert Fletcher must discover the true meaning of faithfulness to God in the time before he dies.
- The theme of the book is that to achieve true faith, you must show it in your heart, not through the works you do.
- The time period that this was written in was a difficult time for priests and monks. The monks who had given their lives to God for years had their monasteries surrendered one by one, and had to return to regular life with few clothes, few remaining possessions, and little idea about how to function in the regular world. The priests were forced to give up their wives and alter their teachings to fit those that the King imposed. Those who would not obey these commands were sent to prison (like Robert Fletcher), and those who devoutly spoke up for the old teachings were burned or chained. (One example mentioned in this book is Sir Thomas More.)
- The chief conflict of this book was Robert Fletcher struggling between doing what he knew was expected of him to avoid trial and punishment, and being true to his teachings and faith. He was also conflicted between whether the key to heaven was held in loving acts or faithfulness of the heart.
- This book is written in third person limited point of view. Robert Fletcher is the narrator.
- Some words here and there were misspelled (ex: Mean by sin a lump; I believe the author meant “men by sin a lump”), but it wasn’t particularly noticeable. Also, the way some of the scenes are written is a bit confusing, such as the end before Robert Fletcher dies and he is imagining himself running through a field. I wasn’t sure what was happening during that scene.
- I might recommend this book to somebody else, but they’d have to be a fairly advanced reader because this book is very detailed and it can be difficult to get through in a short period of time. However, once you have a clear understanding of all of the events, it’s a great book to read.
- Bibliographical Citation: Beckett, Lucy. The Time Before You Die. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999.
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