Matrix, by Lauren Groff

 

Characters
Court at Westminster	Abbey
Queen Eleanor   King Henry II – Marie’s half brother   Cecily – Marie’s servant, stayed behind when Marie sent away, reunited with Marie when Marie71, Cecily married three times and wealthy	Marie de France – novice, then prioress, them abbess in 1188   Emme – abbess, died 1188   Goda – Subprioress   Sister Wevua – mistress of novices   Novices with Marie: Ruth Swan-neck Edith – cruel   Four favored daughters: Tilde – became abbess on Marie’s death Sister Asta – designs labyrinth Ruth – novice with Marie Wulfhild – left abbey to marry, lady-bailiff   Nest – young widow, infirmatrix   Scriptorium – brought in money   Avice – new sister, brought large dowry, became pregnant, died in childbirth   Sprota – novice, worshiped by other novices, threat to Marie
Marie’s visions, 19 total: Page 99 – Build a labyrinth to protect abbey Page 115 – Queen coming to abbey – built visitor center in town Page 147 – Build an abbess house with large rooms to do business and apartments for guests Page 179 – Vision of Death – Marie has been called to preside over Mass and confessions Page 211 – Build a reservoir Page 226 – Eleanor’s empire will crumble Page 237, final vision – God a great hen presiding over the world with goodness

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       Tilde always thought Marie’s visions were ideas Marie presented as visions to sell others on the ideas.   After Marie died, Tilde burned the book in which Marie had recorded her visions.  What did you think about the visions as you read the novel?

2.       Two changes Marie made early in her tenure as abbess was to collect rent from tenants who were in default causing the nuns to live in poverty while they lived in luxury (page 50) and reassigned the nuns to jobs they were good at and enjoyed instead of viewing work “as a lesson in humility” (page 59).  How did this change the atmosphere in the Abbey?

3.       When Cecily was reunited with Marie at the end of her life, she told Marie that “it was Marie’s unbeauty that was the making of her” and that “the queen had more hand in making Marie by sending her to the abbey than she had in making herself” (page 240).   Was Marie a product of her circumstances or did she have more control over her fate?

4.       How might things have been different if Marie had been beautiful?

5.       Queen Eleanor visited Marie (pages 119 – 130) but they met in the meeting house in town, not in the abbey. The Queen accused Marie of neglecting the hierarchy of the church, not letting dignitaries and messengers of the church come to the abbey, and told her she has enemies in the church.  Marie countered that they are praying plus spreading “rumors of the sisters’ piety and the Abbey’s strength and Marie’s own holiness” (page 127).  Why did you think Eleanor really came to visit the abbey?

6.       Marie told Eleanor that what she learned from her was that there is no real defense against “money and stories, information and sympathy” (page 127).  Do you think this is true?  Is this a good way to get what you want?

7.       Several times the author wrote of the power of stories including telling what happened when the town revolted and tried to storm the abbey.   After the failed attack, “women will tell stories, woman to woman, servant to servant…and the stories will spread north and south upon this island, and the stories will alchemize into legends, and the legends will serve as cautionary tales” (page 144).  How were stories important throughout this novel?

8.       Discuss Sprota and the threat she posed to Marie.   Do you think Marie really had a vision to name Sprota as mistress of the lepers or was it a cunning idea?

9.       When the sisters are studying and meditating over their readings, only Marie reads silently to herself.   She thought, “if there is no inner reading, how can there be inner life?” (page 150).  Would you be able to read and comprehend in a room with everyone reading out loud?

10.   Do you think it was realistic for Marie to state that she had been “called to preside over Mass and confession for my daughters” (page 182)?

11.   When Marie was feeling particularly upset by all she learned at confession, she would go to the scriptorium and “change the Latin of the missals and psalters into the feminine” (page 188).  Why do this make her feel so good?

12.   Did the author do a good job describing menopause as Marie aged?  How long did it take you to figure out that was what it was?   If you are or were a man reading this book, did the description make sense or give you any insight?

13.   What did you think about the sex lives of the novices and sisters as described in the book?  Do you think this is accurate?

14.   Did you like the organization of the book, especially how the author kept updating Marie’s age?

 

15.   In a review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10-17-2021), Wendeline O. Wright highly praises the book and calls it a “gorgeously bold work that imagines the life of the late 12^th century poet Marie de France in order to explore the power of creativity and celebrate the sensuality of love between women.” She also writes that the book discusses a “powerful idea…that women can only be fully realized when they are freed from the tyranny of the male gaze.” Do you think there is more to the book than that?  Do you think that was Lauren Groff’s intent?