REFUGEE'S REVENGE

Mary Beth Norton on the Refugee's Revenge

Mary Beth Norton on the Refugee's Revenge

Norton suggests an ingenious contention in Refugee's Revenge, but it is not rather as initial as she insists, early and often. Whereas Norton can fairly assert to have explored the Maine attachment and the Essex-wide dimensions in unprecedented minutia, she scants borrowing due to previous scholars who, in briefer versions, anticipated her accomplishment.

In her thesis, Norton makes the most of her clues — and then some. Where other historians emphasized the original accusers from Salem Village, especially Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, Norton good ...