ALL THE PARTS OF THE SOUL
In 1545, Geneva city magistrate Henry Aubert—a deeply religious man who lost his entire family to the plague—is summoned by John Calvin and tasked with trying witches in a small community. On his way to the assignment, Henry encounters Louise de Peney; she is a pretty young woman and a former nun, now a healer. Henry is intrigued by her. He begins investigating witchcraft, and, via torture, he manages to get a confession from the husband of an accused woman, but injures him so badly he must send for Louise. Louise doesn’t think much of his interrogation methods; still, she believes he is a good man and tries to warn him off his quest (“How many witches can there be? It is a sorry business, and it will destroy you. There can be no happy ending to this, whatever the truth”). The plot thickens when several women in town are accused of participating in a satanic ritual and arrested. As Henry continues with his work, Louise challenges his worldview, arguing that the women he is accusing of witchcraft are no more guilty of heresy than he is. Henry cares for her, but has trouble agreeing. When Louise is inevitably accused of witchcraft, everything Henry believes is thrown into question. There is a compelling tension in Henry between his desire for sex and his piety that, in his eyes, casts any interest in women as sinful. But his absolutism is constantly challenged as he struggles to fulfill his mission and questions whether he should adhere to his faith or adjust based on what he has learned. Louise is a fascinating character, too; she’s smart and well read (better read than Henry). Louise understands what is happening better than Henry does—she knows the accused women are only guilty of being women. Henry is a bit naïve, and although that changes as the novel progresses, he also remains anchored in Calvinist thinking, leading to a tragic ending. The narrative provides a deep look into the fear of witchcraft, underscoring how gender and sex were at the heart of it.
