Sylvia (novel)

Sylvia is a 2006 novel by Australian author, Bryce Courtenay. It follows a teenage girl, Sylvia Honeyeater, during the Children's Crusade. It explores themes of religion, womanhood, abuse and childhood.

Plot summary

Sylvia was born in around 1196 in provincial Germany, 16 years before the Children's Crusade. Born into a world of intolerance and strict dogma, Sylvia grows into womanhood alone. Her mother, who loved and nurtured her until her death when Sylvia was eight years old, died of pleurisy. Her alcoholic and brutish father then sexually abused her and after each encounter, he would present her with a piece of honeycomb "to sweeten you for next time liebling". This is what earned her the name Sylvia Honeyeater. However, this name was usually was confused as a comment on her sweet voice.

After her father died, the eleven year old Sylvia makes her way to Cologne alone. Along the way she meets a ratcatcher and musician named Reinhardt. Once they reach Cologne, they are housed by a Jewish couple who help them establish themselves as a musical duo. In Cologne she is dubbed the "Petticoat Angel" because of the various miracles that seem to happen in her presence along with her angelic singing voice.

Meanwhile, a homeless boy named Nicholas that Sylvia has befriended starts preaching to children that God spoke to him and showed him of a children’s crusade to Jerusalem. This comes to a climax when a mass of peasant women walk naked, seemingly in a trance, to the church on the Sabbath day chanting “our children in Jerusalem”.

After being once again swept up into larger events, Sylvia joins and helps to organise the Children’s Crusade.

Major themes

Religion

The theme of Religion is thoroughly discussed in this novel. The conflicting characterization of Frau Anna and Frau Sarah is the first observation that should be noted. While Frau Anna, a Christian, is vengeful and selfish; thinking of people only of what benefit they are to her, the Jewish Frau Sarah is the complete opposite. Frau Sarah and her husband Master Israel clothe, feed and educate Sylvia without any apprehension about her religion. However, it is Frau Sarah who disguises herself when she goes out, not the selfish Frau Anna.

Jewish people are constantly referred to by Christian characters as “money-lenders” or “Christ-killers”. This, as the book shows, is not the case, as Bishops are always presented as greedy, weak, temperamental, and unintelligent; usually with an adviser who does most of the in-depth thinking for them. It is this temperament that shows the corruption in the church, with most motivation not being any one of the holy trinity or an eternal reward but a more earthly one.

Womanhood

Although her technical virginity was taken at a tender age, Sylvia was not considered a woman by society until she experienced monthly bleeding. By the time that she transcended into ‘womanhood’ however, she had lived a lifetime. A question asked by all who met her and felt it their right to know asked her if she had experienced this transition and the answer was imperative to how she was treated; on equal footing as an adult, or someone who was in need of advice and teaching. As soon as she had officially become a woman she was pressured by those around her into either one of two ‘womanly’ occupations; a wife and mother or a nun. Sylvia, showing her modern thinking, wanted the benefits of both of these without the commitment of having to make a decision. Wanting both to satisfy carnal desire and experience love and wanting to learn to the far reaches of knowledge. This problem which seems relatively reasonable in this day and age highlights the different historical atmospheres more than anything else in this book. Thus, the inability to put her into a box befitting of her gender constantly causes herself and others hardship. Most of her difficulties come from trying to find her place in such a rigid world and many around her find it hard to accept, seeing it as a sign of being God’s Chosen or Satan’s Child.

External links

• Bryce Courtenay official website
• Fantasticfiction Sylvia entry