The Corner That Held Them

The novel was reviewed favourably, both in its original publication and on later reprintings, with many critics noting its unromanticized depiction of the medieval era.

The passage of time in the book can be roughly traced by the succession of prioresses, as well as the episodic adventures of various residents of Oby, denoted below with subheaders.

The first chapter loosely chronicles the first two hundred years of the convent, including a series of minor happenings such as the apostasy of a nun who runs away with a lover.

The spire also runs into several obstacles due to the friction between the masons and the manor residents, as well as a variety of misfortunes, including deaths, murrains, and a flood.

However, the impending visit of a bishop brings dread to Oby, as Ralph has begun to have sex their former bailiff's widow, Magdalen Figg.

During preparations for the visit, a nun murders the Widow Figg by pushing her into the fishpond, which Matilda turns a blind eye to.

Dame Adela, a foolish young nun with no apparent talent, reveals that she is skilled at needlework, and the project of the altarpiece brings the convent together.

Ralph Holly, now feebleminded with age, wanders away from the convent to bring the Lay of Mamillion poem to London, and dies in Lintoft.

[3] Virago Press republished the novel in London in 1988 with an introduction by Claire Harman, which was reproduced in 2019 by the New York Review Books.

[5][2] Warner explained in an interview that the novel was written based on Marxist principles, hence the extensive accounts of the convent's finances and the strained relationship between the manor residents and the nuns.

The Journal of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society by University College London published the unfinished sequel in two parts.

[2] Professor of Modern Literature Adam Piette surmised that Warner chose the Black Death as the novel's topic due to the quote "Look out for parachutists" by spokesmen during the Fall of France.

[10] For its 2000 release by Virago, reviewer Philip Hensher described the book as 'one of the most remarkable examples of a novelist rethinking what she can do with the novel as a form'.

"[12] Hermione Hoby gave a positive review in Harper's Magazine in 2020, writing that "What lends the novel vitality and inestimable charm is the fullness of Warners love for characters as unholy as us all.

"[13] In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Daniel M. Lavery said that the novel was "like sticking your face into a river and watching the fish and forgetting you have to breathe.

"[17] A major theme of the novel is the friction between the Church and the common people of Oby manor, and how the nuns' religious lives fit into this tense economic relationship.

The inciting incident of the main part of the novel, the arrival of the Black Plague, is the catalyst for the beginning of modern capitalism and the decline of the feudal system.

By eschewing a conventional narrative arc, the novel embraces the influence of random chance and avoids imposing hierarchy or structure within itself.

[17][18] Similarly, Maud Ellman describes Warner's emphasis on the practices of daily life as comparable to the work of the Annales school of history, which emphasizes longterm changes in historical structure over chronicling major events, and the common characteristics of groups over the stories of individuals: as Warner states in the novel, a good convent should have "no history.

[17] In Gemma Moss's book Modernism, Music and the Politics of Aesthetics, she writes that Warner's works are "acutely aware of the material conditions in which music is produced and received, but [also] explore how aesthetic experiences can work on people without their knowledge, transmitting values or abstract concepts that shape a person’s thinking."

The structure and harmonies of the new polyphonic Ars nova style relies on the hierarchy between notes, which reflects how the music is produced through the exploitation of the common people by the Church.

Although the historical setting seems like a form of escapism, the convent of Oby reveals itself to be no less corrupt than the present, resisting romantic medievalist tropes.

[20][17] Ellman also draws connections between the Black Death and WWII, particularly the proliferation of aerial warfare and news of the war over mass media, which Warner compared in her diary to "a kind of pestilence."

Ellman describes the novel's take on pastoralism as a reevaluation of English identity, one which rejects notions of racial purity or the nostalgic idea of "merry England.

Adam Piette argues that moments such as Alianor's stillness as her lover was killed and the nunnery's response to the Black Death are an allegory for "resistance to warmongering misogyny by a society of outsiders.