(This is Groff's only nod to the poet's real life in the novel.) But Marie's writing days are quickly replaced with a spiritual devotion to the women who she comes to care for. Reluctant at first to assume her role as prioress to pious old women, 17-year-old Marie attempts to reverse her banishment by writing an extensive ode to Queen Eleanor in an attempt to win her favor and be asked back to court. We meet Marie just as she is expelled from the French royal court and banished to England to be the new prioress of an ailing abbey filled with sick and starving nuns. Matrix introduces a warlike poet-nun, based on the real medieval author Marie de France, who challenges the Catholic church and the very foundations of patriarchy - while also exploring womanhood and unbridled sexuality.
It has sisterhood, love, war, sex - and many graphic deaths, all entangled in a once-forgotten abbey in the English countryside. There's always the possibility of coming on too strong and imposing modern ideologies onto a period where they may not be as believable as the author hopes.īut Lauren Groff's Matrix is an inspiring novel that truly demonstrates the power women wield, regardless of the era. Setting a feminist story in the 12th century is no easy feat.
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