Essentially this is an anti-feminist tract. The center of the book is Mary Ann Moffatt, variously refered to as Moffatt and (her name in religious life) Madame St. George. Based on a single letter written by a disaffected and ambitious nun in September, 1837, three years after the attempt to murder the nuns and their young students, Schultz describes Moffatt as a proven alcoholic and implies lesbian affections. Moffatt is repeatedly described from the point of view of the homicidal mob as a "termagant," unfeminine, led into unlimited ambition by the regrettable decision of the Catholic Church to allow women education and leadership roles! Schultz also implies that since a male teacher married one of his students, they had certainly had premarital sexual intercourse and at least one child born in the convent! Proof? None needed for the prejudiced.

The book is badly written. In her haste to be lurid but not just, Schultz confuses names. She calls a woman at one time by her birth name, at another by her name in religion. She skips back and forth. She rarely examines evidence. She is remarkably unfamiliar with Catholic practice, and calls ordinary prayers for the recovery of a dying nun "frenetic rituals" and "dangerous superstition."

The hero of Schultz' book is John Buzzell, the brave bricklayer who led a Boston mob to attack a few women and 50 young girls aged 6 to 14 (40 of the children Protestants) on an August night. Since the intended murder victims escaped the flames, he and his companions looted and burned the buildings, and desecrated the bodies of dead nuns. Acquitted by a Boston court, he was subsequently elected to the New Hampshire legislature for his abilities in arson, racism, and religious bigotry. He died at 90, still bragging of his attempted murder of "the sauciest woman I ever heard talk."

Although Professor Schultz is an Englsh professor,her
work is like every good writer of popular history- meticulously
researched and very well writen. Fire and Roses is a page turner from start to finish.

A WELL CRAFTED HISTORICAL READ! I WAS ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH THE EVENTS SURROUNDING THE TRAGEDY AT THE URSULINE CONVENT BUT WAS STRUCK MOST BY SCHULTZ'S POWER OF TRANSPORTING THE READER BACK TO THAT TIME, THAT CONVENT, TO THE UNSPEAKABLE ATROICITY INFLICTED BY THE HANDS OF THE ARSONISTS. SCHULTZ'S DECISION TO BRING THIS HISTORICALLY RELEVANT STORY TO THE MASSES IS BOTH BRILLIANT & INSPIRING!