A Reputed Changeling; Or, Three Seventh Years Two Centuries Ago

In 17th century England, a boy named Peregrine Oakshott grows up branded by a cruel whisper: he is a changeling, an elf child swapped for a human infant. The rumor shadows every interaction, marking him as other in a world ruled by superstition and fear. When two young girls, Anne Jacobina Woodford and Lucy Archfield, encounter Peregrine, they find themselves caught between the dark folklore their elders preach and the simple, messy reality of childhood. They are frightened and fascinated in equal measure, drawn to the mystery of a boy who might be magic or might simply be lonely. Charlotte M. Yonge, writing in the late Victorian era but reaching back two centuries, weaves a delicate study of how communities create outsiders and how children absorb the prejudices of the adults around them while still reaching toward genuine connection. The novel examines the gap between the stories we tell about those who are different and the more complicated truth of who they actually are.