Helena is a young maid who is sent to work in the home of an English bookseller in Amersterdam as a teenager. There she encounters the writer Rene Descartes, and finds her future changed because of him. As she has taught herself to read and write in a time when girls weren't educated this gives her new skills that she is able to share with her friend and allows her a little power in her life.
I enjoyed this novel about the real life character who little is known about, as I am intrigued about womans lives at this period of time when there were so many restrictions on her choices, and parents, employers and husbands or partners were able to control what the ladies got up to. 4/5
1 comment:
It's tough to write an historical novel well. I've found so many authors who just don't know the time periods. Amsterdam in the seventeenth century would be a difficult subject.
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