![\"The](\"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/The-Miniaturist.jpg\")
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This gothic-tinged historical opens in 1687 with a mysterious woman secretly observing a funeral. \u00a0Her identity is the first of many compelling mysteries that propels the reader through\u00a0The Miniaturist<\/em>.\u00a0 The story then backshifts a few months to 1686, when young Petronella (Nella) Oortman Brandt arrives, for the first time, at the doorstep of her new husband’s Amsterdam home.\u00a0 He isn’t present, and she is greeted by Marin, his chilly, imperious sister and their servants.\u00a0 When Nella’s merchant husband, Johannes, finally arrives, he treats Nella with an almost brotherly respect, eventually even affection, but with no trace of the passion for which Nella has braced herself.\u00a0\u00a0Layers of chiaroscuro mystery obscure Nella’s\u2014and the reader’s\u2014understanding of her new life and role in her new household.\u00a0 Why doesn’t Johannes consummate his marriage? \u00a0What is Marin’s past and who is she really? \u00a0What is the Brandt family’s connection to Johannes’s associate Frans Meersman and his wife Agnes?<\/p>\n The next mystery is the grand arrival of Nella’s wedding gift from Johannes. \u00a0It is a miniature house, an exact replica of their own home in dollhouse proportion.\u00a0 Nella feels belittled.\u00a0 But she is fascinated by the precision of the replica, and commissions a miniaturist to furnish the house.\u00a0 When her pieces arrive, she is surprised to receive several unrequested items: a baby’s cradle, and miniatures of Johannes’s two dogs, rendered in detail that could only come from close, keen observation. \u00a0Who is this strange craftsman to know such detail, and to make such presumption as to include a cradle? \u00a0Did the miniaturist know how that item would sting Nella, who is receiving clear messages from Johannes’s avuncular behavior? \u00a0Nella is astounded to then receive an uncommissioned package from the miniaturist, containing an impossibly realistic set of figures: herself, Marin, Johannes, the servants, and the Meersmans.\u00a0 Her discomfort grows, but she\u2019s unable to reach the miniaturist for an explanation.\u00a0 As Nella’s miniatures begin to take on peculiar characteristics and as dangerous missteps and misfortunes befall the Brandts, dread over their fates grows, and an inevitable question rears: whose funeral is described in the opening epigraph?<\/p>\n I loved how well Burton evokes 17th century Amsterdam\u2014 its architecture and furnishings and fashions as well as its political and religious climate, its racism, sexism, and intolerance. \u00a0Nella is a compelling heroine whose growing maturity through the course of the story is deftly portrayed . I didn’t always like Nella, but by midway through the book she had earned my respect; by the end my unreserved admiration.<\/p>\n As much as I loved Nella’s miniature house\u2014the description of it as well as its symbolic power in the story\u2014and the mounting suspense over the identity of the miniaturist, in the end, the miniaturist’s presence and role didn’t gel for me.\u00a0 Still, many parts of the novel kept me enthralled, and there is much to enjoy in this suspenseful, engrossing, historically authentic novel.\u00a0 Very highly recommended for historical fiction readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This gothic-tinged historical opens in 1687 with a mysterious woman secretly observing a funeral. \u00a0Her identity is the first of many compelling mysteries that propels the reader through\u00a0The Miniaturist.\u00a0 The story then backshifts a few months to 1686, when young Petronella (Nella) Oortman Brandt arrives, for the first time, at the doorstep of her new … Continue reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,8,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-books-for-adults","category-fiction","category-reviewed-by-elizabeth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}