Jessie Burton’s debut novel received its fair share of accolade as a New York Times Best Seller and a winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year Award 2014. Burton’s inspiration for the novel comes from encountering Petronella Oortman’s cabinet house, adorned with miniature figures and items. This can be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Dutch artwork inspiring a fiction novel – I believe Tracy Chevalier’s ears just pricked up).
The Summary
Burton impressively uses little more than a girl’s name and her doll house to imagine a life for 17th century Petronella ‘Nella’ Oortman. The narrative follows Nella’s life as an eighteen-year old country girl who arrives in Amsterdam in 1686 to begin married life with her prosperous merchant husband, Johannes Brandt.
Unfortunately for Nella, her preconception of married life fails to be realised. Her newly-wed, whilst not unkind, neglects her advances. He instead gives her an extravagant cabinet replica of their home. As her husband’s mysterious distance continues, Nella seeks solace in tending to her cabinet, sending for a miniaturist to adorn the house with figurines. However, when these items start to mirror and then, more worryingly, foresee events surrounding the household, Nella starts to question the miniaturist’s motives. Nella faces a desperate struggle to predict and prevent spiralling dangers as dark secrets are gradually unveiled.
The Breakdown
Set against the backdrop of the waning stages of the Dutch Golden Age, this novel’s tone mirrors its setting within a society fraught with contradictions. On one hand, 1686 Amsterdam stood as an economic powerhouse, with avarice and opportunism ruling every street corner. Rival merchants competed in a republic that was profiting from the highly lucrative trade. This was generated by the expansion of the Dutch East India Company, whose charter in 1602 had led to the birth of the first modern stock exchange.
Commercial hunger is demonstrated by the nonchalant willingness of Johannes to establish trade with English buyers, despite the conflict between the two countries. On the other hand, the population adhered to a strict Calvinist faith. These contradictions can be seen through the main characters’ involvement in trading sugar loaves as well as the protagonist’s possession of figurines, despite their Church’s disapproval of both the commodity and the replication of sacred human form.
Marin Brandt, Johannes’ sanctimonious sister, is indicative of this. Her piety glosses a veneer over her hidden vices. Her strict attendance to religious services and her frugality clash with her surreptitious involvement in the male-only sphere of commerce and consumption of confectionery. As faith wrestles with commerce, personal life with private, this novel is able to represent the fragility of society during the waning stages of the Dutch Golden Age.
Nitpicking
One of my main concerns with the book is that Burton chooses a host of characters that just don’t plausibly fit into a 17th century society. Despite the Dutch Golden Age being famed for its constitutional ‘Freedom of Conscience’, the Calvinist Church’s liberalism only stretched so far. For instance, Catholics were allowed to practise their faith, however this was due to money being paid to the local authorities (‘recognition money’). While the rather more liberal traits of the household could be believable in isolation, together they form a cocktail rather too modern to be viable for the time. Marin lives a hidden life of religious deviance. Surinamese former-slave Otto is well-educated and autonomous. Nella lacks the reserve of the average merchant’s wife and is free to wander the streets of Amsterdam alone. Mixed with the degree of sexual and racial tolerance in the house, the setting could only be true of a society centuries ahead. Although it makes for an engaging story, the fact that every member of the household lives against the grain of their society is stretching belief a bit too far.
One final question mark I had was over a key unresolved plot point. The miniaturist’s background and mysterious insight into the characters’ lives cries out for more attention. The novel leaves the reader wondering whether this character belonged to the realms of the supernatural or the superstalker. Perhaps some readers will appreciate that this book, which is so reliant on mystery as a plot device, ends unresolved.
I did thoroughly enjoy reading this book, especially given it was a debut novel. Burton took four years to write it and her attention to historical detail is shown in including a glossary and a currency converter. What you get is a historical drama centred on secrecy and discovery. As the tagline promises, “there is nothing hidden that will not be not be revealed” – unless of course that which is hidden happens to be the very nature of the titular character.
facts|from|fiction 