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Bezig met laden... The Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town (1996)door Steven Ozment
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. REENACTORS NOTES: 1520's - 1552 223 pages: A detailed and increadable account of a young woman taking on not only her father, but the Town Council he lead as Burgermeister. Anna is a truely unique spirit, as the various extant records used to create this book illustrate. Not content with her lot in life, Anna defied tradition and her family to try and have the future she wanted. The one she got was far harsher than I think even she could have imagined: Twarted by politics and lies at every turn, even when the Imperial Courts found in her favor!, Anna dies in relative poverty after a long struggle to gain what she sees as rightfully hers. Women "back in the olden days" were quiet. They stayed home married young, and were quiet and subissive. HAH! Not the case at all. This book is an account of a young greman woman who worked as a servant in the nearly castle (as was the custom for upper middle class families who hoped to social climb) and had an affair with 2 notable men, caroused in the tavern with her firends and generally carried on and had fun. We have heard about her story becuase of court records, she sued her father for her inheritance. A good read to see how far feminism has come, and in some ways, how far it hasn't. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
In an era when women were supposed to be disciplined and obedient, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the frequent subject of gossip because of her immodest dress and flirtatious behavior. When her wealthy father discovered that she was having secret, simultaneous affairs with a young nobleman and a cavalryman, he turned her out of the house in rage, but when she sued him for financial support, he had her captured, returned home and chained to a table as punishment. Anna eventually escaped and continued her suit against her father, her siblings and her home town in a bitter legal battle that was to last 30 years and end only upon her death. Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a powerful testament to the courage and tenacity of a woman who defied the inequalities of this distant age. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)943.471031092History and Geography Europe Germany and central Europe Southwestern Germany Stuttgart district and Tübingen, former Württemberg Stuttgart districtLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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What I immediately liked in the first chapter was that there was no "we're only going to give vague hints out as to the plot, even though this is all past history." The idea of writing history as if it were a mystery novel works in some cases, but after a while it gets old - well, depending on the writer's skill I suppose. In any case, I'm certainly ok with hearing about the jist of the case before diving into the details.
I'm also fascinated with the idea that the reason we're able to get such a clear story out of this is because of the amount documentation thanks to the court case(s).
For instance, read this quote and imagine being able to read all these letters now, as they've all been preserved and still exist (imagine historians doing a gleeful dance over them):
And this in a time period where women of her class did not do this sort of thing.
I should note here that Anna had been stealing items from her father's house in order to sell them for the money. Her overall complaint against her father was that he'd wasted a chunk of her life by not setting up a marriage for her, as most fathers would have by her age.
This is one of those stories where you know you're not going to like many of the main characters for multiple reasons.
...I'm adding this quote because 1) Faust reference, and I always enjoy that story, and 2) a lot of WTFery. (Also I want to remember that the story came from this book.)
Really good background detail that surrounds the main story. All of this is meticulously footnoted, and most of the sources are in German.
...In case you were curious, the author does give you many, many excerpts from the letters, translated and with enough background information that you understand what's actually going on. Two that I can't resist quoting bits of:
Must make note of and remember that bit on vomiting.
Quotes that make me wish I knew German:
And the footnote on that is for a text from 1520, in German. Sigh. For anyone else that can read/find it: "Ein Sundenregister Herzog Ulrichs, zur Warnung vor ihm aufgestellt," 1520, Steiff and Mehring, Geschichtliche Lieder, pp. 189-208. Because now of course I'm all curious to read about the atrocities in rhyme. In an English translation of course.
...Finished and if I am ever stingy with the stars in my ratings this was the time not to be. The final chapter gave us the answer of "why is this important and why did you feel compelled to tell us this bit of history?" Not to mention that in the rest of the book the author has managed to sum up some incredibly busy German history that I remember only from survey history classes as being incredibly politically tangled up. And he managed to do in briefly, and then get back to the meat of the story about the family and their tussles. Also he managed to wrap up what is mainly a sad story but show parts of it in a light that makes it not as depressing an end as I'd thought.
And thus I'm now off to find out what other books of his I may put on my To Read list. ( )