martydah's review
4.0
This is one of those historical novels that makes you want to research the main characters' lives to see how realistically the author has rendered them. Dinski is certainly unsparing of Marie le Jars de Gournay. Such much so, that I wondered if de Gournay was really that arrogant/unstable or if her writing was really that bad. I will definitely have to read her feminist works, which are supposed to be her best. I also wondered if the author exaggerated the amount of ridicule de Gournay received at the hands of Paris society. Still, it is novel and a very well-written one. It was educational in that it alerted me to a writer that I had never heard of before, and I certainly didn't know was so closely linked to Michele de Montaigne.
sofiedesmyter83's review
3.0
2.5 Too long-winding to my taste but a justly nuanced portrait of a complex woman (Marie de Gournay, who held the Montaigne spirit alive)
marinams's review
4.0
Wow. I wouldn't have thought that, given the subject matter, this would be a page-turner, but it kind of was. I'm a fan of Diski and her ability to understand the human mind, to be honest but empathetic to all her characters. It gets 4 out of 5 not because it's not good enough, but because it made me too sad in places. I'm weak.
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