Long time readers will remember my review of Bitter Greens last year and an accompanying audio interview I did with Kate Forsyth.
In that interview we briefly talked about the book Kate was writing about Dortchen Wild, the woman who gave the Brother’s Grimm a significant amount of their content.
The release date is set for mid march this year but I thought I would give you a little heads up.
The History:
Dortchen first met the Grimm brothers in 1805, when she was twelve. One of six sisters, Dortchen lived in the medieval quarter of Cassel, a town famous for its grand royal palace, its colossal statue of Herkules, and a fairytale castle of turrets and spires built as a love nest for the Prince-Elector's mistress. Dortchen was the same age as Lotte Grimm, the only girl in the Grimm family, and the two became best friends.
In 1806, Hesse-Cassel was invaded by the French. Napoleon created a new Kingdom of Westphalia, under the rule of his dissolute young brother Jérôme. The Grimm brothers began collecting fairytales that year, wanting to save the old stories told in spinning-circles and by the fire from the domination of French culture. Dortchen was the source of many of the tales in the Grimm brother's first collection of fairy tales, which was published in 1812, the year of Napoleon's disastrous march on Russia.
Dortchen's own father was cruel and autocratic, and he beat and abused her. He frowned on the friendship between his daughters and the poverty-stricken Grimm Brothers. Dortchen had to meet Wilhelm in secret to tell him her stories. All the other sisters married and moved away, but Dortchen had to stay home and care for her sick parents. Even after the death of her father, Dortchen and Wilhelm could not marry – the Grimm brothers were so poor they were surviving on a single meal a day.
After the overthrow of Napoleon and the eventual success of the fairytale collection, Dortchen and Wilhelm were at last able to marry. They lived happily ever after with Wilhelm's elder brother Jakob for the rest of their lives. [source]
What to expect
One thing that I really enjoyed with Bitter Greens was Kate’s attention to detail and the elements of history she was able to shine a light on – the events that seemed so unlikely that they must be fiction, which did in fact turn out to have a considerable basis in recorded history.
I expect we will see the same again - a great tale and an unearthing of another hidden female storyteller.
Details:
ISBN: 9781741668490
Published: 18/03/2013
Imprint: Vintage Australia
Extent: 560 pages
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