Here is Nella’s surreptitious visit to her sister-in-law’s private space, “nun-small” yet filled with exotic objects from floor to ceiling. She not only enlivens each moment with sensory vitality but also makes brilliant use of motifs that serve the narrative as a whole. The disturbing truths that have been carefully hidden behind walls and locked doors slowly begin to reveal themselves.īurton’s own imagistic artistry deserves special mention. When a miniaturist hired to create both furnishings and characters for the dollhouse goes from artistic imitation to clairvoyant prefiguration, Nella’s worlds begin to collide. Her disappointment at being neglected by her merchant-husband is further compounded by a judgmental sister-in-law and an oppressive social atmosphere. Tangled in a puzzling web of family dysfunction, she is given a cabinet-size replica of their own grand townhouse, and invited to decorate it as a form of entertainment and distraction. We first meet 18-year-old Nella, newly married to the successful and remote Johannes Brandt, upon her arrival at his home in Amsterdam. Inspired by a visit to the Rijksmuseum, where she saw an intricately appointed 17th century dollhouse belonging to Petronella Oortman, Burton poses her young protagonist in a love-hate relationship with this real-life object, constructing the multilayered world-within-world of the novel. Other writers have fluently mapped the territories of the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade, the work of the old masters, and, of course, tulip mania this story takes on issues of race, class and sex within the domestic arena, with a fascinating study of interior life at its most enigmatic. Its scope is vast, even though its most remarkable creations can be held in the palm of a woman’s hand. “The Miniaturist” features a lushly textured portrait of a period and a place, while serving up a dramatic centerpiece full of secrets and power struggles. In fact, its contemporary international reach will extend far beyond the seemingly limitless boundaries of its historical source, a time when the Dutch Empire was the foremost maritime and economic power in the world. Set in 17th century Amsterdam, during the height of the Dutch Golden Age, Jessie Burton’s exquisitely crafted first novel, “The Miniaturist,” has already topped best-seller charts in her native Britain and promises to do the same elsewhere.
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