I admit I was drawn to this book by the intriguing title and by the beautiful picture of the dollhouse on the front (though that then also slightly annoys me that I have fallen for a sales technique!), but the blurb on the back of the book makes it sound like an intriguing story too.
I admit I was drawn to this book by the intriguing title and by the beautiful picture of the dollhouse on the front (though that then also slightly annoys me that I have fallen for a sales technique!), but the blurb on the back of the book makes it sound like an intriguing story too.
Hmmm, sadly the start of the book isn’t grabbing me, I think because the Dutch words feel so utterly foreign to me, and also because I’m getting distracted with my growing apprehension for the young 18 year old Nella being sent to the Brandt home to be wife to 39 year old Johannes as I’m worrying that she will be abused and that this will then be upsetting to read, and also because I feel apprehensive for her beloved parrot Peebo and if he will be hurt by Johannes’ stern unwelcoming sister Marin, or the servants Cornelia and Otto. At the moment, I’m kind of feeling more duty-bound to continue reading it and feeling rather daunted each time I pick it up, rather than feeling excited to pick it up, but that’s probably just me.
However, I am glad I have continued with the book as it’s got very intriguing! Johannes has given a dollhouse to Nella and she is ordering items to go inside the dollhouse from someone called The Miniaturist, but then strange extra unordered items begin to arrive from The Miniaturist which spookily seem to be exact replicas of items in their actual house or to reflect feelings that Nella has about her life there. Two model dogs arrive for the dollhouse which have the same dark patches on their fur as the real dogs in the house, two chairs arrive that are an exact match for the chairs in the hallway of the house, pictures arrive for the dollhouse which are the same as the ones hanging on the wall in the house, and Nella is sent a cradle which echoes her desire to become pregnant and her frustration at the unlikeliness of this happening with Johannes rarely coming near her. There are odd unexplained items for the dollhouse which arrive too, such as a tiny golden key hanging on a ribbon, a model of a board game, and a miniature model of the actual dollhouse. Some items that arrive also reflect events which have happened in the house, either before they’ve happened or just after they’ve happened, such as a model of Nella holding an empty birdcage the day after she loses her parrot, a model of Marin secretly pregnant before anyone else knows this, and a model of Arnoud who Nella hopes will buy their sugar and save their livelihood. Nella is also sent doll-models of people in her life, such as Johannes, the maid Cornelia, the servant Otto, even a model of Peebo the now lost parrot, and she is also sent doll-models of other people who have had influences on the people in the house, such as Franz who once proposed to Marin, of Agnes his wife who is jealous of Marin, and of Jack who is Johannes’ secret lover. Ooooh, it’s all very very strange and mysterious and very intriguing, I love it! How and why is this happening? I am definitely hooked now!
Nella discovers that Johannes is gay, and that this secret has been known for a long time by his sister Marin, and the maid Cornelia, and the servant Otto, who all try to keep him safe, and Marin had decided to have Johannes marry in order to try and protect him and his secret. Phew, my apprehension for Nella and her being possibly treated brutally by an older man thankfully came to nothing. However, now I am just as apprehensive of what might happen to Johannes if his secret is discovered, as to be gay in 1600s Amsterdam is illegal and heavily punished. And I was interested in how Marin suddenly seemed quite caring and protective and vulnerable when she acknowledged Johannes’ secret to Nella, like the Marin before (which I disliked and was fearful of for Nella’s sake) was just a tough act that she adopted in order to protect Johannes and the household. I now find her a very interesting and potentially quite a complex and multi-layered character after this revelation, as it is hard to imagine how such a devoutly religious and self-denying and controlling person such as she is could defend the lifestyle of her brother, it makes me wonder how long and hard she tried to convince him to change before realising that this was who he was and there was no choice of changing, and how she has now had to not only accept this but also to try and desperately protect him and his secret whilst presumably still struggling with being unable to empathise or understand how he could feel and act as he does, she must live in a constant division in her mind and struggle with the contrast of her actions with her conscience and religious beliefs. Though I wonder if she secretly still hopes that he could change, with arranging his marriage to Nella and trying to encourage him to father an heir with her, I can see that this marriage protects them all but I wonder if a small part of her thinks/hopes that he could be magically ‘cured’ by becoming a husband and father. And I really feel pity for her with the burden and worry of how vulnerable his lifestyle makes all of the household, and particularly as he seems not to worry and still chooses to take risks with his lover Jack when she is desperate for the secret not to destroy their public reputation and social status as well as their business, and worried for his own safety too. And I feel her desperation is also so tragic as it demonstrates her powerlessness as a woman, she isn’t able to work and earn money herself because she is a woman, though she is clearly clever and knowledgeable about the business, so all their security is in Johannes’ hands and he seems not to see the risks his behaviour is putting their security in, and she has to just watch and hope.
Nella feels like she is being watched by The Miniaturist somehow, as she clearly knows Nella’s house and life and the people in her life extremely well. Nella is at times fearful of The Miniaturist, but at other times feels that she has been chosen by The Miniaturist for some reason and that she is trying to guide her. Nella looks repeatedly at the notes The Miniaturist includes with the items she sends for the dollhouse, which include sayings such as ‘Things can change’, ‘Every woman is the architect of her own fortune’, ‘I fight to emerge’, ‘The turnip cannot thrive in the tulip’s patch of soul’, and she tries to find guidance in them. Nella is also intrigued by the sign over The Miniaturist’s premises, which says ‘Everything man sees he takes for a toy’. Nella begins to hope that The Miniaturist is actually protecting her by prophesying what will happen, and she takes comfort from the thought that there could be a plan for her to follow, and she keeps looking at the items in the dollhouse in the hope they will give her a sign as to how things will turn out. Hmmm, these sayings are very inspiring and I can see how Nella is seeing them as guidance for her life, but I feel a bit worried that The Miniaturist may have other motives and could be leading Nella astray in some way, I really hope The Miniaturist isn’t preying on Nella for sinister reasons, it is quite disconcerting how she knows so many details of Nella’s life and feelings and wishes, there seems a power there, and I see Nella as potentially quite vulnerable to this power as it is very tempting to think that someone is guiding you and knows the plan for your life and all you have to do is follow this plan and this person so I can see why Nella would be attracted by that idea. But hmmm, why and how is The Miniaturist doing this?
Strange things happen in relation to some of The Miniaturist’s doll-models, such as Marin throwing the model of Jack out of the window (in her frustration with the risk that Johannes is putting them all in by continuing the secret and illegal relationship with Jack) but the following day the model is sat outside the house and Nella brings it back in and places it again in the dollhouse. Also when Jack comes to the house with a knife (angry that he has been stopped from seeing Johannes) and kills the family dog, Nella later finds a mark on the doll-model dog in exactly the same place as the wound inflicted by Jack. There are also strange things happening with Nella’s letters to The Miniaturist, as several times Nella has a letter for The Miniaturist in her pocket intending to post these through The Miniaturist’s door but she then discovers that these letters have disappeared from her pocket, however The Miniaturist then carries out Nella’s request in the letter so she appears to have taken the letters from Nella’s pocket somehow.
The burgomasters, a kind of militia in the city, dictate rules such as banning gingerbread people or toys as these are deemed to be Catholic idolatry. People in the city are fearful of the burgomasters’ dominance and power and rules, particularly regarding any behaviour seen to be different such as being gay, and neighbours are encouraged to watch neighbours and report on them to the burgomasters. Eeek, I am very very apprehensive for Johannes now. These burgomasters sound almost like a secret police with vicious punishments and sentences, it reminds me of The Shadow of the Wind book with the police then having ultimate power over the civilians and there being no justice for anyone deemed to have broken their rules, and them able to use very violent and cruel means to subdue and punish the civilians. I’m really not liking where this could be going…!
And sure enough, everything becomes more and more hopeless as the end of the book approaches, I am fast becoming convinced that there is no chance of a happy ending, I am having to force myself to continue on with the book! And there is no happy ending, with Johannes imprisoned and tortured and brutally killed, and with Marin’s secret pregnancy revealed and her giving birth and then dying, and Nella and Cornelia left with a mixed-race baby to deal with, and Otto chased out of the city!!! Phew, it’s all just awful and sad and depressing! I really wish there could have been something positive for us to hold onto, I feel quite drained with it all, though then that’s a credit to the author for writing such believable characters that I felt so invested in and cared for so much.
I can’t help feeling a bit frustrated, though, that the details of The Miniaturist are not explained! How did she know so much about Nella’s household (such as the furniture and layout, as well as the events happening to the people inside the household), was she warning Nella and the other women so they could take avoiding action, or was she was trying to influence and control what happened to them and did she cause some of the events to happen to them, how did she manage to take letters from Nella’s pocket without being seen by Nella and how did she take the miniature model of the dollhouse from Nella’s pocket (or did Nella just drop these things and The Miniaturist picked them up, or were they picked up by someone else and delivered to The Miniaturist, but then that means The Miniaturist or someone else was following Nella), how did The Miniaturist so swiftly alter the doll-models without being seen when their real-life counterparts were injured or altered in some way? The Miniaturist’s father said she is called Petronella and that she receives letters from many women asking for guidance, but I don’t see how she learns their innermost and private secrets (and the layout of their homes) just from these letters as these aren’t all detailed in the letters, so is she actually reading their minds somehow? And I was also puzzled in relation to The Miniaturist with the funeral at the start of the book (and also whose funeral this was, I am guessing it was Marin’s?) as is The Miniaturist watching the funeral and if so then why, and why does she place the miniature model of the dollhouse on Marin’s grave when Marin didn’t seem that connected with the dollhouse, does this mean that it was actually Marin that The Miniaturist was trying to help and guide rather than Nella? Is The Miniaturist a real person, or some kind of magical person using magic to do these things? Or I even wondered if there is no Miniaturist and it is Nella doing all these things, arrggggh!!! I can’t help being frustrated that all this isn’t explained, particularly as The Miniaturist is the title of the book!
I think the theme of secrets is quite powerful throughout the book, both in the community and within families, and the damage these secrets can do and the lengths that people will go to to keep the secret hidden, and how people can sacrifice the secrets of others in order to protect themselves, and the irony that Johannes was keeping the secret of him being gay and yet his sister was keeping the secret of her being pregnant with Otto’s child.
I was also intrigued by Johannes’ decision to rescue a African slave, Otto, and employ him as a servant, and the family’s support and defence of Otto in the face of their neighbours’ fear and suspicion and disapproval, and this being in the time of sugarlands in the Caribbean with the slave trade. I’d have liked to have known more about Otto’s life and how he still suffered due to people’s racism and fear even after he was rescued, and what led Johannes to make that brave decision to help Otto and to risk censure from others by doing so.
I found the details of life in 1660s Amsterdam really interesting, such as how much more forward-thinking the country apparently was (in some ways!) compared to England and France at that time, with women in Amsterdam being allowed to walk in the streets alone, and married couples allowed to hold hands in public. Amsterdam’s history with the sea was also fascinating with how they conquered it to build land on it but they always live with the fear that the sea will eventually claim it back. I also like the houses in Amsterdam having signs of animals, and someone’s address being given by this sign, eg The Miniaturist lives at the sign of the sun on such-and-such a street, someone else lives at the sign of the fox, is this still the same today, I wonder? I also got quite carried away with the idea of adopting this myself and my address being at the sign of the cat, or how about signs of your interests such as a book to represent a love of reading?!
I can’t help pondering about the style of this book, as it almost feels like there are two independent stories within it. I almost wonder if the author had a great idea about a dollhouse with items for it mysteriously and poignantly appearing (story one), but then as she wrote it the story and characters kind of took over and went on another tangent (the story of Johannes and Marin and their secrets). It kind of feels to me that the main events which happen to the household (Johannes being gay and him being discovered and punished, and Marin’s relationship with the African servant and secretly having his child) could all just happen without any reference to Nella and the dollhouse. Nella and the dollhouse feel like another wonderful intriguing story (which I am keen to continue with and have a solution to!) but it feels quite separate from the other Johannes/Marin story and events. I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something, perhaps Nella wouldn’t have been brave enough to follow the path she did without the strength and ability to believe that the dollhouse and The Miniaturist gave her, or maybe the dollhouse and the magical and mysterious and wonderful items that arrive for it was included in order to act as a contrast to the brutal world that the characters live in and the restrictive rules they have to follow, or perhaps the point of the two stories is to demonstrate that life in the dollhouse is controlled by the person playing with the dollhouse just like life in the city is controlled by the burgomasters. I don’t know, and the more I think about it the more intrigued I become with just why the book was written like this! I see there is a sequel so perhaps this will provide answers, both to my questions about The Miniaturist and my questions about the style of the book and its two seemingly independent stories.
However, this is a very memorable book that lingers in the mind, I found it interesting and imaginative and there were many aspects that I found fascinating, but there were also some brutal bits that I found disturbing and upsetting, and also some bits that I found frustratingly puzzling. I’d definitely be interested in reading more books by this author, namely the sequel, The House of Fortune, and her books The Confession and The Muse also sound very intriguing. I was also reminded of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind when reading this book, with the dreaded burgomasters, and as that is one of my favourite books I need little excuse to re-read it! And I have a craving now to read a children’s book about a magical dollhouse (crazy as that may sound!) so I quite fancy indulging myself with The Christmas Dolls’ House by Janet Doolaege, or The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden which both sound wonderful!
