Title: The Bloodletter's DaughterAuthor: Linda Lafferty
First Published: September 4, 2012
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 513
Genre: Historical Fiction, Suspense
Format: Ebook
Source: Prime Reading
Rating:
Synopsis:
Within the glittering Hapsburg court in Prague lurks a darkness of which no one dares speak…
In 1606, the city of Prague shines as a golden mecca of art and culture carefully cultivated by Emperor Rudolf II. But the emperor hides an ugly secret: His bastard son, Don Julius, is afflicted with a madness that pushes the young prince to unspeakable depravity. Desperate to stem his son’s growing number of scandals, the emperor exiles Don Julius to a remote corner of Bohemia where the young man is placed in the care of a bloodletter named Pichler. The bloodletter’s task: cure Don Julius of his madness by purging the vicious humors coursing through his veins.
When Pichler brings his daughter Marketa to assist him, she becomes the object of Don Julius’s frenzied—and dangerous—obsession. To him, she is the embodiment of the women pictured in the Coded Book of Wonder, a priceless manuscript from the imperial library that was the mad prince’s only link to sanity. As the prince descends further into the darkness of his mind, his acts become ever more desperate, as Marketa, both frightened and fascinated, can’t stay away.
Inspired by a real-life murder that threatened to topple the powerful Hapsburg dynasty, The Bloodletter’s Daughter is a dark and richly detailed saga of passion and revenge.
Review
The Bloodletter’s Daughter shines a light on a tragic piece of Bohemian history, that of the mad bastard son of Rudolph II and a bath maiden, Don Julius D’Austria and Markéta Pichlerová. It’s a scandal that deserves to be retold as a cautionary tale, and the idea of giving voice to the voiceless is a noble one—but this novel missed the mark.
I honestly feel that this story could’ve been better if it was an entirely fictional story and not based on real people. Some artistic liberty is required, sure, when it comes to stories about historical figures with no personal accounts, but the purification of Markéta from concubine to virginal woman of science is disingenuous and overly romantic. The afterword makes it clear that Lafferty did not like how Markéta has been remembered throughout history – with particular disdain for the nickname ‘musle.’ Lafferty warps Markéta into the most perfectly modern Mary Sue: virtuous, naive, clever, desired by seemingly everyone, with great skill in medicine – something that was forbidden of women in that time period.
This book was overly long and bloated with unimportant side characters and historical events that had no bearing on the story. While the story had it’s moments where it was suspenseful and my interested was piqued, there were so many times that I just didn’t care, and I seriously considered dropping the book. I was willing to forgive some of the issues with the telling until the deeply offensive epilogue, which the story would have been infinitely better without. I was shocked at the misandry on display, as a male character is raped for the sake of romantic drama and used as a plot device to pave the way for a half-baked polyamorous ending. This alone destroyed my opinion of the author and the book and I’m quite frankly disappointed.
This novel had so much potential, but it was bogged down with historical inaccuracies and melodrama, and ended up being a weak attempt to do justice for Markéta by rewriting her story through an inspiring feminist lens. Worst of all, this is the only book I could find about Markéta Pichlerová, a tragedy in itself.
Quote
“Men who thirst for freedom will find it, even if they drink at a poisoned well.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Linda Lafferty
The daughter of a naval commander, Linda Lafferty attended fourteen different schools growing up, ultimately graduating from the University of Colorado with a master’s degree and a PhD in education. Her peripatetic childhood nourished a lifelong love of travel, and she studied abroad in England, France, Mexico, and Spain. Her uncle introduced her to the sport of polo when she was just ten years old, and she enjoys playing to this day. She also competed on the Lancaster University Riding Team in England in stadium jumping, cross country, and dressage. A veteran school educator, she is the author of The Bloodletter’s Daughter and The Drowning Guard. She lives in Colorado.
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