The Bloodletter’s Daughter

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 contrasts drastically with her role as both a bath maid and Don Julius’ bed mate. She isn’t even depicted as the latter in the book. Markéta never assisted in Don Julius’ bloodletting, and she very likely never came into contact with half the historical figures that she does. There is little evidence of the Prince’s obsession with “the Coded Book of Wonder,” the Voynich Manuscript.

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 »Abuse, Assault, Child Abuse, False Imprisonment, Intimate Partner Violence, Misandry, Misogyny, Rape, Physical Assault, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Violence « Hide Spoiler

About the Author