Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love
French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens...
After Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.
Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does.
Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman.
Review: "Words. I had always loved them. I collected them, like I had collected pretty stones as a child. I liked to roll words over my tongue like a lump of molten honeycomb, savouring the sweetness, the crackle, the crunch. Cerulean, azure, blue. Shadowy, sombre, secret. Voluptuous, sensuous, amorous. Kiss, hiss, abyss" (399).
Did you know that in 1698, the Rapunzel fairy tale was retold by the French writer Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force? At the time of the writing, she was locked away in a nunnery and fairy-tale scholars have always been puzzled by how she would have known the fairy tale, which was originally written in Neapolitan in 1643, a language which Charlotte-Rose could not speak.
Based on this true historical figure, Kate Forsyth tells us the story of Charlotte-Rose, who after a lively life of largely leisure at the court of King Louis XIV, is banished to a convent. Like a stack of nesting dolls, this beautiful historical fantasy is a story in a story in a story. Because at the convent, Charlotte-Rose continues to tell the reader her own life story. But while there, a much older nun tells her the story of a young girl named Margherita, who in the late 1500s is taken from her parents after her father steals a handful of parsley from a courtesan's garden. Margherita is locked away in a tower until one day a young man overhears her singing.
And from Margherita's story, the reader goes further back in time, to learn the story of the woman who imprisoned her, the beautiful courtesan Selena, who was at the center of Renaissance life in Venice in the early 1500s. And the dangerous games she played that ultimately led to locking young Margherita away.
I absolutely loved the way this story brought the classic Rapunzel fairy tale to life through a historical fiction lens. While all three women in this story are very different and separated by time, they are all victims of their circumstances and trapped in very different but real ways. I loved that Charlotte-Rose was based on a true historical figure and in this fiction, Forsyth has helped imagine the answer to how she might have learned the original 1643 fairy tale. While this does have some elements of fantasy with some spellcasting, it largely read like a plausible backstory for the Rapunzel fairy tale we all know and love.
I enjoyed this so much I can't even think of any real critiques! It was quite long. I loved the three stories in one, but it did feel like more space was given to some of the stories than others and at times I was more interested in one woman's backstory than others. But all in all, such a well-done novel that took me by surprise with how much I enjoyed it.
Stars: 4.5
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