Two Remarkable Women
The stories I have chosen to share are historical novels based on the lives of real people and are written by well-respected historians. One is set in Europe during the time of the crusades and the other in China at the time of the Ming Dynasty. They are both about women looking after each other throughout lives lived in male-dominated societies.
Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen Mary Sharratt
I had recently been to a fascinating talk at the City Library by Christopher De Hamel (an expert in the field of Medieval Manuscripts) and enjoyed it so much that I was inspired to find out more about this period. I found this title on one of our display shelves. Good old happenstance.
I had a smidgeon of prior knowledge about Hildegard von Bingen. I knew she was an abbess who composed music and that she wrote about philosophy. I didn’t know that she was given to the church by her noble family when she was just a young girl and lived as an anchorite for years. This meant that she was locked in a cell and lived the life of an ascetic: a life absent of all forms of indulgence.
Despite the appalling living conditions she endured, Hildegard was well educated and became a prolific writer and composer as well as a healer. She was also a visionary and a mystic. She lived from 1098 – 1179 and became a canonised saint in 2012.
This is an excellent retelling of a fascinating life.
Here are some more historical novels by Mary Sharratt that are available to borrow from Dunedin Public Libraries.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women Lisa See
This story is based upon the life Tan Yunxian, a Chinese physician who was born in the 15th Century. Like Hildergard, Tan was the daughter of a noble family and, though the life she led was far from that of an ascetic there are many other parallels we can draw from these two remarkable women's lives: for example, they were both kept in isolation from the rest of the world during their early years and lived by very strict ‘rules’ full of ritual and tradition. Also, they both used their skills as healers to improve the lives of the people around them.
The philosophy of yin and yang is one of the underlying themes of this story and the author skilfully conveys this as she relates various aspects of Chinese culture at that time: descriptions of beautiful homes and gardens, exquisite clothes, and footwear are juxtaposed with dark images of foot binding, torture, death, loneliness, and extreme poverty.
I really enjoyed this story. It is written with such detailed imagery that at times I felt like I was there in Lady Tan's garden. Also, there is an underlying mystery which tantalisingly unfolds, eventually revealing a surprising twist. This made it a bit of a page-turner.
This is the most recent of Lisa See's novels. Here are some of her other works, available at Dunedin Public Libraries.