Melissa Ashley
Autor(a) de The Birdman's Wife
About the Author
Obras por Melissa Ashley
Birdman's Wife 3 exemplares
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1973
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- Australia
New Zealand (birth) - Locais de residência
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Ocupações
- novelist
poet
tutor
birder - Organizações
- University of Queensland
Membros
Críticas
Prémios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 4
- Membros
- 180
- Popularidade
- #119,865
- Avaliação
- 3.7
- Críticas
- 9
- ISBN
- 24
Marie Catherine was a storyteller and author known for coining the term 'fairytale' and The Bee and the Orange Tree focusses on her life, in addition to that of her daughter Angelina and friend Nicola Tiquet. Those familiar with the fate of Madame Angelique-Nicole Tiquet may be interested in this fictionalised account of her life, while simultaneously finding the conditions of her circumstances hard to process.
Imagining the literary salons of Paris in the seventeenth century was intoxicating and the list of family and character names at the beginning of the novel was extremely useful. In this novel about female agency and the power of story, our characters struggle with overbearing males in their lives:
"She'd lost count of the conversations they had shared about brutish husbands. She repeated the advice she always delivered at their end: you are more capable - of creating meaning, of finding pleasure - than you allow yourself to believe." Page 22
While seeming more appropriate for today's characters than 300 years ago, this advice is freely given, yet has surprising and unintended consequences for our characters.
The writing in The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley is luscious and evocative and reading it felt like an indulgence. We're also treated to some striking moments like this one:
"As the only tree standing in the field of her mother's fury, she was preparing to be lashed by strong winds, vulnerable to a fiery lightning strike." Page 291
Written by an Australian author and published in 2019, the title of this book comes from a fairytale of the same name written by Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy and published in 1697 and it really works. My reading experience would have been enhanced if I'd known the book was based on real figures from history; that understanding only arrived afterwards with the Author's Note at the end.
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to visit one of the literary salons of France in the 1600s or enjoy the work of Kate Forsyth with regard to fairytales, The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley is for you.… (mais)