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The Miniaturist
Jessie Burton
2014, 416 pages
Fiction
Although it’s set in the Netherlands of the 1600s, The Miniaturist reads more like a gothic novel than historical fiction. Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam in 1686 determined to make her new husband, Johannes, love her. Johannes, who is always away on business, leaves her to her own devices and the care of his sharp-tongued sister. Nella’s boredom and loneliness are overwhelming until the day that an unusual present arrives from Johannes: a cabinet-sized replica of her new home. In order to fill it, Nella enlists the services of a miniaturist, whose enigmatic creations increasingly seem to foretell Nella and Johannes’s uncertain future.
Burton’s use of language is evocative and haunting, and the story weaves in some unusual elements related to Amsterdam. She makes good use of the emergence of the Dutch sugar trade, and Amsterdam’s corresponding uneasiness with race and class, to add atmosphere and suspense. In several ways, The Miniaturist is a traditional Gothic novel with an innocent heroine, a suspicious love interest and a supernatural element, but the setting and the unusual ending make it stand out among the current crowd of historical fiction. This is Burton’s debut novel, and I’m already looking forward to her next book.
