Reviews - The Maiden | The StoryGraph

687 reviews for:

The Maiden

Kate Foster

3.9 AVERAGE

rachelhicks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

thehannahwilkinson's review against another edition

4.0

I have given myself the (maybe stupid) challenge of reading all of the long list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year so when Rhi suggested this one for our April feature I was more than happy to tick one off my list!

Written in a classic dual POV, the story is told by both Violet, a young woman living in Edinburgh and surviving as a sex worker, and Christian Nimmo, inspired by the real-life woman who was accused of murder back in 1679. This is your warning not to google her if you don’t want spoilers!

As the book opens Christian is imprisoned. She has been charged with killing her lover (and uncle 🤢) James Forrester and is awaiting her fate. But what were the circumstances surrounding his death, who else was present and what might he have done to provoke her?

Jumping backwards and forwards through time the story unfolds, we learn of both women’s early lives, the events leading up to the murder and how James Forrester connects them. The writing style is accessible, fast paced and engaging, I was carried along with the story and the chapters we so short I was often left wanting more from each woman as they ended.

There were fictionalised snippets from newspapers of the time which sensationalised the story and really gave an insight into the views of the wider community at the time. These snippets also really highlighted the imbalance between men and women in those days. The journalists who reported on the case were men and the judges who decided the case were men and Christian was fighting an uphill battle against their perceptions of her already.
Surely there was no way that James Forrester can have done ANYTHING to deserve his ending right?!

The characters were well written, those who were obviously the heroes still had flaws and those who were definitely villains still felt very human. There was suspense right up until the very end and the twists and turns elevated this from your standard historical fiction.

It was an enjoyable read, even if it did make me very mad at times.

lynne_booksquares's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

helen_t_reads's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian Nimmo is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, (and Uncle by marriage), James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress.Whore. Murderess.

Inspired by real life events, Kate Foster has reimagined Christian's life and considers what mght have motivated her to risk everything by having an affair and committing murder, when, only a year before, she was leading a life of privilege and respectability.

Foster also puts the degree of Christian's guilt under the spotlight. She wasn’t the only woman in Forrester’s life by any means, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead.

Foster's take on Christian is far more nuanced than the damning view of the godless woman revealed in historical documents about her crime and the subsequent trial. We are shown a woman who was groomed as a young girl by Forrester and then, her mother, on realising the attraction her daughter held for her brother in law, used Christian as bait in order to maintain her own standard of living.

Foster's version of the story is revealed through the narrative perspectives of two very different women: the upper-class, genteel Christian, the wife of a wealthy merchant; and Violet Blyth, a girl born into poverty, who was begging on Edinburgh's streets but is now a sex worker in Mrs Fiddes' brothel. Their respective voices are well rendered and markedly different, and Violet's is particularly memorable.

Two very contrasting women, both used by the philandering, ruthless, depraved and debauched Laird, James Forrester, along with many other women victims he abused, both sexually and physically, by means of the cloak afforded by his wealth and privilege.

Foster gives a voice to two women, representing marginalised, mistreated, ignored or forgotten women in this story, and their narratives are interspersed with extracts from The Caledonia Broadside newspaper, so as a reader you get a different perspective on events than the bald, one-dimensional view as stated in the historical records, or the local legend and ghost story which subsequently evolved.

As well as a feminist reimagining of historical events, Foster's novel also explores themes of guilt and innocence, as well as motivation, revenge, justice and punishment.

Despite the outcome of the story being a matter of historical record, this is not faction, so it does not prevent Foster from inserting elegant little 'twists' and added dimensions which offer a thought-provoking take on these themes.

Our view on who truly bears the guilt shifts by turn, so skilfully has Foster written this story - as is the way she shifts our sympathies for the characters as more of the story is revealed.

The way she vividly and evocatively creates a tangible sense of 17th century Edinburgh with its sights, sounds and smells is also extremely well done. She has created a real sense of place and time.

In terms of guilt, Christian's actions bring her, and the other women, freedom from Forrester, but consign her to 'another hell'. However when she asks her lawyer if the abuse she has suffered might mitigate her sentence he replies: '...it is irrelevant how provoked you were. Murder is murder' and Christian realises her lawyer is 'just like all of them. All the men in this world. For it is their world.'

This echoes back to when Christian says:
“In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me.“ and the 'because I'm a woman' is implicit. The odds are stacked against her in terms of what we would consider a fair hearing today, and the more nuanced consideration of mitigating factors that the lens of 21st century views of guilt afford are very much a thing of the future.

The degree of Christian's guilt is also difficult to discuss without spoilers, but when all the facts are finally revealed, it gives further pause for thought on this point.

And what of the justice and punishment? Decapitation by The Maiden, Scotland's version of Madame la Guillotine, would be the sentence for a member of the Upper classes found guilty of a capital crime as opposed to hanging (and The Maiden offers an interesting play on words and meaning as to the meaning of the novel's title).

The justice and punishments meted out by the state runs in parallel with that of the church, and there is the Kirk minister, Reverend Brodie, dispensing harsh and cruel Presbyterian justice and punishment to the parishioners of Corstorphine.

All in all The Maiden is a really well written, thought-provoking and enjoyable historical fiction offering a feminist reimagining of a fascinating story from 17th century history, and exploring important themes.